Thailand!

We have made it safe and sound to Thailand!  As with every new country there is a bit of a learning curve, Thailand's learning curve involved getting to know the heat factor of their chilies. In Malaysia two chilies in our meal gave us just the right amount of fire, so at our first Thai meal when asked if one chili would be alright we thought little of it and agreed...these were not the same chilies.  I hate the thought of wasting food and managed to finish my plate but not without going through a pile of napkins, copious amounts of water and sweat dripping from my face (pretty image I know).  Lesson learned.

With in three days of being in Thailand we encountered two of my favorite misunderstood animals, sharks and bats.  On Ko Phi Phi, a gorgeous island, we took a snorkel trip out to 'shark point' and dove in looking for the black tipped reef sharks. Lucky us we saw several, a good number of big guys that sleekly swam away if we got too close and then a little guy (maybe 1.5 meters) got curious and circled me and Colin, he got so close we could have touched him and right before taking his leave he stopped to get one last good look at us!

After Phi Phi we headed to the smaller and quieter destination of Railey Beach where jagged cliffs plummet into the ocean.  These cliffs and peaks are also home to caves which is were we found our bats.  We could smell them before we saw them, but the stink was worth it to get a relatively close up look at these creatures dangling form the cave ceilings.  Other than ogling at bats most visitors come to Railey to rock climb, we are not apt rock climbers but had a great time chilling in the sand watching them dangle from high above.

 From the white sand beaches we made our way inland to the jungles of Khao Sok National Park.  Now the jungle this time of year is a little soggy.  We got a great little bare bones tree house right in the jungle but with the socked in rain the jungle was not really ready to explore so we settled in for the afternoon with a bottle of wine and a couple of books and watched as lizards and birds tried to navigate the down pour.  Lucky the next morning the rain cleared and we headed out for a 6km jungle walk. At first I spent most of my time hoping to spot an elephant but quickly our walk turned into "leech watch!".  Loving the rainy conditions the jungle floor is literally crawling with leeches and not the kind we have at home that you pick off, no these guys chase you down and hold on for dear life.  As we entered the jungle another hiker was leaving with his shins covered in blood, another hotel guest said he was checking out early because he was fed up with all the leeches, we soon found out why.  Armed with a lighter we trekked lightly but managed to attract a good 30 of these bad boys who move way to fast for my liking. I wish I could tell you that when I found one crawling up my leg I calmly detached them using the lighter and carried on, unfortunately in reality I came running to Colin yelling  "Leech! Leech! Leech! Get it off! Colin, GET IT OFF!" .  Needless to say any chance of seeing wildlife from this point on was out the window....

R

Thailand is hot....how hot is it?! so hot they let their cats cool off in the refrigerator!