George & Jane

And we thought we were in the Jungle before!…HA! Well for starters we couldn’t ask for a better location, although one of the more costly accommodations @ about $30CAD for the 2 of us for the night, this place is AWESOME. Our stilt house bungalow is located right on the Kaoh Sok River, with huge bamboos and so many varieties of tropical plants just outside our door. Not only does our backyard have its very own river but just beyond the river is one of the many ENORMOUS limestone cliffs in the area. Our first night at dinner, we spotted several types of curious insects and lizards but most impressive is the Articus Atlas (Amazon sized moth). Not speaking in exaggerative fisherman’s terms, this thing had a wing span of at least 10 inches…it was beautiful. Almost everything in the forest comes in “Ancient” size. Sleeping in the evening is like having the most detailed and lively “Sounds of the Rainforest” meditation tape to relax to. The sounds are unreal and seeing as we only have wooden lattice walls, the creatures of the night are free to roam in and out as they please. We are both incredibly thankful for the good quality, elastic bottomed, bug netting which hangs around our bed.

The most painful of all the gigantic things we encountered today was the STUPIFYING number of staircases we climbed. I m sure being able to read Thai would have saved us this climb but I would bet we climbed about 1 km of steps along the route to a 400 metre tall tree. Photos just don’t do this mama justice. After our tough hike as we wandered out of the park we found a fresh water spring river where we waded and refreshed before cruising the exotic forest town and heading back to our jungle hut. Snakes, lizards, tree frogs, giant bugs/beetles/winged insects, and so many other creatures have been making very regular appearances lately but tonight we spotted our first giant toad. Now this wasn’t one of those oversized pot bellied toads but it was a typical looking toad roughly the size of a small baseball mit…INTENSE! Tomorrow we hope to discover the “BIG FLOWER”, as it is popularly referred to here, which may entail a bit of a mission. As for tonight we fall easily into sleep as the uninterrupted soundtrack of the Jungle plays on.