Category — Thailand

On our second day at the lake, after breakfast, our guide asked us who was coming on the trek.  It was going to be about 3 hours and would involve swimming through a cave and crossing creeks.

The girls immediately said “What!  Are you nuts?  Why would we want to walk up mountains for 3 hours?”  So it looked like it would be just me and Susi & Sven, until at the last minute Michael decided he wanted to come as well.

I thought I would probably end up having to carry him but I really wanted some member of the family to come with me and as I am ALWAYS up for a physical (Amanda:  crazy!!) challenge I decided to take him.

The long tail boat took us 15 minutes down an inlet and within a minute of getting out, we were already deep into the jungle. We walked inland and steadily upwards for about an hour & a half.  The jungle was incredibly thick and most of the time you couldn’t see the sun.  Some parts were steep with boulders we had to climb over.  Michael was pleasantly suprising me already, he hadn’t complained once, he was really enjoying the adventure.

After almost two hours of constant hiking, we arrived at the entrance to the cave.  This was where we had to make the decision, if we go into the cave, it would take about an hour of walking / climbing with torches & also the last part of the cave included having to swim (about 2 metres deep) for about 100 metres. We all discussed it, and Michael was keen (surprise, surprise!) –  the Thai guide thought it would be ok – so we headed on in.

Within seconds it was just the five of us in pitch black except for our torches. We came across numerous spiders, some were as big as Michael’s hand (and were yellow he says to remind me) and when we were about a half hour into the cave the guide pointed his torch to the cave ceiling, and there were literally hundreds of bats sleeping there.  Michael was just loving it!

After almost an hour in the cave, the stream of water we had been trudging through started to get deeper and harder to traverse, (I must admit, at this stage I was starting to think to myself, perhaps this wasn’t my smartest decsion), yet when I asked Michael, you ok?, he said “I’m fine”, and kept ploughing on in front of me.

Last hurdle was coming. You could hear the water was getting louder in the distance, now it was getting alot harder to go forwards, then all of a sudden Michael was faced with hanging onto a rope, and lowering himself downwards, to the cave stream below (my heart was starting to race now!), The Thai guide was great, he went in front and helped lower Michael down. I quickly followed behind.

Next we were dragging ourselves hand over hand along a rope that was fixed to the ceiling of the cave.  The water was up to our necks and there was no floor.  I was running on adrenaline more worrying about Michael and just thinking about getting to the end (and no my claustrophobia was fine) but then my torch went out.  Luckily I could see the other headlamps in front of me and tried to keep up. Finally after over an hour in the cave, we made it to the other side.

After a quick drink stop,  we continued on trekking out of the jungle and after almost three an a half hours we made it back to the boat.  It was an amazing experience, and all the more special to share it with my five year old son, (who normally back in Perth, can’t walk five minutes without either saying “I’m tired, can you carry me” or “I’m hungry”) who didnt complain once or even mention the words….I’m hungry!

It was an early 8.30 start for our trip to Chiew Laan Lake. We were introduced to our Thai guide and our travel companions, a young German couple named Sven & Susi.  We had a 1 hour trip by ute to the pier, followed by another hour in the long tail boat to the lake houses.

It seems the vehicle of choice for most Thais (if not a motorbike or scooter) is a ute – preferably a Toyota Hilux dual cab.  Actually, we were surprised by the quality of the vehicles on the road – there are hardly any bombs, most seem pretty new and you can always find someone washing their pride and joy on the side of the road! [Read more →]

The lovely owner of the Pan Beach Bungalows organised a minibus for us to go to Khao Sok.  This time the minibus was nothing short of luxurious – very spacious, brand new with frosty air conditioning.  We arrived in not time in very good shape.

We had read about Our Jungle House, Khao Sok National Park and Chiew Laan Lake from other family travel blogs and had been on our list for a while.  We would have liked to stay in a tree house, which are built up in the tree canopy but unfortunately they did not accommodate 6 and so we had to “settle” for the riverside bungalows.  All the tree houses and bungalows are off down winding tracks in the undergrowth from the reception/restaurant area and just walking to the house, we saw mini-frogs, a squirrel and heard a number of different birds. [Read more →]

We had taken the precaution of pre-booking our first few weeks of accommodation in Southern Thailand because of the school holidays.  This turned out to be inspired as there were holiday makers everywhere. 

We were waiting with trepidation to see our accommodation in Krabi at Pan Beach Bungalows – it all looked good on the internet being right on the beach but we did also know that there was no electricity during the day until they turned their own generator on at 6pm and also no hot water. [Read more →]

The trains into Thailand were also booked weeks in advance, so once again it was time for the long distance bus.  From KL to the border town of Hat Yai was quoted as taking about 7 hours.  9 1/2  hours later, including several duty free shops and border control on each side, we stumbled into Hay Yai, tired and dirty. 

Passport control at the Thai border turned into another one of those heart pumpers.  If you cross in Thailand by land without a visa, you can only have 15 days in the country, so we had been sure to get our visas in Perth from the Consulate which would get us 60 days.  We stood in the line thinking we were  all fine but the border guard who was dressed in what looked like a military uniform, spoke virtually no English and when we said we wanted 60 days, she looked at us like we were martians.  When I pointed to the visa stamped in the passport, she yelled something that sounded like “Receipt!  Where receipt!”  After I again explained, we got the visas before we left Australia -  “look here in the passport” and again pointed, she again looked at me like I was the most stupid person on earth and yelled again. 

I thought, wow this is not going to work out and we’re going to be lucky to be let in the country let alone get the standard 15 days!  She suddenly jumped up and walked out to talk to someone else; came back in and started stamping.  We got our 60 days but we have absolutely no idea what she was going on about!

We had booked 2 rooms in a good 4 star Novotel hotel online in KL to stay at in Hat Yai (very cheap last minute price!). We got in about 6.00pm, & lucky for us, the coach stopped right out in front of the hotel. We had an easy night of room service & all early to bed.

The next day was New Year’s Eve and we were to take a mini-bus to Krabi (4 1/2 hours).  It turned out to be one of those days – to add to the day before!

First thing was the check out at the Novotel – we had booked and paid online last minute, but they were insistent we had to pay again.  We had to catch the minibus at 9am and we were still discussing the online payment at 8.50!  In the end we just had to say that we were going, we couldn’t miss our bus – so we’re hoping we don’t get charged somewhere down the track.

Typically, the bus was not on time but eventually turned up 25 mins later.  The driver jumped out and indicated to us that there was no room in the boot (mainly because all the seats took up the bootspace) so our packs had to go on the roof rack. 

We through the kids’ packs in the van and put our big, heavy packs on the roof and the driver jumped in ready to go!  We asked him about tying them down and he said “No time!” and indicated to us to get in and hurry up.

I was completely freaking out, thinking there is no way our packs could survive 4 hours without being tied to the vehicle!  Luckily the driver was just taking us to the bus depot to catch yet another minivan – but I can tell you that the 5km it was to the depot was pretty nerve wracking with every bump we went over!

Thankfully at the end of our minibus journey – we found Pan Beach Bungalows in Krabi where we recovered from 2 crazy days of bus travel.