welcome to the jungle...

WE MADE IT! We are finally on Koh Samui, an island off the coast of eastern Thailand in the Gulf of Thailand. It is GORGEOUS here and the weather is ideal for laying out on the beach and enjoying a tasty pina colada. It is such a relief to be here, as the past few days have been a bit bumpy for us.... but funny now that we are able to look back on it.... so without further adieu --



We left Bangkok on Thursday night, drained and ready to leave the city behind. Julie and I have decided that we really dislike Bangkok, and were more than happy to get out of there. Our first destination: Khao Sok National Park, the oldest rainforest ecosystem in the world. We were excited for this part of our adventure, a little hiking and exploring the jungle? Sounded like a walk in the park for us Utahns who are used to hiking the Rocky Mountains. HA. haha. We were in for a treat. We arrived at our lovely riverside lodge on Friday afternoon, and we were beat. We decided to relax on our balcony outside our room, and left the windows and doors open to allow some air flow through. We've noticed that the weather is much more tropical down here -- much more humid and sticky than up north, which we thought was bad. So it's been a bit of an adjustment. After sitting outside reading our books for about half hour, we heard a loud crash from inside our room and we both jumped up to see a monkey in the rafters above our beds with my face wash in his mouth!!! We both freaked and he ran out the window, WITH my face wash. We quickly shut all the doors and windows, and ran out front, only to be greeted by about 15 of his friends.... all sitting and waiting for us. Maybe they thought we had food? But they were a bunch of cheeky little rascals... they tried to get back in our room! We shut the door just as one was reaching his hand in, and we collapsed on the floor in a fit of laughter. We really could not believe this was happening. Then the monkey started banging on the door! Really?? We couldn't help but laugh and scream at the same time. Eventually they all dispersed, when they realized we weren't coming out, and they weren't coming in. It took about 25 minutes for them all to leave, and I finally ventured out to find my stolen face wash. I thought it was lost forever, until I found it off on the ground about 50 feet behind our room. Complete with bite marks. Hilarious. We decided to leave our room and head to the lodge, where we joined some of our group members on the veranda overlooking the river for some drinks. It was quite peaceful, aside from the screeching cicadas lounging in the nearby trees... and then the rain came. We were pleasantly greeted by a pouring rainstorm, and we enjoyed watching the water stream down off the side of the roof. I love rainstorms, especially when it's still 80 degrees outside! After it finished, we met for dinner and celebrated Fredericke's 30th birthday. It was a fun, relaxing evening.

As if the encounter with the monkeys wasn't enough of a jungle experience, our day in the park yesterday definitely brought us face-to-face with the jungle. Julie, James, Joe and I all decided to take on a hike to one of the waterfalls within the national park. We looked on the trail map and it sayed 4km, so we figured the walk would take us about an hour round trip. We followed the old, decrepit cement stairs back a ways into the jungle, and then we knew we were really in for a treat -- the trail soon became a muddy, narrow path through the vines and over tree roots up and down the side of the mountain. I don't think Thais know how to measure trails properly either... we were about an hour into our trek, and no river in sight. We were that far in, though, so we decided to keep going. A bit further along, we looked down at our feet... Julie and I had about 3-5 leeches on each of our shoes, and they were making their way up to our legs! No joke this time -- they were legitimate leeches. We freaked... the guys then looked down at their legs and they actually had a few... attached. It was awful. We then realized that the foilage we were walking through was crawling with them. But... being the fearless "youngsters" that we are, we kept on going... we were determined to get to the blasted waterfall that had brought us this far. Finally, after 2.5 hours of trekking through the jungle and fighting off the leeches, we made it. It wasn't anything spectacular, but we were also a bit exhausted from the journey. So we took a few photos and booked it back to civilization. We didn't even care to really check for leeches... okay, so we did, but we were determined to get back... and we made it in about an hour and a half. Overall, the "4km" hike was probably closer to 10km... no lie. We were beat, and we were ready to get out of that blasted park... we treated ourselves to delicious fresh fruit shakes (and did a final leech check) before heading back to our hotel. We collapsed onto our rock-hard beds, and I didn't even care... it was so nice to be back. Julie and I have not really had the feeling yet that we were ready to leave a place we were in, until we reached Khao Sok. When we boarded our songthaew taxi this morning (at 5:15 even) we were almost overjoyed to get out of that place! Looking back, it really was a beautiful place, and I wish I could have appreciated it more... but the wildlife kinda got the best of us. At least we're laughing a bit about it now :)

Well, we have to get going to meet our group for a show tonight... we're in Hat Chaweng on the island of Koh Samui... I'll write more about this island paradise that we're enjoying when I have more time. The beach today couldn't have come at a more perfect time... seriously... can't wait for my pina colada tomorrow that will be served in a pineapple :) Until next time, cheur gun mai!