Day 340: For the love of frogs

We were up and downstairs in time for our 6.30am minivan (#1), which drove us to the pier, where got on the ferry (#2) to the mainland. There we climbed aboard a coach (#3) that drove us a short distance before transferring us to another coach (#4), which drove us to a small restaurant. There, we sat down and watched as a series of foreign backpackers got into shouting matches with a middle-aged local guy behind a counter. When they were done, he called us over and asked us to fill in a form – pointing to where we should put our names and nationalities and muttering 'I hope you're not French' under his breath. While we waited for our next mode of transport to arrive we chatted to a lovely, suitably laidback couple from Hawaii, before joining them in the back of a pick-up truck (#5) that dropped us at a bus terminal in Surat Thani. We were shown to a minivan (#6), where we dumped our bags, but were told that it wouldn't be leaving for a while, so we bought some little deep-fried things and went to wait in a nearby café. Our coffees had just arrived when the driver came in and told us it was time to go, so we slurped them down and hopped aboard, joining the crowd of locals already inside the van. This journey actually took some time - and took us through some pretty dramatic karst scenery. By the time we got to Khao Sok, we were the last aboard and the driver very kindly drove us all the way to our 'resort', Baan Khao Sok, and dropped us in the carpark.

After we had checked in and received the lengthy description of all of the tours we could do (and won't be doing because we can't afford them), we dumped our bags in our very basic little bungalows and walked into the village. This, we found, consists of a series of minimarts, restaurants and travel agents offering tours and bus tickets to elsewhere in Thailand strung out along a single road that went all the way up to the entrance to the national park.

On the way back, we stopped in at one of the minimarts and bought some beer and pork crackling, which we then consumed on verandah of Kate and Zoe's bungalow. Baan Khao Sok is located beside the river that undulates through the village and as it was a typically warm day, we decided to go for a swim in it. The river is about chest-deep on me at the middle, cool, clear and quite fast-flowing. 

In the evening, we walked back into town and had dinner at a little restaurant on the river, before heading back to the bungalows. There are some small fish ponds around the restaurant area at Baan Khao Sok and as it hasn't rained here for a while, it has drawn in the local frogs, which I stayed up until late photographing (ably assisted by Sarah).