day 10: upper andman coast

we had a nice leisurely morning enjoying the serenity of our tree house from within our mosquito net and had one last meal with our gracious host, vipa, in the main house.  we wanted to explore deeper into the park than we had gone the evening before and maybe see some animals that call the reserve home like sloths, elephants, or the asian black bear.  it was raining again so i was prepared for the leeches this time with socks pulled up over my pants and everything.  very stylish i know.  we set off and it didnt take long for them to appear on our clothes.  we were doing ok just flicking them off until we saw one go through the knitting of michael's sock.  i was a little hesitant to have a repeat of the night before so we decided to turn back.  the relentless leeches had kept us out of the forest after all.  what you really need are big rubber boots and rubber pants to keep them away.  we were a little bummed not to go further but what could we do if we didnt have the right gear and we figured we could still see a lot by car.  after taking some pictures we wound our way out of the area and found ourselves quickly on the coast in the little seaside town of bang sak which was apparently heavily hit by the tsunami.  we only found this out when we ended up at a memorial site with names of lives lost and wave structures.  it was interesting to see where the tsunami had had such an impact and how much they had rebuilt.  apparently the water had gone as far as 4 km inland which was understandable since it was incredibly flat terrain.  we started up the main road north and found a very small national park off the road where they accepted our tickets again.  here we could drive up a ways into the forest on a dirt road and it was so beautiful.  we got out and hiked for a while appreciating the tropical plants growing on every surface, a stream winding down beside us, and mist forming in the mountains above.   it was so wonderful to hike through the forest with no leeches!  we heard the monsoon heading towards us and made a mad dash for the car with a wall of water behind us and we were on our way again.  we enjoyed making our way north and passing through many small towns and seeing rural thailand.  we stopped at a market off the side of the road in khuraburi to sample our first real local treats.  we had a great meal in the car of curry and rice out of plastic bags and some of the best fried chicken i have ever had.  fantastic fried bananas for dessert too!