Khao Sok National Park

We finally made it to Khao Sok on our second attempt. And this time the weather was beautiful! We spent 2 days and 2 nights exploring the area. The first day we hiked around the trails of the park. Unfortunately most trails were closed because of the threat of flash floods and landslides, but we had a good time hiking the 2 trails that were still open. The scenery of the tropical forest is really spectacular! There is so much vegetation that virtually no open space remains. There are also plants growing on top of and inside of other plants, and massive vines that hang from the trees and curl around their trunks. With closer inspection, we noticed that the whole forest is also crawling with insects. Almost every surface has some resident creepy crawly.
The first hike was a wide, muddy trail that led to a bubbling brook. We didn't see any of the large mammals that live in the rain forest (which I was really hoping to see), such as the Malaysian sunbear, wild boar, or tigers, but the hike was not completely uneventful. First, Leslie got bitten by a leech(he would get two more bites by the end of the day) and then we saw a giant spider hanging from a tree branch in the middle of our path. It was about the size of my hand!

The creepy spider

The second hike was a walk through the forest canopy. Part of the hike was a steep staircase that led you up the mountainside. At the top, you are at the same level as many of the tall trees, and you can see the rain forest from a new perspective.

Rickety steps on our second hike

The second day was pretty relaxed, as we had already hiked all the available trails the day before. The grounds of the "hotel" that we stayed at are full of tropical fruit trees, so Leslie and I had a lot of fun picking fruit in the morning. We picked rambutans, mangosteens, dragon eyes, and even some coconuts. We learned how the locals pick the fruit from Teh, one of the women who worked there. Later, Teh also showed us how to crack open the coconuts to drink the sweet juice inside. We really appreciated Teh's hospitality and friendliness, she was always smiling and willing to help. And she was a really good cook, we ate at the hotel restaurant for almost every meal because we liked the food so much. We had a picnic lunch in the park and spent the afternoon eating fruits by the river.

Teh showing us how it's done

Our haul after just a few minutes!

Enjoying our freshly hacked open coconuts with breakfast

Ko Tao

Ko Tao was beautiful! It is a sister island to Ko Samui and Ko Pha
Ngan, and is a lot smaller (2 miles wide and 3 miles long) and less
developed than the other islands. Definitely my favorite place of all
the places we visited on the Gulf Coast. We arrived there in the
evening of July 22 and wandered around looking for a dive resort to
stay with. We wanted to do some diving on Ko Tao because it would
probably be the last chance we would get to dive on our trip and it is
one of the cheapest places to dive in the world (because of the great
supply of dive companies that stretch along the islands two most
developed beaches). After much looking, we finally chose the dive
resort, Big Blue, because they offered free dorm accommodations every
day you dive with them. To take advantage of this offer, we signed up
for a night dive for that evening and then two dives the next morning.
That way we able to get free housing for both nights that we stayed on
Ko Tao. Lucky for us, noone else ended up staying in the dorm rooms
either night, so it was as if Leslie and I had our own room and
bathroom, which was pretty sweet!

The night dive was cool, although it was pretty difficult to see
things in the dark, even with a flashlight. The coolest thing we saw
was this really strange-looking creature that looked like a bumpy,
colorful walking sea star. We found out later that it was a decorated
crab, which ornaments itself with pieces of shell and coral as a way
to camouflage. At one point during the dive, we turned off our lights.
It was pitch black and when we waved our arms around we saw the
glow-in-the-dark plankton light up. That was also really cool!

One of our morning dives was our first deep dive. We went down to a
depth of 30 meters! At this depth, the pressure is so strong that when
we broke open an egg underwater, the yolk didn't break...even after
squeezing it and batting it around like a ping pong ball. On that dive
we saw a beautiful anemone garden, with purple, orange, and green
anemones and lots of cute clown fish poking there heads out of there
homes. We were pretty unimpressed with the second morning dive,
probably because we have been spoiled after diving at Sipadon.

Ko Tao has a lot of pancake stands, where one can sample from Thailands array of stuffed pancakes (everything from tomato and onion to banana, coconut, nutella). Leslie and I soon found our favorite Pancake vendor, a young man originally from Calcutta, India. He was really friendly and smiley. Whenever, he made a pancake he did this whole routine where he would twirl his knife, drum on the counter, and do tricks with the butter. He was so charming that we went back to him several times.

Our Favorite pancake vendor in action!

The third day at Ko Tao was probably my favorite day of the whole trip
so far! We went on a hike along the Southwestern coast of the island
and explored the secluded beaches that can only be accessed by boat or
by the trail we took. It seemed like each beach was more breath-taking
than the next, and we had some pretty spectacular views! The turquoise
water and white sand was surrounded by huge granite boulders and trees
blowing in the wind. And there was very little development, only the
occasional bungalow, so it was really peaceful and serene. I can't
really put into words how happy I was to be there!

The view along the coast during our hike

Never can resist a chance to boulder!
What made the day even better was that we encountered a litter of
Cocker Spaniel puppies. They were adorable. I could have played with
them all day, and I would have, if Leslie didn't finally drag me away
from them. I could have stayed on Ko Tao at least a few more days, but we had
already bought our tickets for the night boat that evening.

One of the adorable puppies


Does this photo look familiar?
The nightboat was definitely an adventure! It was basically a freight boat
with the upper deck converted into a "sleeping area" (thin mats on the
floor) where they cram in as many tourists in as physically possible.
Each person literally has a 2 foot by 6 foot area to sleep in and
there is nothing separating you from the person sleeping next to you.
Leslie called it cruel and unusual punishment. We spent 8 rocky hours
on that boat and I have never been more glad to reach land as I was
that morning!

Tourists looking none too pleased on the night boat

Ko Pha Ngan

Leslie and I had a lot of fun at Ko Pha Ngan, a sister Island to Ko Samui. It had a very strong backpacker vibe and had some really good low-season rates. Leslie and I stayed at a resort, complete with air conditioning, hot water, pool, gym, and big screen TV with a large selection of movies, for $12 per night! We usually don't look for these kinds of luxuries, but it was too good of a deal to pass up. We also liked Pha Ngan because we were able to explore the island on our own on an automatic motorcycle. It was quite an adventure navigating rutted dirt roads and 20% inclines...it kinda felt like being on a roller coaster. But we were in no danger of a major accident because we took it really slow and stayed on the left side of the road. We actually felt safer on our motorbike than when we took the local taxi, which tore through turns without stepping on the brakes and accelerated unecessarily on the already bumpy roads.
The first day we attempted to hike up to the highest peak of the mountain. The guidbook said it shouldn't be too difficult, so we figured we would give a shot. At the spot where the trail was supposed to begin a dog suddenly appeared and started guiding us up the trail. It was really strange because it would wait for us if we fell too far behind and constantly look back, as if it really wanted to guide us. We knew it wasn't a stray because it had a collar and was very well groomed. Because we unsure as to which path to take, we decided to follow our "guidedog". We hiked up the trail for about an hour, but became a little uneasy as the forest got denser and the path less conspicuous. Finally the trail disappeared completely and we turned around because neither of us thought it was a good idea to go bushwacking in the jungles of Thailand. The dog turned around and guided us back. When we got to the trailhead, the dog disappeared as quickly as it had appeared an hour earlier. It was really bizarre! We were a little dissappointed that we were unable to make it to the top, but also a little relieved that we were out of the forest. After that, we biked over to a better-marked trail area, where we saw a few waterfalls and got to see a pretty good view of the island. Our day ended in the exciting discovery of a pitcher plant tree growing on the side of the trail. After reading so much about these carnivorous plants in the guidebook, it was really cool to see the growing in the wild.

Our Guidedog


The next couple days were spent exploring the islands many beaches. We went to a beach in the north called Ko Ma (its actually a seperate island connected to Pha Ngan by a sandbar), which Leslie and I nicknamed "Little Sweden" for all the topless Scandinavians that had basically taken over the beach. It was really beautiful (my favorite beach on Thailand's gulf coast so far!) and had an extensive reef that we spent the afternoon exploring. We also visted a small lake surrounded by pine trees (weird) and one of Pha Ngan's eastern beaches, a bay secluded by giant granite boalders. The water there was very warm and the sand was powdery soft, but elusive jelly fish had pretty much taken over the water. We kept getting stung by there darts, although we never actually saw one.
At the "Little Sweden" beach

The pine tree lake
We also really enjoyed the food at Pha Ngan. They had some really good Israeli cuisine and a delicous Indian restuarant, where I ate the best dhaal that I have tasted! And, of course, the low season prices added to the pleasure of the dining experience.

Ko Samui

We had quite the adventure getting to the island of Ko Samui. At first we wanted to goto Khao Sok National parkk, which is located inland. Two days and many hours on local buses later we found that the road leading there had been damaged by the monsoon rains! Our little bus tour around the peninsula was pretty draining, although we did find a delicious and cheap lcoal restaurant in the one of the junction towns. The town later was flooded by the rains and we had to wade knee deep through flood water to get to the bus station.

Takua Pa Bus Station after a night of hard rain

So we cut our losses and headed over to the islands off the Guld Coast. Our first stop: Ko Samui. This is a very touristy island with many beaches and many high-end resorts. We struggled to find cheaper accomodation, and after a night in a grungy and roach infested bungalow we looked harder and found a comfortable room a little further from the beach of Lamai.

Thw town of Lamai is known for it's tawdry nightlife, and at night, various bars are filled with Thai women looking and dancing awkwardly. There were also a number of White male and Thai female couples, normally with a large age difference. Pretty disturbing.

We rented a motorbike to explore the local area and beaches and saw the sight seeing spots. Lamai itself is home to two famous rocks. They are named Grandfather and Grandmother rocks, and their peculiar formation leads to many giggling tourists.

Rash at the Grandfather rock

We also stopped by a temple famous for a monk who refused to decomposed. His mummified body sits enshrined at the temple as a symbol of perseverance. A bunch of children at the temple played with us and helped Rash ring the gong that had the strange question "Can you make me cry?"



We stopped by a Safari park with a waterfall view just before the monsoon rains poured down. There we saw some elephants and their caretakers, as well as yelping tourists flying through the treeline on zip-lines.

Rai Leh

We've spent the last 3 days in Rai Leh and had a blast. Rai Leh is a coastal area isolated from the mainland by limestone mountains. This means there are beautiful beaches, caves, and cliffs to explore. Rai Leh is only reachable by boat so we took a 30 minute ride on one of the ubiquitous longtail boats.


A longtail boat plying the waters of Krabi town
It's monsoon season on this side of Thailand which translates to low season. This was actually a blessing, as Rai Leh felt much quieter and the beaches were not crowded at all. THe only problem was the occasional tropical shower. The water on the beach was some of the warmest we've ever felt, and the beaches are surrounded by beautiful limestone cliffs. On arrival we jumped to the beach on the west side (there are a total of 4 beaches in Rai Leh) and enjoyed the warm waters. I did get my first Jellyfish sting though which was quite nasty. One moment I'm enjoying the water and eyeing the storm clouds, and then I felt something stringy across my hand. As I flick my hadn to brush it off I feel a stinging pain all around my hand! It swelled up a little bit but has almost returned to normal now, with just light marks where I was stung.


Rashmi on Phra Nang beach


My hand after the jellyfish attack
The limestone cliffs of Rai Leh also make it one of the premiere climbing destinations of Thailand and SEA! Knowing this I had to get out there and try it out. There were numerous climbing shops offering both guides and equipment rental, so we were able to rent all the gear we needed and head out to a local wall. The climbing was great and the views at the top were very rewarding. It was interesting climbing in a foreign country and seeing the contributions of local and foreign climbers to the scene. They use the French grading system and we climbed a few 5's, 6a's, a 6a+ (5.10b) that was a spicy lead, and a 6b(~5.10c). Not bad for not climbing for a few months!

Rash pulling on the Diamond Wall North Face

Cranking on a stalactite
The best thing about climbing in this area is the surrounding scenery! There are climbs right by the side of the beach of varying difficulties. A lot of them are pretty overhung with good holds and pockets. Who wants to go on a climbing trip to Thailand?

There's a top rope anchor on there somewhere...
Besides climbing there are numerous caves to explore. We spent an afternoon wandering around and looking at the different caves. There were great formations inside and out, and the aura in the area was almost that of a cathedral.




Inside the Diamond cave
A local legend of the island is that an Indian princess was shipwrecked on this peninsula on her way to be married. She died of a broken heart and now inhabits one of the local caves. Fishermen leave offerings of carved linggas to her for good luck and increased fertility. We found quite the collection lying about in the cave!

A local woman contemplating in the cave
One of the last things we did in Rai Leh was go to a viewpoint that overlooks the bay. This involved scrambling up the backside of a cliff which was pretty hard given that it had been pouring off and on through the day. We arrived at the view right when the sun was shining and Rash said something to the effect of "This is the most beautiful view I've ever seen ever." It was pretty impressive to see the area from above.

Scrambling to the viewpoint

Made it to the viewpoint!
We've headed back to Krabi town as the rain has started to hit in full force now, we'll look into hitting up some national parks nearby and then eventually head to the Gulf Coast of Thailand.

Krabi, Thailand

We are in Thailand now! We flew into Krabi a couple days ago and have just begun exploring the area. Yesterday we had a failed attempt at visiting Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, which are supposed have some pretty waterfalls. We rented a motorbike and started our 20 km journey with the sun shining brightly in the sky. We were about 10 km along on the road when we realized that we were riding into a rainstorm. There were grey clouds above us and everything was misty in the distance. Then, without much warning it started pouring down on us full force! The drops were so big and hard that they stung my face and I had to close my eyes. Luckily, Leslie was wearing sunglasses, so he was still able to keep his eyes open as he drove! We pulled over under a small shelter on the side of the highway, where other motor bikers were also seeking protection from the downpour. We were hoping to wait it out, but the rain just wouldn't stop. Finally, after a last brave attempt at driving through the rain, we reluctantly turned around and drove back to Krabi.

Just before we leave for the tour


Today we got a lot luckier with the weather. It was beautiful and sunny all day long. We took a tour of some of the islands surrounding Krabi, including Bamboo Island and Ko Phi Phi. The tour was fun, but a little rushed and very touristy. We were packed into a small motor boat with 36 other tourists and shuttled around from one location to the next. At each spot, there were about 10 other tour companies doing the exact same thing, so you can imagine the masses of humanity that were all hoping to see what we wanted to see. And I don't blame them, because it definitely was beautiful! The islands are huge limestone formations jutting out of the water in all different shapes and sizes. The limestone is partially covered with lush vegetation, creating a breath-taking contrast between the beige rock and vibrant green plants. The beaches themselves have some of the whitest, softest sand that I have ever experienced and the surrounding water is turquoise and crystal clear.


An old bird nest collecting site. The nests are prized for swallow nest soup

One of our stops was Maya Beach, the famous beach that was used in the movie The Beach. It would have been quite picturesque, had it not been crawling with half-naked tourists. It was also sad to see that people had been littering trash into the water. It really angers me that some people don't respect such rare natural beauty. Even one of the staff members from our tour threw his cigarette butt in the water!

The view from Maya Beach

The last stop was the middle of the ocean, where we got to do some snorkeling. This was actually my favorite part because the coral that we saw was really neat. I have never seen so many different species of coral...there was coral that looked like large smooth mountains, flat red coral that spiraled upward, coral that was tipped with blue edges, brain coral, and much more. Besides the usual tropical fish, there were also a lot of different-colored giant clams. Leslie and I had a lot of fun playing with them, because they would shut there shells whenever you stuck you hand too close.

Diving at Sipadan

We finished our 4 day diving trip at Sipadan exhausted and overwhelmed with the amount of sea life we saw. Sipadan is a world famous diving site located on the eastern end of Sabah, Borneo. A number of islands are great for diving, although Sipadan Island itself has the main draw: Green Turtles, White Tipped and Grey Reef Sharks, and schools of Chevron Barracuda. Demand is so high to dive at Sipadan that the Malaysian government limits the number of divers with a permit system.

We were able to secure some permits for 2 days of diving with the dive resort Seaventures located just off island of Mabul. The neat thing about Seaventures is that it is housed on a converted oil rig, with a house reef just below. In fact when you're not doing your day dives at the nearby islands, you have unlimited diving (free air) in the House Rig Reef. Included with the package are gourmet meals which which we took perhaps too much advantage of.


The great thing about the nearby dive sites is the variety each one has to offer, so going to a new site promises different species to spot and observe. The House reef had a number of Moray Eels, Alligator Fish, Lion Fish, a GIANT clam, and so many other lifeforms that we've only begun to learn the names of.


Rash sporting her hot new dive hood!

Our first dive at the Island of Mabul netted us our first turtle spotting! Although by the end of the trip we saw so many turtles we couldn't keep count, it never got old watching them glide around gracefully. Turtles would swim right past us or let you approach them as they lay in their coral bed.

Our 2 days at Sipadan were great, although by that time we began to feel the effects of another food related sickness. We spotted plenty of sharks swimming below and above us, or sometimes just resting on the sand, loads of turtles, schools of bumphead fish (very large fish with a bump on their head), schools of jack fish, and an enormous swarm of barracuda. The schools would swim around us and swirl over and under. Unfortunately we don't have and underwater camera so we can't share too many pictures of all the fish we saw. We did however get some footage of us swimming with turtles and barracuda and sharks on another divers camera and perhaps we can borrow some pics as well when we put together a slideshow.

A bit of drama did occur on the Seaventure rig though. We got dropped off at Mabul island which is about 800 m away from the rig while some other divers went for a sunset dive. We waited and waited at the designated pick up spot and watched the sunset without a boat coming to pick us up. Then in the distance we see the dive boat going back to the rig, without us! We had no way of contacting the rig but were luckily able to ask a local boatman to give us a ride to the rig. Upon our return, the boatman and guide were very unprofessional and unapologetic about the fact that they left us on the island. We were a little miffed by that, but didn't let it ruin our experience.



On our final day of diving we were able to find a Frog Fish, which is a fish that crawls along very slowly and looks like a piece of coral so it can be very hard to spot. It can only be described as ugly, or maybe pretty in an ugly way.


Here's an example frog fish for those of you wondering. Source: Wikipedia
We had a great time diving at Sipadan, only now it feels like we've seen it all! Or maybe we're just pretty dived out after 10 dives in 4 days.