Why Khao Sok is Thailand’s Best Getaway

Said to be one of the oldest evergreen forests in the world, Khao Sok National Park is most certainly a special place. This 160 million year-old rainforest is filled with natural wonders from deep-water caves, cascading waterfalls, and countless native species. What it’s not full of, are tourists. Don’t get me wrong I am a tourist, but I had just come from a party island and was ready for some peace and quite. Khao Sok was the natural retreat I had been dreaming of.

After a longer travel day than I expected (typical Thailand), I finally arrived at Khao Sok Paradise Resort, located just off of the main street in Khao Sok town. As the name suggests, it truly was paradise. I paid $18 per night, which is more than I typically would spend on accommodation, but this part of my trip was a treat. I chose the Thai Bamboo House, which is set in the middle of the jungle with only the sound of rain and forest animals to lull me to sleep. Not only was it the most peaceful place I stayed during my travels, but the room featured a private, luxurious outdoor bathroom with a rain shower that added to the already amazing natural ambiance.

After settling into my dream retreat, I took a walk through Khao Sok town to see what I could find. Without being overbuilt, there are plenty of restaurants, bars, spas, and a few shops to meander into. Each place has kept the jungle vibe using bamboo as a main material for building, and that somehow has kept the authenticity of the place.

I landed at Thai Herb for dinner, a restaurant serving up local dishes at a reasonable price, averaging about $3-$4 per meal. Here I enjoyed one of my favorite Thai dishes, Panang Curry with tofu and rice. They even brought fruit after dinner, which was a nice surprise.

The main reason I went to Khao Sok, however, was to explore Khao Sok National Park and stay overnight in a floating bungalow on Cheow Lan Lake. I booked a tour through the resort reception with Bamboo Tours for $70. This was one of the more expensive tours I booked while in Southeast Asia, but it was one I was very much looking forward to, and included all transportation, park guides, all meals and an overnight stay in a floating bungalow. However, there is an additional cost (we were told ahead of time) for the National Park entrance fee, costing an extra $9 when you arrive at Rajaprabha Pier.

The next morning our tour guide, Jake, picked us up bright and early and brought us to Rajaprabha Pier to start our journey. Here our group of 15 transferred to a traditional Thai long tail boat and we took off, gliding through the still water of the immensely vast Cheow Lan Lake. This 64 square mile lake is actually an artificial flooded reservoir, which was created as part of a multi-purpose project for power generation, flood control, irrigation, and fishery.

We took a one-hour cruise through the freshwater reservoir and admired the never-ending limestone karst formations and lush evergreen rainforest that surrounded us until we reached the much-anticipated floating bungalows of Tone Tuey.

The floating bungalows were small bamboo huts with just enough space for a double bed and a few backpacks to fit. With water completely surrounding my bungalow, it was not uncommon to see fish passing by as I went to and from my room.

I used the hour of free time before lunch to go for a kayak to explore the surrounding areas. As I turned the corner from Tone Tuey, I was the only person for as far as I could see; it was just the lake, the limestone mountains, and me.

After an authentic Thai lunch of rice and all different types of vegetables and curries, we headed out for some real exploring. We climbed back into the long tail boat for a 5-minute cruise down the lake until we reached a small cove where one other single long tail boat was docked. From here, we trekked about an hour into the rainforest, coming across small waterfalls, rivers, and wildlife along the way. The purpose of this journey was to go caving at Nam Talu Cave. I was surprised and extremely excited to find out that this was actual caving, not just a walk in a cave, which I had done in both Bali and Vietnam. This was pure-darkness, swim-through-freezing-cold cave-water-without-being-able-to-touch-the-bottom, squeeze-through-incredibly-narrow-passages kind of caving. There was even a part with a rushing waterfall that we had scale up and down using a hanging piece of rope! I was in heaven.

When we arrived back at the floating bungalows, everyone went off to do their own thing before dinner, whether it was kayaking, swimming, or just relaxing. A few new friends and I spotted a whole tribe of macaque monkeys nearby, and swam towards shore to get a closer look. We must have treaded water for at least thirty minutes while observing the family of monkeys (especially the babies!). When we got too close for comfort the mama monkey would shriek at us to keep our distance. We happily obliged. Soon after we were called over by the Tone Tuey staff for a beautiful dinner of fish, rice, curries and vegetables. Following dinner with some socializing over a few Changs, we all went back to our respective bungalows and fell asleep to the soothing sound of falling rain.

Early morning of day two, we set off for a morning mist safari cruise to see if we could spot some local wildlife amongst the foggy limestone massifs. In scouring the treetops, we saw macaque monkeys, hornbills, and the infamous tail-less gibbons monkey.

Upon returning to Tone Tuey, enjoying a pancake breakfast, and checking out of our bungalows, we made our way towards the ranger’s station. A ranger took us on a one-hour climb to a lookout (which turned out to be a semi-view of the lake…) and then to a giant bat cave. This cave was virtually water free, but not spider or bat-free, I will tell you that. Everywhere you looked you could see these crystals somehow glimmering in the darkness. Oh these were not crystals, these were spider eyes glaring at us through the darkness. By the time we reached the end of the cave, we had passed thousands of these spiders, and overhead hung thousands of bats. Eek!

Once we trekked back down to the ranger’s station, we were given lunch and then had the opportunity to swim or relax for a little bit. I of course chose the swimming option, as I wasn’t going to take a single moment in this paradise for granted! By 3pm we had arrived back at Khao Sok town where I had one more night booked with Khao Sok Paradise Resort, which meant one last opportunity to fall asleep to the sounds of nothing but nature.

This trip was the perfect place to clear my mind and feel an authentic connection with nature. The air was pure, the water clear, and not a city-sound for miles and miles. If you’re looking for the ultimate retreat into a fairly untouched, less touristy part of Thailand, I’d say look no further than Khao Sok.

Getting There (from Phi Phi Islands): I booked a ferry to Krabi and then a shuttle to Khao Sok town with a random tour agency in the Phi Phi Islands for $18 and it took about 5 hours (2 hours longer than it was meant to…)

Stay (Khao Sok): As mentioned earlier in the post, I stayed at Khao Sok Paradise resort in the Bamboo Thai House and was blown away by my experience there. The staff was incredible and the manager even let me keep all of my stuff in the room I had stayed in the first night while I was away on the overnight tour to Cheow Lan Lake and didn’t charge me for it. When it was pouring rain and I needed to get to the bus station, one employee offered to drive me in her own personal car (I believe her name was Thum – pronounced thumb). It couldn’t have been a better experience.

Stay (Cheow Lan Lake): The overnight stay at Tone Tuey Floating Bungalows was included in the price of the tour, but I am pretty sure you can book accommodation here independently as well.

2-day/1-night Cheow Lan Lake Tour: Cost was $79 which included pickup from and back to your accommodation, 4 AMAZING meals, overnight stay at Tone Tuey Floating Bungalows, guided trekking and long tail boat rides, as well as the park fees. I would absolutely recommend the tour, as you don’t have to worry about arranging long tail boat rides, food, or trekking guides, and some of the trekking, including the deep water caving, could be dangerous without someone who knows the area well.