To get to Khao Sok I just had to sit at the side of the road and wave at the buses. Approximately every 60 to 90 minutes there would be a bus that was heading for the national park. So I sat down somewhere and was soon joined by other tourists, all going to different places. The first bus went straight past us. Not much later a minivan stopped. He was going all the way to Khao Sok and even though it was probably a bit more expensive, I was happy to get on the road. I’d been warned about crazy minivan drivers that make very long hours, but this guy was perfectly fine.
A few hours later I walk through the one street that is the Khao Sok tourist village. It’s full of resorts and eateries. It was easy to find the Coco hostel and when I arrived a whole bunch of people was hanging out on the porch. After booking a national park trip I joined almost everyone else who’s in the hostel to the monkey temple. We pay 20 baht for the saddest temple. There’s hardly anything temple-ish about it, just some statues. One guy had brought bananas and that brought out the monkeys quickly, a lot of them with babies hanging on their bellies. I kept my distance though. I wasn’t very keen to get rabies. There were two places where you could take some stairs and ladders, which made us curious. One path ended up in a cave full of mosquitos and the other had a bit of a view. It was worth the effort. We hadn’t walked very far at all, but I was so sweaty. It was hot today! So we all cooled down again at the hostel.
At 4 o’clock I walked to the national park. One entrance was here and another was at Cheow Larn lake, where I would go the next day. If you buy a ticket this late in the day, it would be valid for the next day as well. I couldn’t go very far anymore, but I walked for about two hours. There was a wide dirt road that went up and down through the rainforest. Occasionally there was a smaller trail leading away from it. The first trail with a sign went down to the river, where I could have gone swimming. It wasn’t very spectacular. The second track led to a waterfall. At least, that’s what the sign said. The trail was a bit confusing with many side trails. Either the waterfall didn’t impress me and wouldn’t qualify as a waterfall in my book, or I completely missed it. I just kept walking along the trail, climbing over the big boulders along the river, and suddenly I was at a hut, which was number three on my map, past the waterfall. At least it was scenic along the river. Back in the hostel I ordered some food, but afterwards I found out everyone was going out for dinner together. I just joined for a drink. It was so nice that everyone just got along. Seven of us had even booked the national park trip for the next day. Khao Sok is the tiniest place with only a few cheap things to explore, but I had the best time.
Interesting.