Ruby in the Sky

In between the emptiness of Phuket Town and the hustle and bustle of Patong Beach, I managed to escape to my go-to favourite: nature. Cities you have to vibe with, but nature never disappoints, at least in my experience. And so it was here: in Khao Sok.

Khao Sok National Park is listed on the Lonely Planet’s “Ultimate Travelist: the 500 best places to visit on the planet”. I wouldn’t be able to tell you at what number it comes in, but I can tell you what I thought of it: it was absolutely stunning.

People often fawn over the limestone mountains and rock formations scattered all along the lake, and I will not dispute their beauty, but I also want to do credit to the village of Khao Sok itself. As soon as I arrived, I felt at peace. It reminded me a bit of Springdale, Utah, the village at the entrance of Zion National Park: pretty much just one street, with a host of restaurants, cafes and hotels alongside it. Walk around the place for 15 minutes, and you’ve seen it all. But despite its size, it packs a punch. Only one street, surrounded by the happy and welcoming lights of dozens of restaurants. Birds twittering in a variety of languages across the sky. The rustle of the leaves in the breeze, and a river flowing through, giving the most calming sounds and a beautiful look into the jungle all around you.

I had my own little bungalow, with a little terrace out front, lots of light and a big bed surrounded by a fluffy white mosquito net (who says functionality can’t be aesthetically pleasing?) It was my private little paradise. After pretty much a full day hiding out in this blissful place with some Youtube, Netflix and the occasionally writing, it was time to get out there and make sure I would do something useful with my time in this beautiful environment – so I booked a one day lake tour, starting at 9 the following morning.

At 8.30 I was pretty much ready to go, nervous as I get to miss my bus. My bus was late. But not too much later, I was on my way to another entrance of the park, about an hour from the town. Once we got here and paid for our tickets, it was time to get on a boat. For what they said was about 45 minutes they took us across the lake, stopping at a few rock formations, but mostly cruising through the beautiful cliffs and luscious jungle, until we got to the restaurant where we would be having lunch. Here we dropped of the few who didn’t want to walk, after which we went on to another shore. We got off the boat and on the trail, stopping occasionally so our guide could point out tarantula holes to us. You know, the usual. I also spotted a growing pineapple and a durain before we found ourselves on the other side of the hill (or whatever it was we were walking).

Here we got onto another boat, or rather a raft, which took us to a rather steep set of “steps” (rocks you could sort of walk up on with some railings by the side). After climbing up and a little bit down again, we arrived at the entrance of a cave. Inside this cave, the dripping from from the rocks had formed all kinds of curious shapes, which you could imagine to be anything. With a big light, our guide pointed out some of them and lit our photo-ops, and we walked around like this for a little while before returning down the “stairs”, on the raft and through the jungle, back to the floating restaurant.

We had some lunch and after that some time to do as we pleased. I dipped my toes in the water and basked in the sun, and felt absolutely relaxed. The way back was like a child returning from the beach: sleepy and satisfied. A perfect way to end my time in Khao Sok. The next morning, it was time to go. I walked to the bus stop, waited for a few hours for my bus to come, and for 310 baht made my way from the peace and beauty of Khao Sok to Patong Beach (about which you will have read in last week’s post). It goes to show: travel is all about ups and downs…