Jungle Suprises.

It was time to leave Bangkok and set off further south. Our first experience of sleeper trains was about to take place! We did our first over night journey to Surat Thani before an hour and a half transfer in the back of a pick up truck through the beautiful mountains as we headed to the jungle. Koh Sok is the destination we were headed for. I don't think you can ever get over the awe of the Thai scenery. The beauty is beyond belief. The journey in the pick up truck is one of my most favorite memories. When we got to our accommodation it was a basic hut on stilts, the windows more like large holes - doors for all the bugs. Mosquito nets catered for these though, so not to worry. We could do with the extra air at night time. The shower didn't quite work. The bathroom was more of a zoo for parasites and as our first real experience of jungle life we were left feeling a bit hesitant of the days to come. Showers took quite a bit of time as it involved a routine of filling up a water bottle and pouring it over yourself. As horrible as it felt, we were being served up the life experience we had set off to find.

Our Jungle Home

After setting in to our new jungle home we were taken by a local to visit a waterfall and a monkey cave. We went elephant trekking in the jungle. Elephant trekking was a fun but frightening experience! Our elephant seemed to be quite hungry and kept stopping to eat. However this involves them bending down to reach plants and leaves on the floor and I just assumed we would be catapulted off head first into the jungle. Obviously this was highly if not impossibly unlikely to happen due to the fact we had a seat-belt on and the lovely little Thai boy who was 'driving' our elephant was sat perfectly poised on the elephants head. If he wasn't going anywhere when the elephant was bending down, we were hardly going to either. Once this was realised, seeing the jungle from the height of the elephant was fascinating. The views were unparalleled.
We returned back to the accommodation where there was a small reception area where you could order food as we were in a really secluded area and other options were extremely limited. We spent the rest of the night playing Jenga with the staff before heading to bed after nightfall.

The next morning we headed with a group to James Bond island. This day trip has more pros than cons but a trip to see the island itself it is not a trip I would highly recommend. We drove out of the jungle for around two hours to a port where we transferred into a long tail boat. As first timers seeing the sea (especially by long tail boat) we were once again left speechless by the beauty of the Thai landscape. The sea was as clear as a bath in some areas and a glittering bright turquoise in others. The rock formations that are jotted around the sea are so beautiful they look as though someone has photoshopped them in! We sailed past mangroves, through caves - it was stunning. And then we arrived at James Bond beach which is also named gypsie island. The island itself is very small and is completely over run by sea gypsies with stalls. It is terribly hard to move around without being approached, stall sellers putting their products on you so you can't easily get away. Unfortunately for me the overpopulation and swarms of tourist/traders made for a very claustrophobic atmosphere. When we eventually maneuvered ourselves around the hoards of people we saw the rock that was featured in the James Bond film. We swam out to the rock and back emerging out of the water as though the rock had transformed us into one of Bond's femme fatales. Kidding!

The Group

We headed back to the long tail boat where we were taken to a man made gypsie island completely built out of the sea by stilts. We had lunch here, this was one of the first proper "thai style" meals we had had since we arrived. By that I am referring to a large group sitting down together and sharing a variety of dishes. The fresh fish was plentiful, as you can imagine us being in the middle of the sea. After lunch we explored the small island, it was so fascinating that the community had built a town in the sea and had the provisions they needed without having to rely completely on land. We visited the local school which was a really bizzare experience for us. The island was so small and completely man made. Yet catered well for life of the community. Coming from London, such a big city it was clearly strikingly different.

Arriving at the sea gypsie island

Playing football in the school playground

Koh Sok had definitely not rang anything true to previous expectations. Jungle life was slow, quiet and simplistic. Yet breathtaking and inspiring. The stark contrast from city life was a shock at first but you soon come to respect the differences and thoroughly enjoy the loss of time keeping and schedules.

We headed back to the jungle for our last afternoon / night still taking in all of the scenery. Early the next morning it would be time to set off for the islands on the east side. Our first stop was to be Koh Samui.