Khao Sok National Park <3
(Another) wild travel day! This time I traveled away from Koh Phangan over to Khao Sok National Park in Southwestern Thailand before I head up north to Bangkok. It was an easy ferry ride from Koh Phangan to Don Sak pier, followed by a rather nice and comfortable coach bus over to Surat Thani for an hour. I’m really struggling to come up with travel plans lately, I’ve been feeling a little burnt out. Every day is easy, I journal and do some sort of self-care, but doing nothing has been tiring? I don’t know if that makes sense but it’s true. Travel days used to be stressful, but I’m starting to enjoy them now because they make my brain wake up from a daze of nothingness. Anyway, on the bus I journaled all about the things I can do to enjoy these next few months of my travels! It was really therapeutic and helpful.
We then hopped on a small and very tightly crammed minivan for 4 hours. Our driver kept pulling over and stopping to get himself food, leaving us in a non-airconditioned van. All part of the experience I suppose. When we finally got to Khao Sok, we had to wait over an hour for a taxi to come get us. The woman at the desk of the bus stop was very apologetic, as she said she called one for us but she forgot! Most taxis don’t go up to Khao Sok Hilltop Resort as the roads are far too much for most cars. We arrived very late to our tent and probably the most disgusting shower I’ve ever seen in my life. What can you do, I suppose. I actually quite liked the camping vibe, despite the shower, it was just a little too far from town for us. There are a lot of places to stay in the village, I would definitely recommend getting a hostel in town!
We had to walk about 30/40 minutes down to the village the next morning. We had a bit of a late start, so most tours had left. Keep in mind for your visit! If you want to go into the park, most things that are worth doing you have to book a tour and a lot of them leave in the morning! We ended up going bamboo rafting which was really enjoyable, however I got very motion sick and I felt sick for the rest of the day. We had a chill rest of the day, and got pedicures. They were the worst pedicures we’ve ever gotten- we both had to get them fixed in Bangkok! We then waiting for over an hour for a taxi to take us up to our campground again. It was then that we realized we didn’t want to spend all our time in Khao Sok at this campground.
Through Khao Sok River Lodge, we booked one night at the floating bungalows for appox. $75 USD. SO worth it! The next morning, we hopped on a bus for 1.5 hours over to somewhere (I just followed the leader) I suppose it was over to a different side of the beautiful lake! I bought some fish food for 20 Baht, though there weren’t too many fish when I tried to throw it in the water! We all crammed onto a boat for a stunning 2 hour boat ride followed by a rather pathetic lunch at the bungalows. The food was very underwhelming, cold, and unpleasant. I was grateful to have a large bottle of water with me because they didn’t even sell water bottles! Only coke, sprite, and beer until they ran out of sprite. They had some water in a jug but there were bugs in it so I rationed what I had brought.
The group went off exploring the cave, but I’m quite claustrophobic and everyone was yelling (like the tour guides) and it all just felt very chaotic so we decided to skip the caves and go kayaking instead. I’m glad we did- I’m not sure what we missed in the caves, but we got to experience the bungalows in absolute peace and quiet which we never got again when the group came back. You could really just sit and hear all of the wildlife around you.
When the group came back, they almost immediately left again for the night safari. We jumped on the boat to join what essentially was a bird watching tour, but it was so beautiful nonetheless. The dinner that they served was much better than the lunch, but the lack of water bottles was hard for me because the food was quite spicy. It was pouring rain at that point, but the dinner ‘vibes’ were really enjoyable. I met a lot of really cool people. In Koh Phangan I felt like everyone was German and here I felt like everyone was Dutch. We went to sleep on a rock hard bed but it was all part of the experience.
Bright and early at 6 am, we went on a morning safari and saw the most beautiful sunrise and even a pack (?) of monkeys! I’m not sure what the group is called, maybe a little family of monkeys. There were so many cute little babies running all around the edge of the water. When we went back for breakfast they served one cold pancake and a banana. Seriously, I would recommend bringing food, I at least had some crackers and a granola bar to keep me going until we got back to the mainland. We had a little bit of time between breakfast (about 1.5 hours) to swim and shower until it was time to go.
Back in Khao Sok village we had a quick lunch and then took a bus to the Surat Thani train station before a night train up to Bangkok. Khao Sok was a quick visit for us but SO worth it. I feel like I would’ve enjoyed maybe one or two more days there, but I’m very glad for the three we had :)
