Wang Wiset, Trang.

[pescator]

This area is little visited by foreign tourists. In fact, I have never seen a foreigner around here.

We left the Morning Mist Resort in Khao Sok early morning and headed further south.
Ridiculous name by the way, I have no idea how they came up with that name.



The snake residing in the growth surrounding the restaurant did not seem to mind us taking off.



Neither did this critter.



We were heading for a waterfall that I had previously visited.
My last visit was only 17 years back, so of course I knew the exact location.

While we were on our merry way, we noticed a billboard boasting a cavern, by the name of Tham Le Khao Kob.

Never heard of it. So we just followed the signs which were plentiful for the first couple of miles and then dried out completely. I drove for like 15 miles without a single sign and was just about to give up.
But lo and behold there it was.



At first, I was not very enthusiastic about visiting the place. There were 3 busses loaded with thai tourists visiting the place (it was on a saturday) , and we are not very fond of crowds.

So we went to have some grub first at a nearby restaurant.
The staff did not exactly seemed thrilled to have customers. Customers can be such a pain, I know that myself.
But they managed to find a menu, which the girl slapped on our table while saying: I hope you can read thai, because we only have menu in thai.

Just to piss them off, I ordered 3 different dishes and a Heineken beer which they did not have. So she had to send a foot soldier off to buy one at a shop.

"That was mean, dad" My youngest son said.
"Why is that? There are 3 people working in this restaurant, we are the only guests and I think they have the time to go out and get me my beer".

With large portions of phat thai, tom yam and neua phat nam hoy under our belt, we headed for the cavern.

By now, it was late afternoon and most of the thai visitors had left.
But not all, a thai woman sitting next to us while we waited for a boat to come pick us up, was very interested in my oldest son.
She would not stop trying to chat with him, but as he knows fok all thai and she knew fok all english, it was a romance that could never be

The boat came along and we boarded.





Pretty nice cavern, but not something we hadn`t seen before.

Now what is this? Okay, we can do this.




Now, you are scaring me.



We got stuck a couple of times during the 570 metres boat trip in the belly of the mountain.
And i envisioned myself having to swim back in total darkness with 2 kids.
Due to the rainy season, the water level was high and about to reach the ceiling of the cavern.

Ahh, safety at last.

[aging one]

Excellent start to a travel thread. Isnt Kow Sok in the mountains between Surat and the western coast? Looks like a great place to stay in the jungle. The last grotto shot is great as well.

Please keep more coming. Well done.

[pescator]

You are quite right about Khao Sok, AO

[aging one]

Freaking beautiful place. About 8 years ago we did a road trip south. I dont think that place was there then. We stayed in a tree house place. Just lovely on our way to Trang.

[pescator]

After the unexpected thrills of the cavern, we decided to go to safer grounds.

The waterfall Roi Chan Phan Wang, 100 levels, thousand palaces.

I knew of course the exact location, as I had previously visited.
It only took me like 3 stops to ask local thais about the location.
"But there is a big sign leading to the waterfall, didn`t you see it"?

No, I did not see the sign for obvious reason. It was embedded in a massive bush and you would have to have friggin xray vision to see it.

My kids were beginning to have serious doubts about my pathfinder abilities.
But with a combination of sheer luck and persistance, we found it.

It was like I remembered.
The roads were paved by now, and not like when I went there first time 17 years ago, got a flat tire on my motorbike and dreaded the thought of pulled the bike 15 miles up the dirt road to get to a shop.
I only dragged the bike for like 5 minutes, before a thai guy came by on his bike.
"Wassup mate" ?
The answer to that question was most obvious.

"Be right back". He took off on his bike, came back 5 minutes later with his mate, who repaired my flat tire and even brought 3 cold ones.
Only in Thailand.
He would not hear of me paying more than 30 baht for the repair and the cost of the beers.

Well, we arrived at the waterfall.

The nature is incredibly lush.



Ton Hoo Chaang. Elefant ear plant. Love it.



The waterfall, not impressive, but in my mind quite magical. And there are indeed 100 levels and you will have all of them to yourself.

[Latindancer]

Great thread, Pescator ! Anybody got any idea what kind of snake that is ? What an amazing coloured pattern !

[ltnt]

Nice post and better due to narrative. Thanks.

[Albert Shagnastier]

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o...he/thai308.jpg
That looks the bollocks - I think I may head there tommorrow. Give us a link or a number. Cheers fella - nice thread.

[ossierob]

Great story Pescator....it does look inviting

[Matthew]

Fantastic.

^^ here you go Albert: Morning Mist Resort - Khao Sok

Hey unc. Dropping in

[Satonic]

Great thread, Pescator ! Anybody got any idea what kind of snake that is ? What an amazing coloured pattern !

Hi Latindancer,

The snake caught on camera by pescator (wonderful photo!) is a Paradise tree snake. Chrysopelea paradisi. In the same family as the commonly seen golden tree snake.

Beautiful colours, interesting snakes too as they jump from high branches and is said they can glide for over 100 feet!

[Bobcock]

Flying snakes???..... FUCK THAT!!!! I ain't going.

Spent some time living in the South, great country, never really get there these days, maybe after I finish this job I will take a road trip.

[Latindancer]

Thanks, Satonic. They're quite fascinating creatures. Only slightly venemous.

Chrysopelea is also known under its assigned common name "flying snake". It glides by using its ridge scales along its belly, pushing against rough bark surface of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a tree's branch, the snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the branch's end. It then makes a J-shape bend, leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to travel to control its flight path, as well as selecting a desired landing area. Once it decides on a destination, it propels itself by thrusting its body up and away from the tree, sucking in its stomach, flaring out its ribs to turn its body in a "pseudo concave wing" all the while making a continual serpentine motion of lateral undulation parallel to the ground to stabilise its direction in midair in order to land safely.
The combination of sucking in its stomach and making a motion of lateral undulation in the air makes it possible for the snake to glide in the air, where it also manages to save energy compared to travel on the ground and dodge terrestrial bounded predators. The concave wing that a snake creates in sucking its stomach, flattens its body to up to twice its width from back of the head to the anal vent, which is close to the end of the snake's tail, causes the cross section of the snake's body to resemble the cross section of a frisbee or flying disc. When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressure under the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly. A snake continuously moves in lateral undulation to create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide. Flying snakes are able to glide better than flying squirrels and other gliding animals, despite the lack of limbs, wings, or any other wing-like projections, gliding through the forest and jungle it inhabits with the distance being as great as 100 m. Their destination is mostly predicted by ballistics; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitude control by "slithering" in the air.


.................................................. ..................


And a study in which scientists threw the snakes from a 50-foot tower and recorded their descent on video suggests that the snakes are active fliers, manipulating their bodies to aerodynamic effect.
“It essentially looks like they are slithering in the air, like a whip moving left and right,” said Jake Socha, the study’s lead author and a biomechanist at Virginia Tech. “The body itself moves up and down as well.”
Dr. Socha and his colleagues found that the paradise tree snake tilts its body about 25 to 30 degrees relative to the airflow to stay as aerodynamic as possible. The farthest a snake was able to travel from the tower was about 79 feet.

.................................................. ...............
79 feet from a 50 ft tower is not bad going !

[farmerfloyd]

That is beautiful snake, never knew they could glide also. Thanks for time spent with this info.

[terry57]

Good pics mate. Cheers

[Phoenix]

Unseen Thailand .....nice one. Never heard of the place but looks worth a visit.

[Mr R Sole]

Great pic's and story...here was my attempt at getting in the cavern!

I live in Trang and went to go to Tham Le' cavern with my family (the road signs are deplorable...as are most down here!!)
I watched them charge the Thai's 30bht kids-60bht adults for the boat and as I approached with my Thai wife and very farang looking child (browny blond curly hair!) The lady then had the testicular fortitude to try and charge us 120baht a person!!!
I told her that I taught at the local school in this area and that even the T.A.T guide from Trang town states that the admission charge is 60bht!!!

She wouldn't back down and so I was left with no choice but to reprimand her in Thai...my wife suitably embarrassed then kicked in herself after seeing that the arrogant bitch that was charging for the boats told me to go and f**k my mother!!!
I do enjoy my wife standing up for me a 'dirty farang!!!'. they are so damn lazy down here it's untrue....Trang is from what I have been told the richest or 2nd richest province in Thailand!!! Due to their environmentally friendly rubber and palm growing practises...
I must admit that I do like the place a lot however, I feel Krabi calling just so I don't get the stares and watch their jaws drop on the floor when a westerner turns up, either that or you get the 'restaurant' attitude that you received.
Thailand has much to learn...as I have been teaching for over 6yrs now....that seems unlikely for the most part!!!

Beautiful country (warning generalisation!!!) dumb ass, arrogant, ignorant people

Told you it was a generalisation.

[pescator]

Live in Trang? I envy you
Yet Mae doesn`t really mean that you have to go f*** your mom. (I am sure that you know this) Unless she said something like: Mung pai yet mae si mung. And I doubt that very much.
Never heard a woman speak like this, though. I have a good friend in Krabi, everytime I meet him, he will go like this: Yet Mae, Mung Maa Eek Laew Wa?
WTF, there you come again. Yes, he didn`t score high in secondary classes.
I never experienced any jaw dropping or staring when I travelled in Trang. Actually, I found the people to be rather reserved and private. Few people ever attempted to strike up a conversation. Nothing like travelling in Esan.

I remember my first trip to Trang, I got off the bus in Trang city and was looking at a map to try to locate my guest house.
A nice thai woman in a government suit noticed me and parked her bike right next to me:
"Where are you going"?
" I am going to this guest house"
" I can take you there if you like".
Sure, I got up on the bike and we drove off. She was anxious to practise her english - bad call really, because my english sucks, but how could she tell that? - so when dropping me off at my guest house, she asked me if we could meet later for a chat, so that she could improve her english by chatting with me...
"Sure, why not. We can go have a cup of coffee".
"At a coffee house"? She asked with an alarmed expression in her face.
"Sure" I replied with great confidence. Little did I know that coffee house in Trang was apparently an euphemism for an establisment of ill repute in this general area
Dunno. Little do I know.
Any way, she took off at an alarming speed without looking back. Well, I had arrived at my guest house, so I could live with that.

[Mr R Sole]

Never heard the coffee house one...but could well be true.. Shame really as coffee houses are all the rage down here over the past yr or 2!!! Funny why not just call them brothels!!!

[crepitas]

Well I'll be...just went to forum home for first time and perused forums...
lo and behold a Wang Wisset thread ....seems from signs around here one has a pretty much free hand as to the spelling..lol
Anyways WW is our local village 7 k south of our farm...so good to see.
Thx....