Khao Lak is one of the areas where the 2004 Tsunami destroyed homes and lives, in fact, all along this coast.
After returning from our Liveaboard, we stayed in Khao Lak at Pratum Resort for 4 nights. And we joined back up with Brian and Julie.
Then the whole group ventured an hour to Khao Sok for another 3 nights at Morning Mist Resort before heading to Phuket.
Details of both areas follows.
Khao Lak
Our first night in Khao Lak, we caught the sunset with dinner and drinks at the Flying Pig :)
Our resort was very nice, with beautiful gardens and a babbling brook water feature, and lots and lots of orchids.
Everyone other than me, has been getting lots and lots of massages during this trip, and they are really inexpensive. I finally joined the group and had a Foot Scrub.
Sylvia, Brian, Julie, and I spent one day at the Khao Lak National Park. It was a great day.
The first thing we saw was this Gecko, and Sylvia got a good photo of it.
We did a short trail to the north, where they allowed some campsites along a rocky shore.
Then we headed south on a trail that was hilly, rocky, and lots of tree roots
it was much more difficult than we thought it would be ... but we took it slow
but had beautiful views of the Sea
We took breaks, and at this one, watched the waves crashing against the boulders.
It was a hot sweaty trail, but we persisted. And again, Julie was a trouper, with her just-healed broken foot.
We were rewarded at the end with a nice beach, with waves big enough for Brian and I to do a little body-surfing.
There were not many people there, and we spent the rest of the day, just laying in the shade of the tree and listening to the waves.
We seemed to have established a ritual of visiting the 'markets', where you can buy things cheap. We've been relieved to notice that the people selling things in Thailand are much less 'pushy'. They just let you look without asking you every second if you would buy. It really gets annoying, so this was a nice change.
They are all pretty much the same, rows and rows of 'stuff'. However, this was a first. I was horrified at first, because i thought it was dead ... but no, just lazy and very trusting that no one would step on him. Crazy Cat !
I have also noticed that the cats and dogs are not running lose everywhere, and the ones we see are healthy, very friendly, and even have fancy collars on. There were a lot of Calico cats here. Most other places we would see an abundance of 'yellow' cats with crooked or twisted tails (and not healthy nor loved). It's been great to see these loved animals. This one was so cute !
In addition to the nice gardens, we also had a nice pool at Partum Resort. And actually spent quite a bit of time relaxing there.
Khao Sok
After 3 nights here, we drove about an hour to Khao Sok, near the Khao Sok National Park. We stayed at Morning Mist Resort, which was a more 'natural' environment. Beautiful walkways and flowers
I mentioned in my Angkor Wat Cambodia Blog about the locust/cicadas/katydids sounds that were deafening. It sounded a lot like what we hear in the evenings in late summer. A little research tells me that Katydids are nocturnal singers. Cicadas, also known as Locust, are mostly active during the day. But the difference in what we HEARD was dramatic.
Here in Thailand, on our Khao Lak National Park walk, we thought we were hearing an alarm of some kind, it was really high pitched and so loud it hurt our ears.... and then it stopped ... only to start up again. We realized it was not an alarm, but Cicadas. We also heard the same sound when we got to Morning Mist at Khao Sok. We decided it sounded like a tea kettle going off. I got a video / sound track. The Video shows a bit of the walkways and flora... but the sound! We eventually got used to it ... kinda ..
We had organized a Day Trip to the Khao Sok National Park. I don't think any of us knew what we were going to see/do. Other than a boat ride, swimming, and a cave. Pom was our driver and guide. He was a character, ... the way he said Oh My God was precious .. and he said Oh My Buddha; which became our group mantra!
It started with a Long Tail Boat Ride with about 15 people. We had to wear our life jackets, or Pom would get ticketed.
We were amazed at the mountains surrounding us
and the massive limestone rock islands that jutted up out of the water. It was beautiful. We've seen so many beautiful places on this trip. What a wonderful world we life in.
We stopped at a floating restaurant for an hour or so, swam, relaxed, and then had lunch. They had the pods that you could sleep in, also floating
After lunch, back in the boat (without Life Jackets).
for more jaw-dropping scenery
So many rocks straight up out of the water, and you could see stalactites, stalagmites, and caverns.
And then we got to go into one named Pra Kai Pelch Cave. It was a climb up some steps to get into it.
Once at the entrance, looking back
After the Cave we went on an hour long hike through a RainForest with massive trees
Then back in the boat again for another scenic tour of the sea and mountains
and solid rock walls
The next day was a 'Girls Day' ... to the Buathong Elephant Sanctuary. We started our visit making the food for 'our' elephant: sea salt to make them drink more water, palm sugar discs, bananas, and tamarind
She put the salt and palm sugar in giant mortars and we pulverized it.
Then she scooped it up into these bowls and we mixed in the bananas, including peels, and tamarind. Then added some 'elephant meal' which included some vitamins.
We then rolled into balls about the size of a tennis ball, and fed our elephant. We put that ball right into her mouth that was open and ready to indulge.
Then the 'trainer' walked her down the road, and down the hill for her Mud Spa where we were anxiously waiting
There was a huge mud pit, with some water shooting out of tubes, and gooey gooey mud in it. He gave us small buckets full of mud and let us go at it. He just said to make sure we didn't touch her trunk.
and he meant for us to cover her ENTIRE rough wrinkly body ! They said she is 50yrs old.
After the Mud Spa
We saw these elephants and people in the river when we first arrived. They were gone by the time we got down there.
Then he lead her down another hill to the river. She was really lumbering ... almost limping. She did a loud trumpet at this point. We all wondered if she was saying, 'I'm doing the best i can'. I was starting to feel bad. Now, watching this video ... i do feel bad.
When we got to the river, the trainer made her lay down, so she would get wet, and also so we could reach her back.
But twice she got back up, and finally he let her stay standing. Being a senior citizen myself, i could see that she probably had pain in her joints, knees, and hips, and didn't like it. Of course, i don't know any of this, and am just imposing my human 'feelings' on an elephant .... i don't suppose that is fair. Any way, we washed the rest of the the mud off of her while she was standing.
After we were finished, he signaled for her to use her trunk to spray water over her back. She wasn't doing any of this on her own free-will.
These elephants were rescued from an abusive environment, and i am happy that they are getting good care here. There was another 'sanctuary' just down the road that we saw that had carriages/seats on the elephants' backs for riding!!!!!!!!! So, ours is a good one. I think if we had a younger elephant, i wouldn't have felt so bad. In fact, I plan to write to the Sanctuary and request that they retire BaiTai, and not make her 'perform' any more. I've read that "median life expectancy for female Asian elephants was estimated to be 47 years old". She should be able to just 'do' whatever she wants.
After her bath, she came back with us, and we got to feed her lots and lots of bananas. She opened her mouth wide to receive them.
Afterwards they gave 'us' some snacks, and our driver stopped at this scenic overlook, with this beautiful tree blooming bright yellow
and we practiced our 'posing' :)
Morning Mist Resort really lived up to it's name... in the morning the mist was heavy over the mountains in the distance. They had beautiful flowers all along the paths to our bungalows.
Shari, Butch, Julie and Brian had bungalows on the river. They were rewarded with the antics of the monkeys that also lived there. Julie had one come right up on their porch and 'growl' at here as she was eating potato chips... she did not feed him and he moved on. Sylvia and i went down one afternoon and got to see a couple of them. Here is a video that i took of a couple bigger ones jumping rocks.
We agreed to come back for 5pm Happy Hour to see if there would be more activity. Unfortunately, around 4pm, they watched a 'mass exodus' from across the river where they were 'living' ... they were going down the bank, into and along the river, and 'moved' down stream. They never saw another monkey after that..... ??? what was that about ?? Did they need to relocate because their food sources were being depleted? They said it was amazing to watch, especially watching the monkeys swimming, underwater, in the river. Here is their video. Look for the monkey swimming underwater at about 30sec . amazing .. who knew ?
another video ... around 30sec, a baby appears in the bottom left corner; and at about 50sec, another baby jumps on Momma's back to get across the river. The baby that was left behind, jumps from rock to rock to rock and falls into the river... and jumps out !
The next day we got 'another driver in another car', that took us from Khao Sok to Phuket. We took a rest,(P) break and i took this pic of Butch and Brian ... because the 'girls' always get their picture taken.
I took a lot of photos of the flowers at Morning Mist Resort ... so you can just skip the rest of this if you want.
However, stay tuned for the next Blog with our adventures in Phuket ... and by the way ....the Ph does not make the 'F' sound :)
The first 2 photos are kind of special. It was outside of Sylvia's Bungalow, and i watched and waited 3 days for it to bloom. The last night we got back after dark, and there it was. It was a big bloom, 4" long
dp
No comments:
Post a Comment