On Friday we decided to take another trip outside of Bangkok to visit the Damnern Saduak floating markets.  Whilst many of the products sold are the same as most of the tourist shops and markets across Thailand, the way in which they are sold at the floating markets was quite unique and a fantastic opportunity to experience.

Each seller has a boat filled with food, wood carvings, t-shirts, or a variety of other tourist focused items.  As our boat was paddled through the markets, we constantly collided with others boats, were (literally) hooked and pulled in by keen sellers and rocked side to side by the wake of long boats travelling down the same canals.  Whilst I do not think the boats roll over very often it did not feel completely safe, particularly when we had to rearrange our seating order because the weight of the passengers was causing one edge of the boat to ride dangerously low to the water.

Khao Sok is also home to the tamest collection of ‘wild’ monkeys I have ever seen!  The monkeys do actually like in their natural habitat, however, the Thais have built a walk way around it which has attracted so many visitors that the monkeys are now used to being fed bananas and entertaining the crowds.

Apparently there are about 300 monkeys living on the edge of the mountain on which the walk way has been constructed.  They only come down when they are hungry, so the amount of monkeys you see depends on how many visitors have been each day.

It was amazing to see the little monkeys take an unpeeled banana out of our hands, peel it, chuck the skin away and chew on the banana like it was a corn on the cob.  It was initially a little scary to be surrounded by monkeys, especially when thoughts of the ‘Outbreak’ movie popped in to my head, however they were very friendly and the only thing they were interested in biting were our (slightly mouldy) bananas.

I got some fantastic video of Ali feeding monkeys, including some tiny babies who could not even carry the banana unless we broke it in half.  Very cute   I will upload the videos when I get home, but for now here are some ‘aaaw’ photos for you…

This another Thailand post which I am moving from my old blog (from Jan 2009)…

In the Khao Sok jungle on Monday, after lunch, we had the fantastic opportunity to take part in a 1.5 hour jungle trek, on the back of an elephant!  I have never even touched an elephant before, so sitting on the back of one with a Thai ‘driver’ sat in front of me was a pretty exciting experience.

We were taken on the trek by the Elephant Hills elephant school, which looks after the elephants, runs guided tours through the jungle and provides food for visiting tourists.  The school is literally in the middle of nowhere and consists of a collection of small huts where the staff live, a ‘restaurant’ where the tourist food is cooked and the elephant living area where the animals live whist they wait to be ridden.

The school had a special mounting platform which was used to get everyone in to the seats, so getting on their backs was as easy as getting on a ride at the fun fair.

The trek itself was amazing.  We did not see any other animals, however, we wondered through some amazing scenery in a convoy of elephants.  Our particular elephant must have been very hungry as he stopped for food every 5 minutes, however it was funny to watch the driver unsuccessfully struggling with it and trying to get it to stroll forward.

After a nice round trip we arrived back at the elephant school where we given a bowl of (slightly rotten) fruit to feed to the elephants.  It was great fun to have a banana sucked out of our hands by which ever trunk managed to reach it first!

Phi Phi Island is the most beautiful island I have been to, but also PARTY central! Here are some video highlights from our Phi Phi trip…

Well that’s it I am afraid   We’re sitting in the lounge waiting until 8pm to get a car to the airport.  Ali is hung over and sleeping, so I’m just finishing off the blog whilst she sleeps.  It’s been an amazing trip!  I’m sad that it’s over   I’ve got plenty more video and photos to sort out when I get back, but I hope you have enjoyed everything I have posted to the blog.

See you all soon!

  We have been in the jungle for the past couple of days, so this is the first chance I have had to get online.

We left the hotel at 7am and arrived in Khao Sok at about 11am.  The first activity was a 1.5 hour canoeing trip down the river, through the Khao Sok jungle.  Thankfully we had a guide doing the paddling, so all we had to do was relax

It was amazing to see Jurassic Park type scenery (minus the dinosaurs) as we were paddled along in the sun.  The guide spoke limited English, but did manage to point out a few things along the way.

The Thai safety standards are less strict than the U.K.  We were handed a life jacket which we put on, however 2 minutes in to the trip the guide told us that we were be more comfortable if we took them off and used them as seats

`We stopped half way through and the guide pulled out a little kettle, lit a fire and boiled some water for tea and coffee.    After the break, we then carried on down the river, dodged trees which had fallen down, paddled past fishing nets made of bamboo and continuously tried to guess what our guide was pointing out.

At one point, we stopped under a tree and our guide got very excited about something sitting on the branch.  Even though he was pointing it out with the paddle, it took us ages to actually spot.  When we finally did, we thought it was a birds nest.  I decided to zoom in and take a photo, this was the result…

Last night we were having dinner with some of the other people on the tour and they mentioned the snake in the trees which their guide had pointed out, it was only then that we realised the photo above is actually of a snake!  I still have no idea what our guide was saying and what made us think it was a bird’s nest!

I managed to get some great video from the canoe trip, however since my blogging time is limited to the time it takes Ali to have a shower, I’ll have to sort it all out when I get home.

Another interesting photo to share is the one below.  Here you can see one of the many trees on the bank of the river which are surviving perfectly well, despite the fact that the varying water heights have caused the earth to be eroded so that half of the tree roots are exposed…

After the trip, we were treated to a home cooked Thai lunch.  The food was LOVELY!  Prawn Crackers, fried chicken, chicken and cashew nuts, fried mixed vegetables, sweet and sour chicken, massamam curry and steamed rice. 

And afterwards, no food went to waste!  Well actually it did, however, the cats ate the waste!…

Today was a bit of a bonus day, since we managed to arrive earlier than expected, and therefore get up at a reasonable time this morning to actually be able to do something during the day.

So we’re staying at the Sugar Palm Resort, Kata Beach, Phuket. 

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The hotel is very modern, with a very funky pool/spa/reception area.  Unfortunately we do not have a room with a pool view (they cost more), but if we were staying in Phuket longer it would be worth the upgrade.  Breakfast is served in an outdoor covered area, right next to a fake rock waterfall, which is very chilled out and refreshing in the morning.  This morning we had a combination of traditional English cooked breakfast and egg friend noodles – interesting mix!

Today we decided to simply explore Kata beach a little and see what’s around.  At the southern end of Kata beach we stopped for a cocktail and I snapped a couple of photos of a cool little reggae bar, and a collection of long boats waiting for customers….

After reaching the southern tip of Kata beach, we decided to walk all of the way down the other end, and follow the road on to Karon beach which is further north.  During the walk, we accidentally found a interesting place which looked like something straight out of the Flintstones movie!  We decided to pop in for lunch. 

We were really surprised to walk in and find a garden with a waterfall, rock looking (fibre glass) tables and chairs and a dinosaur skull!

We again had Thai food – chicken curry and chicken and noodles.  The food was lovely, although we did start to get the feeling that we may be sick of Thai food before we even reach Phi Phi island!

After lunch we had a walk around the gardens and snapped a couple of photos…

As we were about to leave, Ali then noticed that there was also a crazy golf course landscaped in to the prehistoric theme, so we thought we would have a game   There were 18 holes and the course was really well designed with bridges, streams, tunnels, caves and lots more to make each hole unique.

Finally we walked to Karon beach, had a drink and I managed to snap one last great shot of a bird sitting on a nearby tree branch…

We are now back at the hotel where Ali is now having a shower and washing her hair, so I’m blogging whilst I wait for her to finish

Tomorrow we are being picked up at 7am and will be spending two days in the jungle (staying over night in an earth lodge), so the only blogging I will be doing will be from my phone.

Wednesday we will be getting a boat over to Phi Phi island, where the partying will start!

We arrived in Phuket last night after managing to catch an earlier flight than expected from Bangkok.  Last night we had dinner in a restaurant next to the hotel called Mali, where we ate our first Thai ‘Thai food’.  We shared two dishes – chicken and cashew nuts and a chicken green curry, both were very nice.  We also tried out a couple of (not so Thai cocktails).

After dinner we wondered down to the beach and quickly found a bar/restaurant which was recommended to us called ‘Mom Tri’s Boathouse Wine and Grill’.  This place is amazing!  It’s right on the beach, is decorated to look like a retired boathouse and has perfectly positioned sofas where you can sip wine and watch the waves crash in – so that’s exactly what did!

We are going back there for dinner tonight!