The Monty Pythons on the Beach

The ferry drops us on Ko Tarutao, an island in a national park in the far south of Thailand.

A long deserted jetty in the middle of a stunning bay; turquoise waters littered with limestones outcrop, small fishing boats...

A National Park ranger tells us that a truck will come soon to take us to the camp on the other side of the island.

So we sit and watch...the fishing eagles with their beautiful brown and white bellies, the other birds (I'm only good at recognising the eagle...but there was beautiful other birds...), the wind the water, those fascinating sheer rocks covered with lush vegetation...

Peaceful!

Ko Tarutao, Aoh Taloh Wow (the "wow" is actually in the name, but reflects also my opinion!!! )

The truck picks us up and takes us to the other side of the island thru dense jungle, on a very small winding road. the horn of the trucks, which he plays in every bend, make undred of brids fly away...I especially see a beautiful kind of "paradise bird" (Romain doesn't believe me as it is only in Papua that we can find those birds, but they are indeed "Asia Paradise Bird", not so colourful, but with a beatiful trailing tail).

I start dreaming of a beautiful deserted beach, with turquoise waters and jungle clad outcrops...but my dream fades away when we arrive at the camp; about 20 bungalows and 15 tents on the beach front, and hundreds of noisy young thai in "end of year outing trip".

Not a deserted beach, but not too bad either!!!...Better than work anyway!

Luckily for us, the Thai don't really like outings where you have to walk more than 1/2hour...so we can hide from the crowds by doing some longer trips...we see heaps of monkeys (macaques, gibbons and Langurs) and even...A PYTHON, digesting in the mud of a dry river bed.

Our friend Python...after seeing that we came quite weary of the noises of the jungle...and the feeling to be watched from the top of the trees...brrrr

Another outing, which started like an "easy touristic visit of a cave" organised by one of the park rangers, became a game of "survivor", when we had to float thru the cave on a derelict pontoon, going thru bowells where we had to push off the walls of the cave, while avoiding the numerous stalagtites with our heads, pods of bats hanging from the ceiling, little furry balls wrapped in their wings...flying with a cry if we came too close...and finally a walk in the dark on slippery rocks...

The cave was worth it; stalagtites and stalamites jade green or shining white under our lights, ondulating curtains of rock, columns, thousands year olds scultures...

Throught Crocodile cave on a pontoon; our german neighbour wasn't too confortable with the outlook of the situation

We also met a couple of polish friends, who bravely followed us in our adventures...

We learned more in 3 days on the polish culture than on the Thai culture, laughed and drank a lot...and we now have an incentive to add a stop in Varsaw in our trip!

Nasdrovie Monica and Bartus!

07:13 - 10/03/2007 - Ajouter un commentaire