Ban Talae Nok, Khao Sok, Kuraburi - July 2 - 4

Ban Talae Nok – July 2

Our last day in the village began with breakfast, which I skipped so that I could eat lunch and then it was back to the mangrove nursery to get some seedlings of another species that we are planting on the beach today. I can’t remember what they are called, but they grow an edible fruit and the leaves look rather umbrella like. I gingerly walked through the muddy area and collected the ones I could fairly easily get to. Judith, just like yesterday, just dug right in without concern for getting dirty. I was more careful because I wanted to take pictures today and brought my camera.

We collected maybe twenty or so and brought them to the beach. This is a much nicer area to work in, because it is so much cooler – as I mentioned before. However, we were warned about the sand flies that bite. I did great all week at not getting bit, but I was not so lucky today. They left me with a stinging going away gift. I also got sand stuck in my sandals that I could not get out and it rubbed a couple spot raw on my foot. I should have gone barefoot, lesson learned. The planting was quick and easy, since the sand was easy to dig in – unlike the root filled mangrove that gave us a lot of trouble. We had some free time to play at the beach, but we still had one last task before heading back to Kuraburi. I have pictures from Tui now of me in the canal/mangrove. In this one I was stuck in the mud as we came out of the mangrove and I was afraid of losing my shoe. Everyone just stood and laughed and took pictures. I say phooey to all of them. Haha!

Back at the Youth Center a huge slab of wood had been hauled in to dry a day or two ago. Now we were supposed to paint a sign in English for the soap-making group. They already have one in Thai, but this village is trying to encourage ecotourism in their area. Right now it is one of the least touristy areas I’ve seen, but that is one of the things I really liked about it. However, it is also the hottest area I’ve been in Thailand and if I were to live here, I would have to live on the beach – tsunami or no tsunami, sand flies or no sand flies. I painted the words Soap and Nok on the sign, Judith wrote all the letters in pencil for us to follow and painted the word Women’s. Andrew painted Group and Talae and even Tui painted a word, Ban. We only had one paint brush, so we had to do it one at a time. Another group effort completed and it was time to say goodbye to our host family.

The village was about 45 minutes away from Kuraburi by hired car and the first thing I did at the apartment was jump under the shower and let the cold water run over me for a minute. This seemed a heavenly luxury! What a different life the villagers lead from us in the US. Out of the shower I began to unpack and repack to go to Khao Sok for the weekend. After some bus confusion, Karen rented a truck and her boyfriend, Phet, drove us. It was about an hour or so away. We checked in, had dinner and a couple beers and just called it a night.

Khao Sok National Park – July 3 14:00

I have a bungalow to myself and it is really nice, not as small as it looks in the photo. It is open to any insect or small critter that decides to pay me a visit, but I am given a mosquito net around my bed, so I am not worried. Although, with this kind of set up, you never know who might pay you a visit during the night. This morning I woke up with a couple of moths doing the wild thing and they are still there and still attached. Guys, you should have been moths! I spent the morning working on getting my blog posted for last week and went to the dining area for breakfast. I had a crepe filed with tropical fruits and a banana shake. Yummy! I have spent the whole morning on the computer posting and figuring out what is due for my class, but now we are going to go tubing down the river.

Khao Sok – July 3 17:00

Tubing here is different from Costa Rica. They did not tie us all together, so we were more responsible for keeping ourselves from injury. The river was wonderfully cool and felt great! The scenery was absolutely spectacular with alternating jungle and tall karsts with sheer rock sides. One of these karsts was naturally carved out with a platform and a cave-like side with interesting formations. Unfortunately, I did not bring my camera, since it is not waterproof. I am glad I didn’t because even though the rapids were not rough, we did get plenty wet. Andrew ended up losing his camera. Our guide went back with a mask to dive for it, but it is raining too hard. He said he will try again tomorrow, but who knows where the current will carry it. I don’t think Andrew was uploading his pictures anywhere either. We saw a boa hanging on a branch over the water. There were huge bunches of bamboo growing out in a spray of greenery. Just beautiful.

20:30

I had my own private guide taking care of me. We had two guides for a group of eight people, so seven people shared one. He took a fancy to me, which at first was kind of cute, but he told me he wanted to be my Thai boyfriend and offered to come visit me at my bungalow tonight. No matter how many times I told him I was not interested in a Thai boyfriend and that I was married, he continued to insist. It made me a bit nervous really and I told Andrew and Judith to stay close. He even came to the resort and gave six of us (including three Texans staying at the resort that went tubing too) a ride into town to get dinner. Then he showed up again as we finished dinner (and took this picture for us) to go with us to get drinks and watch fútbol.

When Andrew, Judith and I were ready to leave, he went home to take the motor scooter back he was on and then was going to come back to walk with us. I told him no, go home, but I know he was coming. However, we accidentally walked the wrong way in the absolute darkness here. We only had Judith’s cell phone flashlight to guide us. And I think this allowed us to give him the slip. It is 10:30 pm as I write this and I am still afraid he is going to show up at my bungalow. I locked it up and have my cell phone if I need to call Judith and Andrew. Ok, kinda creepy.

I tried to go on the internet earlier this afternoon, but the electricity was out in the entire area. The lady running the resort said it should be back in an hour, but it didn’t come back on until we were ordering dinner in town. I am still a little weirded out, but this is the first issue I have run into traveling as a lone woman in Thailand. This does tell me I want to group activities, though.

Khao Sok, July 4

Happy Independence Day America! I decided to do nothing today. After packing up, I spent the entire morning and early afternoon in the dining area on the Internet and working on loading my pictures from my camera. Andrew and Judith came out around noon and the guide from yesterday showed up... again. He asked how long we were staying and we told him we were going to leave after lunch. He said he would go look for the camera again. Miracle of all miracles, he actually found and retrieved it from about 10 meters downstream where it had lodged on a large boulder. Also, I did not have any midnight visitors at my bungalow. He turned out to be a really good guy after all. He sure made Andrew's day! So I will post the picture with him, even though it is a horrible one of me. Then he gave us a ride to the bus depot, but I arranged that through the resort, so we paid him for that.

Navigating the bus system is interesting and a bit challenging, but worthwhile. As a comparison, it cost us 1700 TB to hire the truck, driver and gas to get there. It cost us 510 to get home paying for the lift to the depot, the bus to Takua Pa, and the bus to Kuraburi. Back in Kuraburi, I chugged down two Pepsi Colas and then went to my apartment to listen to music all night and just veg out. I planned on reading for the class assignment, but it was a holiday for us Americans and I didn't feel like it.