Adventures Around the World: 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.