Khao Sok

Liddy
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We are just back from four days in the jungle, in Khao Sok National Park. It's one of Thailand's largest and home to (allegedly) a wide variety of different wildlife and birds. I can confirm a plethora of leeches and wild elephants, though the latter only because I came across a steaming pile of fresh elephant turd, so I'm not sure if that counts. On the leech front, Mike totally freaked out and wouldn't sit on a rock for a picnic by the river just in case he had a Stand By Me moment (for those of you who haven't seen the movie, the boy gets a leech in the one place that a boy would probably prefer not to get one). Wuss. Meg and me were much more hardy, which was a good job too as we both got them on our toes.

The park itself is gorgeous and we spent three days there, exploring on foot, by boat and by kayak. (Uncle) Alistair is a keen twitcher so we all kept our eyes peeled trying to spot various different species but with only limited success - partly because the jungle is so dense that it is difficult to see anything that is more than a metre or so away, and partly because four young children trying to be quiet are generally anything but. Sam got up close and personal with a monkey one day, when it decided to join him on our bungalow balcony - the rest of us were inside when he let out an almighty scream of terror which brought nervous parents running but which didn't faze the monkey one little bit; he just sat there looking on with interest.

Tomorrow we are off to the beach again before heading off to the Islands to meet the rest of the family for Christmas.