Day?!: Leaving Chiang Mai & the Flungalows of Khao Sok

Hi guys! A lot has happened since we last spoke--when Erica told you about our mountain biking debacle.

We spent the next day largely relaxing. Erica got a massage and I hung out at the pool of our sorta-janky-but-fine hotel. It was relaxing: 

Later, we went to the chiang mai night market, which was cool! There were tons of locals ware-peddling. 

Erica liked it

We also saw this sign showing how far we are from home--or it would have if "kilometers" was an acceptable form of measurement. 

We even stumbled upon a sassy Thai dame lipsinging. 

We thought about having dinner at the night market--specifically in an Iraqi restaurant--but thought we were due for some pampering: and the Le Meridian was just a block away. There, Erica met Santa

Then, we found the Le Meridien restaurant, where we both had cheeseburgers. They tasted like America (i.e., awesome ).

Erica also had a few sips of wine.

After dinner, we walked home through what can only be called Prostitution Row. Literally every bar on this block was filled with ostentatious displays of the oldest profession. We took a few home with us and went to sleep.

TO THE SOUTH

The next morning we left Chiang Mai and the North of Thailand to head south: to Phuket, Khao Sok and Khao Lak. This is a whole different Thai experience: instead of mountains and tribes, we'll see beaches, resorts and tropical lakes. 

The latter was our first stop: floating bungalows accessible only by long-tail boat deep in the heart of Khao Sok National Park, an area of exceptional beauty. This is a view of the area from the longtail boat:

After about an hour boat ride, we arrived on the floating bungalows:

So many things about the flungalows (Erica's word, I called them the bungs...) were cool.  For example, the dining room had a whole in the floor that revealed a ton of fish:

We spent the night on the Flungs, and the morning was stunning:

Here I am in the morning. 

And here is Erica, from our "deck"

We then went on a morning boat-safari to look for monkeys, hornbills, and bears.  We mostly just saw monkeys, but they were still quite cool and jumpy:

These monkeys are called "Dusky Langurs", which everyone agrees is a cool name.

The whole area basically looked like Jurassic Park