Wednesday 6th February
The bus from Takua Pa left for Khao Sok at 10.00, arriving an hour later. I checked into the Khao Sok 'Jungle Huts' – a decent hut with a shower/toilet for 200B – and set off towards the national park entrance. I bought a ticket and started my walk just after 12.00, so it was pretty good going on the time front, and probably not much later a start than if I had stayed nearby the night before as originally planned.
The park itself is a rainforest, believed by some to be older than those in Africa or the Amazon region. The map provided by the ticket office showed a route that would take me to several waterfalls of varying heights, and rock pools that you could swim in. The first few kilometres of the trail was a dirt road which became a forest trail similar to that in Taman Negara in Malaysia (i.e. exposed tree roots, rocks, wood and bamboo bridges).
I thought it was quite an exotic place, and one of the plus points was that there was very few people about. I swam in some of the pools, and the water was clear and refreshing after working up a sweat on the often tiring trails. As the route marked out in the map continued, the more impressive the landscape became. The final place of interest on the trail was a waterfall that cascaded down the side of a rockface about 5m high. There was a deep pool at its base and it felt like one of the coolest places that I have ever had the pleasure of swimming in – it was right out of a shampoo commercial (although my hair ain't long enough to do the whole flick back move, even if I wanted to).
It took about an hour to get back to the main road, and a further half hour back to the hut. I must have walked close to 10 miles – at least, according to the distances specified on the map – and I did it with the usual steady pace (you never get anywhere by strolling), so I was pretty knackered by the end of it all. Despite the fact that some of the trail had been fairly arduous – the last waterfall was a bitch to get to and from, and I even got tangled up in some barbs when I briefly strayed off the track – it had been really worth it. I was also satisfied that I had seen enough in one day to do me for Khao Sok, and didn't feel it necessary to even consider going on any of the organised tours that were on offer (I have been on similar tours already, and it's usually better to do the treks yourself, and it's cheaper too).
I had dinner at the restaurant, and a very tasty one it was too, a 'muslim-style' curry, which was similar to a Thai red curry. With not much else to do apart from some reading, I got some sleep after a fairly tiring but very enjoyable day.
