Khao Sok

Rafflesia
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From Surin we headed south to Takua pa, where we got another bus to Khao Sok National park. We met an old swedish birder in Takua pa who had been birding in Thailand many times and he suggested where we stay in khao sok and a restaurant which in the evening was almost a certainty to see fairy blue birds. After camping for a week on surin we wanted a bit more of a comftable stay so we took his advice and stayed in a bungalow on stilts at a place called Smileys. unfortunately staying just outside the national park meant we had to pay daily to enter, however we managed to blag the student thing once again and only had to pay 100 baht each to enter. We did both the long trails within the park the first being a 14 km round trip which we thought we would do quite easily though it soon became apparent the 14 km didn't include the huge climbs as well as the disorientation (okay we went in a bit of a circle at one point.) It took us all day to do this trail. The following day we went to see a flower called the Rafflesia (all the local people were raving about it and apparently it only flowers a few months of the year) it was another slightly challenging trail (we are beginning to think there is no such thing as an easy trail in thai national parks) The flower was quite impressive at about 80cm across though the smell was pretty awful. On Christmas day we did the shorter trail (8km round trip) This involved several river crossings so we used sandals instead of boots. The park rangers told us there were no leeches at the moment (they lied) the heavens opened while along this trail and the leeches attacked. (we are currently uploading the leech attack on u tube if any of you want to be grossed out) At the end of the trail was a really beautiful waterfall. Ian Stripped and jumped in and emily waited to see if it was full of leeches first. it was safe and very refreshing we were really lucky that we saw no others on this trail. We saw lots of great birds at khao sok including, roulroul partridges, fairy bluebirds, banded pittas, OH thrush just to name a few. South thailand seems to be much richer in birdlife than north thailand. I have just learnt how to upload videos hopfully you can see some on u tube our username is edmans83.

end of a trail
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Seasons greetings to all

we are beginning to think there is no such thing as an easy trail in thai national parks

Ian and Emily