We headed back to Talet Kaset II with the 'ticket' we were given the day before and returned to the man. We sat down waiting for bus to arrive, he ripped our 'ticket' up and stuck writing on our sleeve- which I assumed said Khoa Sok. Made me feel extremely like a tourist and sightly ridiculous on a bus of all Thai people. When the ticket man came down the bus (who looked around our age 18-19) we were so confused what we were meant to do as we only had our stickers stuck to us. To our confusion we were then handed our ticket over- settling my fear that we had been scammed and would be made to pay again. At the stops around Surat Thani and Phunphin people came onto the bus selling a range of different fruit and food. Our driver seemed to beep his horn constantly, even with no traffic on the road and on straights, and I never worked out what he was signalling. One thing I have noticed about Thai buses is they are rickety- this bus was a lot better than Day 6's. After staying on the bus for around 3 hours (rough guides gives 3 different times to get here so I think it can often vary) we finally arrived at Khao Sok- after nearly getting off the bus WAY too early. We had made it we were in the jungle :D Waiting to great the bus were, who I mistook as more people trying to sell us stuff, free songthaews (equivalent to tuk tuk outside of Bangkok) drivers to take us to our accommodation. It took us down our first taste of a jungle road and my first experiences of the type of thing I came to see Thailand for. The dirt road stretching behind us as the songthaew took us along, trees and mountains not ruined behind a bus window.
Khoa Sok Valley Lodge was our destination. Quickly we were taken to our treehouse- number 5 right at the end of a little path. There are only 5 rooms so its quiet and peaceful. The accommodation really is what it said, a treehouse. Gaps in the floor and walls where it was made, a little balcony on the front made out branches. A perfect experience of jungle life, even non flushing toilet. Our balcony overlooks a mountain and you can hear monkeys on the mountain to the side throughout most the day and evening. We had a frog living in our bathroom for the majority of our first day in Khoa Sok. We had lunch at our lodge- very good and huge portions compared to the usual small street food sized we are used to. The owner was extremely friendly and we decided to arrange a tour for the next day- a full day trek of the jungle.
We headed to the tourist village and made our way to the monkey watering hole, around 20 minute walk from our lodge. Along the way we saw little spots where we walked down to the river and took a closer look. The monkey watering hole is amazing with a rope swing to throw yourself into the water if you want to (be careful the water isn't that deep). As I didn't want to take my camera swimming so we headed back and spotted another swimming spot next to our lodge. Our plan was to start at this swimming spot and swim down to the monkey watering hole. Everything was going fine until I got my finger pinched/ bitten- no blood just a small mark. Despite this happening to both of us we decided to walk to monkey lodge. Here we had a much better experience swimming and monkeys sat on branches which was amazing as it was my first experience seeing animals like that in the wild. However I got pinched/ bitten again, this time hurting much more- my toe had started bleeding so we decided it was time to head back to the lodge.
Our night ended sitting outside on our baloney chatting and watched the sun come down, the view was beautiful, before battling our way under mosquito nets.
