It's Asia - Chieow Laan Lake Edition

From Krabi we were personally escorted via minibus 1.5 hours away to Chieow Laan Lake, part of the Khao Sok National Park in Khao Sok, Thailand.  Then we took a 45-minute boat ride on the lake...

...in order to get to our accommodations for the next 2 days and 1 night, our very own floating rafthouse... 

There was a group of older raft houses, very basic, and there was a group of newer raft houses with rooms that rival some hotels.  At first we were sad that we would be staying in the newer raft houses because we wanted a kind of back-to-nature experience.  However, after being told that customers in the past complained of rats, mosquitoes, and valuables falling through the floor of the old raft houses we realized that the newer ones would be plenty of a back-to-nature experience for us.  (Our raft house was the third one on the right.)

This was the view from inside our raft house.  I don't think I need to say anything about that.  I forgot to take a picture of it, but you could also see through the floor of the house into the water, which seemed to glow a bright bluish green when the sun was shining, and if you were lucky enough you could possibly even see a fish swimming by.

If you look closely, you can see big blue drums underneath the boardwalk.  These are what kept the newly built area afloat.  The old area was supported by planks of wood and bamboo.

We were also taken on a guided jungle walk, the coolest part of which was our tour guide teasing scorpions and tarantulas out of holes in the side of the hills.  This one was a tarantula....

We even saw more macaque monkeys--in the wild this time.

The crazy thing about this lake is that it was all the result of a dam built in Khao Sok.  At first, knowing that the beautiful lake wasn't natural kind of took away from the splendor of the whole experience.  But the lake has made it possible to discover things like this....

This was a cave that no one knew about until roughly 10 years ago thanks to the dam and lake.  It was absolutely pitch black in there and had some pretty awesome formations (and sorry, but the flash on my camera is terrible, so that's the best in-cave pic I took).

From swimming 10 feet from our hotel room, to the scenic views and the sounds of gibbon in the jungle, it was an experience that we'll never forget.  And to make sure that I never do, I made sure to take a pic of my new all-time favorite reading spot....

Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh, vacation.






 

It's Asia - Krabi Edition

OK, I promise that these travel posts are not meant to make you jealous.  I just want you to get the chance to learn a little more about some places and cultures that you might not ever be able to visit or experience.

But this post might be tough for those jealous types, and here's why.....

This was just one of the views we got to see everyday for 6 straight days in the beautiful Krabi, Thailand.  That picture was taken from Ao Nang Beach, just a simple 10-minute walk from our hotel.  

One of our 6 days in Krabi included a nice, day-long snorkeling trip to the nearby Hong Islands...

...which included this lagoon, with knee-high water and starfish....

The snorkeling itself was amazing, the best part of which were the Clown Fish and Sea Urchins (with spikes about a foot long!).  If you're a little jealous, don't worry, we were also stung by tiny jellyfish.

On a different day we rented a kayak and kayaked (noun and a verb?) around for a couple of hours...

Even with all of the beautiful views, by far the best part of Krabi (for a couple of animal-lovers) was/were the 40-some monkeys that would roam around and play on the far end of the beach every night before sunset...

The town of Krabi is a pretty laid-back place, but very touristy.  Almost every street was lined with shops or restaurants or street food vendors.  Normally I don't like touristy towns, but this was actually a good touristy....the prices seemed pretty decent, the people weren't pushy, and the fact that there were a lot of tourists didn't seem to ruin the views.

And speaking of the street food, Heather and I discovered one of the greatest ingredients ever: sweetened condensed milk.  They put it in the fruit smoothies, on the pancakes, in the iced coffees...it changed our lives (or at least our diets) forever.  Get ready fam, 'cause everything Heather and Brock are gonna make from here on out is gonna be sweetened condensed milkified (and delicious).

So if you want to find a beautiful place to escape to at a very reasonable price, head on down to Krabi, Thailand, a place where (thanks to the numerous old men in speedos) even the pale-skinned redheads can feel good about themselves on the beach. :)