Hi there!

How are you all? On Mon 17th November, we caught the overnight train (12 hours sleeping in bunk beds again!) from Bangkok to Surat Thani. Then we caught a local bus to Khao Sok National Park (it has the oldest rainforest in the world - older than the Amazon!). We stayed oppsite a famous mountain (Pantoorat Mountain) in some Thai style bungalows. The owner of our bungalows grew up in the jungle and he took us out for the day to see the jungle and rainforest. He took us on a longboat around a lake which is the easiest way to see the rainforest (becuase us children couldn't trek for long through the jungle - that's what my mum said). We saw lots of different types of monkeys. The night before that, the owner (his name is Toy) took us to see some wild monkeys. We bought some bananas to feed them and they came right up to us to collect the bananas from our hands. They can peel bananas just like we can! we also saw a mother monkey and her baby which hangs onto the mum's belly. When we were out on the lake, we got to go swimming - it was really deep, even my dad couldn't touch the bottom. Ben got a leech on his leg, they grow big as they suck your blood. You are supposed to burn them off, but my mum panicked, so my dad flicked it off. They are weird things, like red slugs and they like damp places (such as jungle areas).

Next day we took the bus (they play very loud Thai music on the bus, almost like a party at 9am in the morning). We went to stay on the beach and I had my hair plaited (about 65 plaits) for my birthday present!

Anyway, at the moment we are slowly moving down to the bottom of Thailand, ready to cross the border into Malaysia.

I hope you are all ok and looking forward to Christmas!

Best wishes Leala