Khao Sok National Park

Khao Sok is a National Park in the middle of the Southern peninsula. Apparently the rain forest here still stands undisturbed because a while ago some "communist renegades" hid out in some caves and killed everyone that tried to come into the forest, including loggers. Now it remains a fairly unspoiled rain forest, and is also the home of the world's biggest flower. If you haven't heard of it, it is the huge one that blooms to be a meter across, and smells of rotting meat to attract pollinating insects. Unfortunately we were about a month too early to witness the blooming of this flower, we still saw plenty though. While the the park itself was really quite big, there wasn't much when it came to developed trails and places to go see. There were really only two trails to hike, and half of that was closed because of the possibilities of flash floods.
The first day we were there we went on a small loop hike through the forest and saw... green. I'm sure it's because I grew up in the desert, but it never ceased to amaze me how everything... everything was either alive or had something living on it (quite often both). The built in stairs were covered in moss, the handrails had lichen and insects clinging to it. You couldn't ever actually see dirt because there was so many tiny plants just covering the ground. As far as animals we mostly saw insects and other creepy crawlies. There were colorful butterflies and moths that were always flitting around. You had to constantly check your legs for leeches. I also saw an incredibly kick ass spider that looked like a Cat Face Spider, except it had gigantic spines on it's abdomen. We also had to cross a very "Indiana Jones" type bridge over a river at one point which was immensely entertaining.
The most interesting thing we saw was a huge army of very big ants on the war path. They were marching along a railing and were killing all of another, even bigger type of ant that they came across. They were big enough that we could hear the cracking as they bit through exo-skeletons and pulled off limbs. We must have watched them for an hour. They would have one ant grab the bigger one by the mandibles and hold it down while a few others grabbed legs and spread it out, then they would pull the ant apart (see the video of all the excitement http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxHthErQ-wg). The next thing to come would be the workers a few minutes later to take all these parts, I'm guessing, back to their nest.
The biggest thing we saw was a snake that was lying in the middle of the path, it was about 1.5 - 2 meters in length and black with a little brown and yellow on it. Because we didn't know what kind this was, we kept our distance and watched it as it hung out and moved around a bit. After about 10 minutes it left the path which made it so that we could proceed. The next day we met a guy named Pong who had brought a Western Australian couple to the park on a tour and showed him pictures of the snake. He said it was a Cobra, however later that night we met another guy (Adam) who was a local and had been exploring the jungle for 10 years or more. We showed him the pictures and he said it was actually a Rat Snake, but they look quite a bit like a Cobra. The second guy was much more knowledgeable and had been in the area for much longer, so even though it would sound cooler to say we ran into a Cobra, I think it was just a Rat Snake after all.
The next day we went on another hike and got as far as a very nice waterfall (where we met Pong) which also allowed for some nice wading (which was the closest thing to a shower that I'd had it a few days). When it came to wildlife, we didn't really see too much different then what we saw the day before. We did see a bunch of trees moving because of monkeys in the distance, and would occasionally catch a slight glimpse of a monkey flying from tree to tree, but nothing spectacular. However, later that night we went to a restaurant that was right on the bank of one of the rivers. This area is also a popular swimming hole for monkeys, when they chose to come that is, and come they did!
That evening was one of the most pleasant that I've had so far on this trip. Dalin and I sat and ate our delicious curry while watching the lazy river move at the base of the sheer cliffs of limestone. You could only actually see parts of the stone because the jungle would still grow up these vertical cliffs. After a bit, monkeys began to show up, jumping from the trees into the water, and swimming about. Dalin and I rushed about and took photos until the light went. A few monkeys even came within a meter of us. We then sat down and just watched them for the next while. After it got dark Dalin and I talked for an hour or two with one of the workers at the restaurant, the Adam guy that told us our Cobra wasn't a Cobra. He answered questions about Buddism, Thai culture, the Thai language, etc. We also talked with him about the English language and America. He was one of those guys that gave Thailand the nickname of The Land of Smiles. He was happy to have a job that paid him in a day what most of us bitch about getting in an hour. He was happy that it was the slow season because he could talk to people like us which was nice and let him practice his English. He was happy when it was the busy season because it kept him busy. He would work about 14 hour days during the high season and he had fun showing people the jungle that he loved. He was happy where he lived because he was always learning about the jungle's plants and animals. He was just... happy, and for those that know me, it's pretty impressive for me to be impressed by that.
We decided to head to the park's lake the next morning, but first we went to go see the temple and the included big Buddahs. Now I know what you're thinking "why would there be a Buddist temple complete with Buddah statues in the middle of a jungle where there were people killing everyone who came near?" That would be a stupid question, because Thailand has this rule that if you aren't within spitting distance of a huge Buddah, then you need to stop what you're doing right then and build one. Apparently this temple started as just a cave that the monks would live in and had a few Buddahs inside, but one day they left the cave and built a temple right outside the mouth. Dalin and I started to explore the cave for a bit and all we found was that it was flooded after just 60 or 70 meters back. We also found the scariest and mangiest dog in the world that was hiding in the dark gnawing at fleas.
We also found some very dangerous looking stairs that led to some more stairs that went practically straight up the cliff right next to the Buddah cave. Further investigation found another cave filled with bats instead of Buddahs and scary dogs. However, the trip up to this one was loads of adventurous fun.
Much of Khao Sok Park is a huge lake that was created by a dam (much of this park was just jungle a while ago *sigh*) Everyone said it was beautiful and that you should go to either camp or stay on a floating bungalow. We headed there and got to the pier, but due to high water we couldn't get to any campgrounds. At the pier there was only one company that was doing the floating bungalows. It was decently expensive. An hour long tail boat ride out to the bungalows cost over $100 round trip! That wouldn't be too bad if you maxed out a boat with 10 people, but even then it wasn't cheap. Add to that the fairly expensive stay and food and we just decided that it would be too expensive. However, that did put us in the position that we had no clue where we were going to sleep. We walked for a bit and found a park on top of a hill right by the dam. We wandered about for a bit on the first cut lawn I've seen in this country, and couldn't find any sort of accommodation and no one knew anywhere to stay. So, as the sun began to set we figured that if we hid out on the far side of the golf course where there where no lights, and we stayed behind a hill, we could set up our tent all sneaky style, then be up and out before anyone noticed.
The plan seemed doable, until an hour after dark some guy came out and just stopped next to us. We tried to talk to him for a bit and maybe explain the situation, but he didn't speak any English beyond "Hello" so eventually he left again. We sat around for a bit, considered hiding, but knew they would eventually start really searching if they didn't see us, so we just figured we'd head out. On the way out there was a cop car driving about the parking lot. The cop stopped and talked to us for a bit. I asked innocently when the park closed, and found that it wasn't for another hour, so I'm still not sure why everyone was so keen on finding out why we were there. Anyway, I was up for just walking out of there and if needs be sleeping in the bushes, I figured that since we weren't in the park after closing there was no harm no foul. Dalin however started asking where we could stay and if the cop knew a place where we could set up a tent. I was not keen on going anywhere with a cop (who are notoriously corrupt) and was trying to subliminally tell Dalin to stop, but in the end we got in his car, he drove us 5 minutes away until we ended up at a little lawn where someone was charging a dollar a person to set a tent up for a night, so good call on Dalin's part.
The next morning we decided to head to Phuket, a huge island right off the coast on the South and the tourist king of Thailand. We hopped on a bus toward Phuket and toward more adventures!