Khao Sok

Being back on dry land has left us a bit discombobulated, so we decided on a slow reacquaintance with stable accom and booked a night in a floating bungalow in Khao Sok National Park on the Ratchaprapha Lake.

We narrowly avoided missing our transfer after our dive trip thanks to the chaotic driving of a hastily negotiated taxi. Our driver, demurely veiled, insisted she both loved the English and that if an Englishman who had promised to marry her abandoned her she would ‘box him.’ Chelsea agreed this seemed fair. She handed out dainty chiffon cakes while careering across the twilit roads and we made it to our transfer location slightly late, but still a minute ahead of the shuttle.

Trips to the floating bungalows are bookended by a stay in Khao Sok town itself, which heaves with daytrippers between 3pm and 9am as sweaty tourists are shuttled to and from the pier. Once at the bungalows we had an afternoon messing about in the water with Molly and Jack, newly met friends from London, and Jack and Dan demonstrated that you *can* do a forward flip into the lake after three large Changs, but you must do a funny little run beforehand (see video).

The lake itself is man-made. In the late 80s the Thai government built a dam to generate hydropower for the as yet undeveloped southern Thailand, and today the dam hosts gorgeous floating bungalows and eerie trees amid the island tops of what used to be mountains.

At what point does a mountain become an island? This was one of many lofty questions we hazily contemplated as we finished off our hash brownie supply. Chelsea went for a kayak and came up on the lake, which was a *time*.

Returned to Khao Sok village for a catch up with Jess and Jason in the UK, who we'll cross paths with in Vietnam in May. It’s great being on the road and meeting new people, but the prospect of a few days with close friends is like a conversational oasis in a desert of ‘so where are you from?’ smalltalk.

Before leaving on our next transport leg, Chelsea indulged in an absolutely enormous paradise crepe (a crepe filled with watermelon, mango, pineapple and banana), and accidentally sprayed maple syrup on her hands and shorts. We're posting this from the bus, onto which we were ushered quickly (and sticky-ly) to make our way to the east coast of Thailand. We're booking less than a week in advance at the moment, and the results have been a mixed bag: we won’t actually have berths on the overnight train next week because we didn’t book soon enough, but the flexibility is often worth it to allow us to stay longer in great places. More island time coming up!Läs mer