Khao Sok National Park

After so many days on the beach it was time to get away and do something different in Thailand. Rob was heading to Bangkok to catch his flight home so Ann and I decided to head to Khao Sok National Park. It is a rain forest kind of in the middle of the southern peninsula of Thailand. We arrived after some good travelling (only about 6 hours by boat and car) and got ready to head into the park.
I have never been in a rain forest before, but I must say it is pretty neat. The air is much cooler than the beach (due to lack of sunlight) but it is also much more humid. There is bamboo growing everywhere and now we both want to plant some bamboo at home (it is really quite pretty in the rain forest). There are also tons of butterflies and plant species. We were told that sometimes there are elephants walking around the park as well as monkey, tigers, and tons of other wildlife, but we only saw the butterflies and foliage (good enough for us).
We spent some time hiking around the rain forest (unfortunately many of the trails are closed from June 1 - December 1st due to the wet season and flash flooding and all of that) and got to see a waterfall and got to go swimming in the river. It was fast moving and much cooler than the other water we had been swimming in, but still quite refreshing. Unfortunately the water on the trails was not fast moving and leeches were a problem.
The first day I got a leech on my foot (inside my shoe and sock). It felt like my sock was bunched up on my left foot, but when I took my shoe off I found a blood stain on my sock and when I took my sock off the big bellied leech fell off of my foot. At least it was easy to get off and didn't hurt, but it did gorge itself on my blood (kind of creepy, but kind of fascinating as well). Needless to say I was a little paranoid about leeches after that, but no more decided to use me as a feeding trough.
The second day we floated down the river on inner tubes. This was really fun and we got to go over some mini rapids and got to see some monkeys fighting with each other. The float was about an hour and a half long and it was amazing to float down the river and look up at the jungle. We also floated past big limestone cliffs and the climber in me wanted to get out and hop on the wall (luckily I didn't). At one point we floated upon some younger Thai boys having fun on rope swing and our guide asked if we wanted to try. Ann wasn't really into it, but I said sure. It was fun to be on a rope swing again and I think I should definitely find one when I get home.
After the float we headed to the monkey temple where monkeys (and a lot of them) are used to humans and do not run at the first sight of them. They are all over the ground and in the trees. The humans that stop bring bananas and feed them so they are not really all that aggressive (as long as you don't get too close) and will pose for photos. There were monkeys of all ages from. The old and wise looking ones just sat in the trees and ate their bananas while the younger ones run up and down the vines chasing each other. We even saw a mom with a baby sitting in the trees. It was a pretty cool experience and it was fun to see them all kind of laid back and catching the bananas that our guide was throwing to them.
Since many of the trails were closed and we didn't want to just hang out Ann and I decided to head out of Khao Sok and head back to the beach. It is now onto another island called Koh Pha Ngan. There is more snorkeling, diving, hiking and swimming to be done there so it should be pretty intresting.

Pictures:
1- Looking at part of the rain forest from the road to our guesthouse.
2- A "bridge" that we had to cross on our way out into the forest.
3- A picture from where we stopped to swim on the second day.
4- A picture from floating down the river.
5- The monkey mama and the baby (kind of dark, but the thing she is hugging on her belly is actually a little baby monkey).