Swamp leeches! No one else got hit? What's the deal?

Today we made the arduous journey from Khao Sok to Koh Samui, a large resort island off of the Thai east coast. I won the bet for our arrival time, which was 2 pm (we were told it would be 12 pm, but we have grown all too accustomed to being lied to about travel times in this country). But we could not complain, since we had just completed a very enjoyable 3-day stay in the beautiful national park that is Khao Sok. Let me recap...

So we left Ao Nang beach on the west coast on the morning of September 23rd. We took a very memorable minibus ride to Krabi before heading to Khao Sok (I mean memorable in a bad way). As it turned out, the minibus driver was quite possibly the most miserable human being I've ever witnessed, and in Thailand, where everyone has generally been very kind, this came as a surprise. The man, about 300 lbs with a permanent grimace on his face, started by adamantly assigning each of us a seat and then forcefully shoving our bags on top of us. Then, despite the bus being seemingly full, we of course went on to go pick up some more passengers, consisting of three German girls. Here's where it gets funny--as there is no more room in the bus for the girls' luggage the man tosses their bags on the roof of the bus and takes off. Minutes later, when it is obvious that one of the bags is about to tumble into the road while we are driving, the man pulls over. He gets out, walks to the back of the bus, and pees on the side of the road. Then he uses his unwashed hands to violently re-situate the girls' bags so that they don't fall. The best part is, when he gets back into the bus to continue the 25 minute trip, he spends half of the time oggling the German girls that are crammed next to him. Yeah, this guy was quite the spectacle.

Luckily, we did not have to deal with him for the longer leg of the trip (~2.5 hours), and when we started getting close to Khao Sok we knew we'd made the right decision to stop there. The scenery was incredible--lush mountainous jungle as far as the eye could see. When we did arrive, we were dropped off at Smiley Bungalows, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, as this was much cheaper than our planned accomodation ($4.50 per person per night for a two bedroom house!). To sweeten the deal, we were allowed to take part in a free, three-stop tour as part of our first night's stay, visiting a base of a mountain to feed monkeys, a beautiful waterfall (pictured above), and a very nice viewpoint. The monkey feeding was much more eventful and entertaining than I had anticipated, as somehow it turned out to be monkey, dog, and rooster feeding. While I know monkey feeding is typically ill-advised, these guys were pretty tame (except for the one that bombarded me in the video below--yeah, Jess saved me), and it was a lot of fun watching the different species interact (my mom will be happy to hear that the dogs seemed to dominate). When we returned to our new home in the early evening we immediately took advantage of our house's huge deck with hammocks overlooking the jungle and had an early night in. We planned a jungle hike into the national park at the crack of dawn.

Despite the fact that the owner of Smiley Bungalows was an incredibly friendly and helpful hostess, she did give us some bad advice about proper jungle attire--bad advice that only Staci and I took. She told us that the jungle trails were wide and well kempt and that shorts and sandals would suffice. Being an avid Keen wearer, I opted for my lightweight, breathable footwear over the cumbersome hiking boots that Brian and Jessica decided to wear. Much to my dismay, I found out very quickly that leeches find my blood irresistable, and after the first hour of the hike my foot was beginning to look mangled (see pic below, if you dare). Also, the trails were anything but well-kempt, being very overgrown, extremely rugged, and poorly marked. Fortunately, none of the others (even Staci, who was also wearing Keen sandals) suffered the leech onslaught, which continued throughout our 6-hour hike, during which I had to yank off over a dozen of the little bloodsuckers (some weren't so little).

In spite of the blood loss and unexpected physical exertion, I have to say that the hike was worth it. We got to trek some very wild terrain and witness some wonderful natural sites in a pristine tropical rainforest, including the waterfall that we are all posing in front of below (this picture was taken just before a torrential downpour that contributed to our trail complications).

Following the hike, we again took advantage of the hammocks on the deck and all napped for several hours. Later that night, we returned home from dinner to find a resident inhabitant of our deck that we'd discovered the night before (pictured below). Look at the eyes on that thing!--definitely the coolest looking frog I've ever seen.

The next day we woke up early again and took part in a 2-hour guided canoe tour through the jungle. While the tour was not as eventful as I'd expected (and also full of sporadic rain), it was enjoyable, and we all got to see some native birds, snakes and frogs. Our last night was very uneventful, and we just played cards and crashed early--sometimes you need some downtime when you're putting in 40+ hours a week of exploration!

Fastforward to today: We have only just settled into Koh Samui, but things are already looking promising. This evening we got to witness some high-dollar fireworks on the beach, which consists of white sand and crystal-clear water. It actually reminds me of Playa del Carmen, Mexico, for those who have been. Needless to say, tomorrow we will have a long beach day!

Mike