Welcome to the Jungle

Don't get me wrong, I love beaches and ocean life but after three islands you really need a change of scenery. Lucky for us, on our way to our fourth beach we just happened to be driving through the second jungle on our trip. We jumped off our bus at Khao Sok ready to see how this would stack up to Taman Negara in Malaysia. Seconds after stepping off the bus we were surrounded by bungalow hawkers, we hastily jumped into the back of one of the guy's trucks to see his accommodations. The place would do, so we sat down our bags and started getting all the info needed to make our stay interesting such as: hiking, tubing, and motorbiking.

After a good nights rest we set out early in the morning to hike back into the lush jungle alive with new sounds, textures, and patterns. As usual I had my cameras close by my side to document what we saw. One thing I've grown to love, is to really examine what I'm looking at closely. I like to touch every plant, look for different patterns and really soak up the colors. What else do I have to do anyways? It's amazing what slowing down and really looking at the world around you can do to your state of consciousness. We found everything from plastic feeling leaves, razor sharp prickers, and wood twisting like a slinky stretched to it's limits, and my favorite: the bamboo like stalks revealing layer after layer of patterns and colors.

The great thing about this hike is the possibility of seeing an elephant in the wild; unfortunately, we didn't see one. However, we did find some huge footprints that led us down to his drinking hole, where I preceded to take a dive and wait for him. After feeling defeated I got dressed and we hiked back out stopping to hang around on Jurassic Park sized branches before the jungle attempted to take me as a prisoner.