Bangkok to Khao Sok National Park

After a fab few days in Bangkok - stuffing our faces with pad thai and shopping for snorkels, masks and fins, we departed for the south on an overnight train to Surat Thani (a kind of tropical Trafford Park). It's pretty hot in Thailand now and we decided we wanted to visit the islands in the Andaman Sea before weather stops play (usually around May). This does mean however, we will have to hightail it back to Bangkok in a few weeks, zipping up to Laos before it gets too hot there and their rainy season starts.

One of our Bangkok purchases was an acoustic guitar. After Simon's inspirational influence in Goa, we decided to relearn something we both used to enjoy in the past. We've downloaded lots of our favourite songs and both have incredibly blistered and sore fingers. When we were on the train, the Thai train attendant sat down and started playing for us. A guitar is such a brilliant way to bring people together and within minutes we had made new friends, both Thai and from home.

So now, we are chilling in our beloved Khao Sok National Park. It has changed a little bit since we last came but not so much that it's lost its charm. They have email now and for some reason appear to trying to redirect the river near Rainforest Resort resulting in much digging and disturbance. We headed up to Our Jungle Huts who were unfortunately fully occupied, so we had to settle for the rather expensive Art's Guesthouse for one night (still cheaper than Sri Lanka though). Now we have settled into Morning Mist Guesthouse and it is truly lovely, with a splendid restaurant and a bargain to boot (550 Bht per night - about 8 quid). We have a four bed sturdy treehouse with spectacular views, even while you're having a shower!

Yesterday we went tubing down the river with 3 stoned Israelis and an Aussie woman called Adie (who has been living here for a year working in a guesthouse). We were all exhausted afterwards and went for dinner at Travellers Rest. This is Shaun's new guesthouse and restaurant (he used to run Nirvana bar). He is originally from Cornwall and is a great cook so the children have not lacked any home comforts on the food front.

So far we have encountered rather alot of snakes. The first one was a rather aggressive Bornean Pit Viper that refused to take Shaun's warnings not to try and come in the restaurant and ended up being knocked unconscious and flung across the river. Then we saw a Streamside skink, which are snake-like lizards that are smooth and shiny and move like snakes but have little lizard-like legs - very cute and not at all dangerous (unlike the viper which is both venomous and dangerous according to the little photographic book of snakes). We also saw a harmless river snake. Then today, Roisin found a Red-necked Keelback which the book describes as "uneven-tempered" and dangerous (although not fatally so, except to buffalo). Obviously, we make sure our mossie nets are well tucked in at night and carry torches after dusk. We have also heard that the elephants have been a bit lairy of late and one has to be careful on the trails in the park. Anke (our German friend from the Black Forest) asked the guide "what should one do if encountering the elephant?" He said run away as fast as you can! Tomorrow we're off on a 10km hike into the park to seek out gorgeous waterfalls and if we're lucky, some gibbon calls and not too many dangerous snakes.