So, another good night's sleep, breakfast gong at 7.30n to wake us up (lovely way to wake up!) and our last breakfast and so our last taste of the amazing bread they have at breakfast time!
We met up with Nong at 9.15 (extra 15mins today to get our stuff packed). Today we had a jungle walk through the forest. We were each given a bamboo walking stick and we walked down to the river which we crossed by canoe and into the thick forest.
It was only a 0.67 mile walk, but it took us 1.5hrs, it was mega hot, raining, and steep. Also there were some young children who basically had to get carried everywhere. We learned about butters roots - wide to keep trees upright (but can easily fall over in the wind), banana plants - every bit of a banana plant is useful: you can eat the fruit and flower, you can use the leaves in cookery or as roofing. I'm sure Nong told us about some other plants as well.
We heard plenty of wildlife but didn't see any, although we were pretty sure we were being watched!
We ended at a hut, where we were given a cooking demonstration - coconut curry soup and Thai scrambled eggs. I went to the top of the class as I knew all the cooking ingredients: Kaffir lime leaves, turmeric, galangal, chilli, garlic and onion (everyone did know garlic and onion). They made the soup the proper way by hacking open a coconut, grating it and squeezing it with water etc. They then heated up the coconut milk and then added the spices and chicken - they didn't fry the spices or chicken first which I thought strange.
At this point - I was seeing stars, I had overheated and couldn't cool down, even though I was sweating profusely. I kept having to kneel down to try to stop the flashing lights. It worked but then every time I stood up again the flashing lights came back. Not a great situation! Luckily I spotted some water in the corner, and refilled my water bottle and remembering a trick from Israel, poured some cold water on my hat and put it on my head - it was instant relief! I stopped sweating and, calmed down, the flashing lights disappeared and I could join in. Phew! Guess I wouldn't be a great jungle explorer!
So we all had some roast monkey (pork), soup and eggs with rice and it was very lovely.
We then walked back a much shorter way to the canoes and the camp (I don't think we ever got that far from the camp - the forest is so thick that you can't see more than a meter or two! We jumped in the shower, packed up and left our suitcases for the porters to pick up (very posh) and went up to the dinning room to say thank you to Nong - she was a perfect guide, full of fun, knowledge and a very good and calm manner.
We then were shown our vehicle (air conditioned - yay) for our transfer to Khao Lak and away we went.
The transfer took 1hr 15mins, along lots of back roads - so a pleasant ride. We checked into the hotel - which was massive. Our room is super massive - Tom has his own big room off ours and is delighted. There are lots of pools, and it looks out on the beach. The rooms are wonderfully air conditioned too and our bed is massive. Think we will be ok here.
We went straight out to buy some cold drinks, bit of a hiccup - we had both seen a mini mart from the taxi on the way in, but on looking again, we couldn't find it. Of course it was about 3pm so steaming hot in the direct sunlight. We gave up, walked back, bought our goodies from another shop and then when we were almost back at the hotel, we found the mini mart - argggggggggh.
We had drinks and then explored all the pools. Some of them are long and thin and the basement rooms have their own patio on them, they link together around bars, under bridges etc etc. There are some jacuzzi areas too. We found a second set of pools - the water in them was hotter - a bit like a spa - not sure `I would like that in this weather - you need refreshing water not hot water!
We ended up in the main pool just by the beach. There was a bar in this pool and next door a huge restaurant where breakfast is served. The beach is a lovely orange sandy colour, but the waves quite big. Not for swimming in, but for paddling only I think.
Anyway, it was an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.
Before heading for tea, we decided we would find a bar for a drink - we found one called Moose Bar with a huge Mousse's head outside - perfect! Tom and I were on mocktails whilst Matt had a beer and we played cribbage and found out about a new sport: Florentine Football, basically a huge boxing match with a football!
We then found a restaurant for tea - where Tom had a carbonara pizza - interesting and a little too rich, I had tamarind pork and Matt a big bowl of curry. All good. We couldn't wait for bed!
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