Boats and Bungalows

This morning, we packed up, prepared to leave our park entrance community and move to a small group of bungalows floating on a lake somewhere in the Khao Sok National Park.  We had one small hitch, though.  All the people we have met have told us that it is easier to go with a group tour instead of making our own way to the lake without a guide.  It was ten o’clock in the morning and we still did not know who would drive us to the lake and what exactly the bungalows would be like.  During breakfast, one of the resort staff offered to set up a ride to the lake where would catch a long boat to our floating resort.  After a long drive, we showed up at a small dock looking over a vast lake with no bungalows in sight.  That’s when we knew it would be a long boat ride.


To get to our floating bungalows, we took a long tail boat for about an hour through the immense beauty of the lake and the threatening rain.  The boat was long and wooden and our driver sat in the back controlling an old and rusty motor.  For a long portion of the ride, we saw only some very large islands, but mostly just open lake.  Soon though, the land scape changed.  All around us were huge pillars and islands, ranging in size, made out of karst formations.  Karst is a type of limestone formed by certain minerals in the water.  On top of the amazing rocks, we saw dense jungle vegetation; vines, huge trees, bushes, ferns, palms, moss, and other tropical plants.  We also saw some islands not made up of karst formation with a lot more of the same vegetation.  Suddenly our view was interrupted by a line of floating, small buildings growing bigger on the horizon. 

What we were seeing were bungalows, but each one was floating on the lake!  A line of bamboo bungalows connected two islands.  The bungalow resort is spectacular!  A rustic wooden walkway runs in front of the bungalows and the slightly bigger floating reception area.  Behind the reception are several other bungalows not connected to the long walkway.  We assume that this is where the staff sleeps.  We checked into our bungalow with smiles of amazement.  In the room there were two large mattresses on the floor and a window looking out over the lake.  The rooms are super cozy and I see staying a lot more days here than we expect. 

After settling in, Dad and I took a kayak out to some unexplored islands near the resort.  We ventured out to a medium sized island with no karst formation and extremely dense vegetation.   We were able to slip out onto a nasty, muddy, tiny beach and make a plan of what to do next.  I thought it would be cool to build a fort on the island and come back tomorrow to the same place.  However, the island had a steep slope going upwards blocked by plants coming up to my chest.  I thought if we could make a path going up to the top of the island, we could build the fort there.  I grabbed my paddle and padded down, pushed away, and broke, all sorts of plants to form a path going only two meters into the island.  We decided that we should come back to the path project later, and now explore another island.  This one had no trees and mostly had flowers and grass.  It was also a lot smaller than the first island. 

Soon we had to come back to the bungalow to do some work and finish the day.  Tomorrow, I would like to go back to the first island to do some more work on the path.  For tonight, we will have a yummy dinner and a good night’s rest.

Thank you for reading Rohan geographic!