Live aboard trip and Khao Sok N.P.

Time to do a little catching up. After Ko Phi Phi, Melissa and I headed up to Khao Lok where we would board our 4 day live aboard dive trip with Khao lok Scuba Adventure. We were luckyenough to catch the last Similan/Surin Island trip of the season, after which the water just gets too choppy and stormy to take boats out. The trip itself was amazing, we met lots of new people and had some amazing food, not to mention the amazing dives we were doing every day. To fit in all 14 dives over the 4 days our daily schedule was absolutely insane: Wake up, light breakfast, dive, 2nd breakfast, dive, lunch, dive, snack, night dive, dinner, bed. If we wern't diving we were eating. The actual diving was great, we saw lots of sharks, rays, slugs, turtles, barracuda, shrimp, and even finished it off with a 4 meter manta ray. Life on the boat was also spetacular, we met lots of great people, inluding the guy from the funny AT&T commercial and several others that we will be keeping in touch with. Between dives and meals we had enough time to relax around the boat to nurse our food comas. Before each dive there was a dive brief; we discussed where we were, how deep we were going, what the conditions were, and the crew always made a white board drawing of the dive site. The live aboard has been one of the biggest highlights of my trip, and some of the best diving I have ever done. The time flew by and before we knew it we were saying our good byes and on to our next adventure.




Khao Sok National Park was next on our trip. Only a couple of hours away from Khao Lok, we headed straight there after the live aboard. The national park is a massive area that is quite famous for being home to the largest flower in the world, it is also home to countless endangered species, and Cheow Lan Lake, a popular karst limestone formations. The first day Melissa and I took a boat tour of the lake which included lunch at a floating guest house, and a jungle trek which led us through a cave. While returning to shore, a massive rain storm hit causing us to spend a while hiding in a cave on the lake. The provided transportation (a pick-up truck) drove us 45 minutes back to the guest house through the rain at a good 80 kph. But because 12 of us couldn't ride in the cab, 7 had the luxury and comfort of the back where we snuggled... I mean struggled to keep off the cold. The next day, after we warmed up, we hiked to the waterfalls in the park. Sevaral hours, 15km, 6 waterfalls, and a unit of blood loss (leeches) later, we concluded our hike and spent our last night in Khao Sok National Park. The Park was one of the most beautiful places I have ever been- the mountains and wildlife were absolutely amazing leeches included.