Today we took a guided tour of Khao Sok. Specifically, we explored Cheow Lan Lake, which is actually a man-made lake that was created when the Rajjaprabha Dam was built in 1982. Despite being man-made the lake was gorgeous. The entire region around Khao Sok is dominated by the hundreds-of-feet high limestone cliffs and karts that rise up off the jungle floor. Similarly, the lake sits in this high-sided bowl of limestone. It was a two hour drive to the lake, at which point we moved from the sawngthaew to a long-tail boat. Setting off into the misty morning, the green of the water really stood out. It was a clear and pure green color, not light or dirty green like most green water. Limestone formations rose straight out the water all around us. Hundreds of feet high, some were cliffs that held the lake in and some were islands created when the dam flooded the valley. From what I’ve read, we’ll see a lot more of this type of geological landscape in places like Phang-Nga and the more famously known Halong Bay. But today was the first time I’ve ever seen anything like this and I thought it was absolutely amazing. Jungle was growing all over the limestone, except on the faces that were beyond vertical and had inverted slopes.

admiring the lake and karsts from a bamboo raft
The boat ride across the lake was about an hour at which point we arrived a group of floating bungalows. Its kind of a tourist thing to sleep in these floating wooden shacks, but we were just stopping for lunch. While we were waiting for lunch, Joylani and I took a kayak out on the water and paddled around a bit. We don’t kayak that often, so its always funny when we do; going in circles, splashing each other, and our good-humored exasperation with each other. I jumped out and swam a bit, while Joylani paddled near me. It felt great to be out in the middle of the lake swimming, jungly cliffs rising up all around. We had an excellent meal with about 5 dishes, which was different from the one or two dish meals we’ve been eating. Then, we took another boat to a little island, which we walked across for just 1 km, where we took a bamboo raft to a nearby cave. The cave was filled with stalagmites and stalactites, which reflected all sorts of cool colors from our flashlights and made all sorts of interesting formations. Some formations were wavy and looked like curtains hanging down from the cave ceiling, while others looked like coral. Our guide warned us not to touch anything, as the chemicals on our hand could cause reactions and destroy what took millions of years to form. Unlike some other caves in the region, this one had never been inhabited or explored until recently since the damming of the lake made the water rise to a point where the cave was accessible (many caves were submerged with the creation of the lake too though). Overall, the tour was better than I had expected and Khao Sok has been a nice place to spend the past few days.