Things change quickly, especially in Asia. So did Khao Sok. When I came here for the first time back in 1999 there were about 6 bungalow places and there wasn't even a paved road. Travellers used to come by public bus. Nowadays most people come with organized tours by minibus from Phuket, Pha Nga, Surat Thani or Krabi, there is more than 30 places to stay, the road has been paved of course and there are 3 mini marts. Some changes are quite useful; like there is an ATM now so one doesn't need to waste half a day to go to Takua Pa (40km) to get some money. I asked my host Praiwan about Internet and she told me I could use her wifi- quite comfortable! As for the speed I was pretty surprised : no highspeed Internet but fast enough to upload videos.
Luckily there is no 7/11 yet and they closed the Karaoke bar again that had been opened a couple of years ago. People still come here to enjoy nature's beauty and not to party. You'll find less English people here;)
People and nature are still the same- that's why I keep coming back. By the way, the pin on the map is wrong, it's not in Pha Nga province but still in Surat Thani province.
I walked up and down a few places and talked with some of my Thai friends. Most people know me very well there, not all know my name but everyone knows my face. Altogether I spent about 7 months in Khao Sok, most tourists just stay for 2 or 3 nights when they are on their way from one coast to another.
I just talked to some tourists at the bungalows when a truck came from the bus stop to drop off some more tourists. It turned loud now as it was my friend Basti- the one living in Vietnam- and his wife Claudine. We didn't see each other for about 2 years. It was a great joy to meet them again now. My girlfriend and Claudine got along wvery well instantly. Claudine is from the Ivory coast . She speaks French and had learnt perfect German in the past years. Now she has to learn a new language again- at least English is easier. She has a very charming way and I think that's why the girls got along so well.
Basti and me had a beer. I had to do a recovery on my netbook, which is annoying anyway but being on a travel it is a pain in the ass. Luckily I had saved all my files on a memory stick too!
Later we decided to go for a small hike. They wanted to go to the water hole. It's a short way but there is no proper trail. For me being handicapped it was quite a challenge- in fact without my friends I couldnt have done it.Finally we made it to the water hole and I was sweating all over. It was obvious for me that I couldn't make this way back, I can't swim neither but I would have prefered crossing the river to going back. I had an idea- just across the river opposite the water hole there was a resort. I asked Basti if he could borrow some tubes there.The people over there knew me too and they gave us a canoe, so Basti helped us across the river one by one. We returned the canoe and had dinner at the Thai herb restaurant on our way back
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