Day 8: Monkeys in the Morning

This morning we were treated to a family of longtailed macaque monkeys on their daily commute through the trees and over our treehouse!

We stayed inside and watched them, mesmerized. When one got a bit too close for comfort we closed up the windows, but otherwise it was so cool to see them climbing on our deck, swinging on the Vines and to hear them running on the roof above our heads. When they had passed by to a safer distance, we went back on the porch to continue admiring them from afar and after a few minutes Zach looked up and realized one was still sitting in the rafters of our porch above our heads! We quietly retreated back into the house until he had gone. Wow.

We also discovered the mystery guest in our bathroom! He had left us another “present” in exactly the same spot this morning, so we looked up to discover a giant gecko! We had been admiring one of these huge guys at the restaurant last night, and were actually pretty glad to find out he was the culprit since we know he will leave us alone. He hid before Zach could take a picture, but maybe we’ll get another chance. He is about six inches long without including his stubby tail, and is fat and sticky-looking. Pretty adorable!

Today we signed up to go with Mr. Le to his home in a nearby village. There, we sat in his lovely garden while he and his wife taught us to make a delightful pineapple jam. Then he gave us each a bamboo cup and sounded out our names in Thai for us to carve into them, along with any other designs we liked. The girls loved this, and Diane drew a jungle scene on her cup and Melina drew some animals and encouraged Mr. Le to draw her a flower and a coconut tree. Yet again we were reminded that the name “Zach” is nearly unpronounceable in other languages. Mr. Le gave the same reaction we saw in Peru: a wide eyed look of surprise when Zach says his name. “Sex?” he asked, incredulous. But he finally got himself close.

Making pineapple jam

“Zach” (or “sex?”) in Thai

View from Mr. Le’s garden

He gave us all a small packaged Thai cake to try. It was a very sweet, dense and dry cake with a mild banana (or maybe even bubblegum?) flavor. He said Thais take this snack out in jungle or fields, and would fill up on only two or three of them, which along with water will keep you full all day. So basically, it’s like Thai lembas bread!

Mr. Le was friendly and was a joy to talk with; he loved discussing Hollywood action moves, especially those with “old superstars” like Sylvester Stallone, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bruce Willis. He told us about studying machine engineering but how after years of working in the commercial refrigerator business he moved back to his home town here in the jungle to raise a family and help his friend who was writing tourism guidebooks. Now his daughter is almost done studying Law at University, and he grows fruit trees (pineapple, rambutan, durian, mangosteen, coconut) and rubber trees. The rubber trees were all tapped and dripping rubber into cups, which then gets sold to make Firestone and Michelin tires.

Rubber tree

We had our afternoon open and spent it walking to town, exploring the nature trails nearby, and swimming in the creek. The creek (which is a river in the rainy season) was so beautifully peaceful and cool and fun. Zach swung on the rope swing, Melina sang and splashes, Diane practiced her snorkeling, and I floated lazily watching the cliffs and trees above. We found a sizeable snakeskin on the cliffs by the creek, and Diane delighted in chasing fish with her snorkeling gear and even saw a few pufferfish. Bodes well for the snorkeling we plan to do over the next few days.

Ice cream in Khao Sok town

Melina leads the way with the map

Nature walk

Cool leaf bug

More monkeys on our walk!

When we went back to our room to change we had more visitors:

These guys were brazen, and one was clearly trying to get into our house. Thankfully the windows were closed as we were on our way out, so we had nothing to worry about. However, Diane was a bit shaken (after being the brave monkey admirer until now) and the girls flipped roles with Melina taking on the part of the protective older sister. It was very sweet.

Later at dinner the skies opened up and it started to pour down rain. Timing was perfect as we have checked off all the “must do” items for the jungle part of our trip, so we could just sit back and enjoy the cooler air. It is close to the end of the dry season here so the plants immediately seemed to react to the much needed rain. Everything looked greener, more lush, and more alive. Some animals even came out of hiding, like a GIANT frog that hopped lazily through the restaurant during dinnertime! There are even some fireflies that responded to the lightning.

The frog is half the size of my purse!

We have been told then when the rains come, so do the leeches… thankfully we haven’t seen any of those yet! We will be sad to leave this beautiful place tomorrow but are so excited for the next part of our journey. Goodbye, Khao Sok!

Our treehouse, “Rambutan”