Sri Phang Nga National Park

First, a sunset photo from last night:

Yesterday was the second sunny day in a row after two weeks of rain.  Parts of southern Thailand are still flooded, mostly northeast of Khao Lak, in Krabi and Surat Thani provinces.  Surat Thani is the largest of the southern provinces and received 34 inches of rain, where the normal rainfall for March is about 2 inches.  Fortunately Khao Lak just got a lot of rain and no flooding, and the weather outlook for the rest of the week appears very good.

Today we went trekking in Sri Phang Nga National Park, a 40-minute drive north of the Sarojin.  We arrived early enough to see some gibbons just as we were getting out of the car.  They were very high up in the trees and scampering away from us, but Chris managed to get a good shot of this one.

Then it was off for what turned out to be about a 3-hour trek through the rainforest.  The hike started off easily enough but there were some pretty challenging stretches, both up and down.  And leeches.  Lots of leeches.  The hike concluded at the 64-meter Tamnang Waterfall, which had been used in the film The Beach starring Leonardo DiCaprio.  After taking a few photos from the top, we climbed down to the bottom for a swim.

OK, I actually just waded.  The water felt good but it was very cold and I have never been much of a swimmer.  The scenery was breathtaking nonetheless, and a beautiful day overall, all blue sky and sunshine.