Ratchaprap​a Dam, Khao Sok

I know I'm a little behind on my posting - I've been busy!  As I mentioned in the previous post, the weekend of January 7th, we went to the Ratchaprapa Dam up in Surat Thani Province with my friend Peem and his whole family, about three and a half hours north of Phuket.  It was so beautiful!  Nancy and I got up there fairly quickly on a van on Friday night, stayed in a hotel in the "city" of Surat Thani and got picked up at nine am on the dot by Peem and his family.  We headed to a Chinese breakfast and I ate far too many weird pasteries and who knows what else.  I thought we were headed right to the Dam but instead we went to pick his grandmother and her posse of twenty up at the airport and found out we had a whole day of adventures planned for us.  His grandma and her friends went straight to the golf course (mind you, they are well into their eighties) and we went on a little tour of the area.  First, we saw a meditation center and then headed to the most amazing seafood lunch ever on the ocean.  Seriously, my best meal here yet and somehow the dish I ordered of fried seafood tasted exactly like Trader Joe's orange chicken - don't ask how, but it did and I was obsessed. 

Then we went to a tiny town in the countryside where we saw where they make real Thai silk and I had to buy some of course.  I got three silk scarves for under $10 total - I should have gotten more!  But good thing we were with native Thais because number one - we never would have known about this place, number two - we probably wouldn't have gotten to go out back behind the stores and actually see them weave the silk and number three - we got Thai prices, which are so rare for us because we weren't getting ripped off for once. 

Our last stop of the day before the Dam was to a beautiful Buddhist temple that was surrounded by water, which is apparently very rare and Peem actually said he had never seen one before.  I got a little bit of information on temple and the Buddhas surrounding it and I definitely have a lot more to learn about Buddhism. 

We got to the Dam around five and headed to our villa on the water.  Yes you read that right - villa!  We got so spoiled this weekend!  Saturday night dinner was very good and after listening to some Thai men sing karaoke, we headed to bed.  Sunday morning, we woke around very early and were on a boat at 6:30 am for a morning cruise around the Dam to watch the sun rise and the mist surround the mountains.  Pictures don't do it justice and it was one of the most beautiful places that I have ever seen. 

Sunrise

Peem's 86 year old grandmother climbed up there herself and was posing for pictures while the boat was flying through the water

After breakfast were the bat caves!  The young people definitely had an adventure in these caves as there was only one flashlight and someone slipped and fell into a mud hole every few minutes.  After that, we headed to a local community park outside of the Dam (which is a national park) and saw hot springs and quick sand holes before we started the journey back to Phuket

Bat Caves

I could go on and on about how amazing this place was and how I did not want to leave or about how our trip home took seven hours but it's well past my bedtime.  I'll post tomorrow about this past weekend and how I slept in a grass hut with lizards and frogs for three days in the Similian Islands...