Off On Our Next Adventure

After spending the night at our little roadside motel, we asked the receptionist about organizing a taxi to our accommodation at Khao Sok. Thankfully, everyone was feeling well and ready to travel. Within half an hour, a comfortable van appeared to transport us for the 90km journey. It was pricey at 1300 baht, but that’s the standard rate for a long journey like that.

The drive along a wide highway took about an hour before we began winding our way upwards towards jungle clad hills with limestone cliffs. The lush green foliage on either side of the road was interspersed with palm plantations and rows of banana trees. It reminded me of Malaysia, but the palm plantations didn’t seem to have taken over in quite the same way. After a further 15 minutes, we arrived at Khao Sok Village and were dropped off at our accommodation called Blue Mountain Khao Sok, where the owner warmly greeted us and showed us to our basic but clean rooms. These were pretty cheap at about NZ$30 each, so we weren’t expecting much, but the owners clearly pride themselves on accommodating guests comfortably…and they had air con. Anna and I were sharing the double cabin, and Leo and Shaun had the twin bungalow, just like we’d had to do the night before as well…it was the first time in our trip that we’ve had to split up for the night.

It’s definitely trickier finding cheap family rooms in Thailand than it was in Indonesia. They have lots of triple rooms, rather than 4 bed family rooms, and some places let you have an extra bed, but many places don’t, which is annoying. The best solution we’ve found is 2 bedroom apartments, like we had in Bangkok.

Once we had settled in, we went to find lunch and explore the local area. We ate at the first place we came across since we were starving, and the food was really good. We then wandered into the little town centre to look around and found the street leading up to the National Park Headquarters lined with restaurants, accommodation, and shops offering services including tours, massage, laundry services and anything else tourists coming here might want or need. There was also a bridge crossing the river with lots of spectators watching people going on rubber tube or kayak tours with guides. For the ‘low’ season, it was bustling with people and activity. At the National Park HQ, we looked at the map and planned a walk for the following day.

The next day, we all woke up refreshed and after a leisurely breakfast, we organised with Niung (the owner) to do a tubing trip down the river in the afternoon.

We also booked in for an overnight lake trip the following day and organised our onward travel to Koh Tao. Talking to Niung was helpful because we told him about our plans to go into the National Park, and he suggested some other places of interest nearby so that we didn’t need to pay the National Park entry fee twice, given that we were going to be paying it the next day for our lake trip.

We decided to walk to the nearby monkey temple, Wat Tham Phanthurat, and set off. Half an hour into the walk, the heavens opened in a way that we haven’t seen on our trip so far, even on Koh Samet. It was as though buckets of water were falling from the sky instead of raindrops…I’ve never seen so much water fall from the sky in such a short space of time!

This kind lady let us shelter in her shop while we waited for the downpour to subside. Leo found it amusing that she was wearing a weed hat.

Wat Tham Phanthurat

When we reached the Monkey temple, we were greeted by this beautiful gate and paid the 20 baht entry fee just inside. We were offered bananas to feed the monkeys but politely declined. As we walked inside, we saw lots of monkeys sitting up in the trees.

They were long tailed macaques and looked so healthy, with glossy coats, not like some of the scruffier specimens that we’d seen previously. And they were calm and friendly, quietly approaching us to see if we came bearing bananas, and when they saw we were empty-handed, they wandered off.

There was a cave temple there, formed out of limestone with a Buddha and prayer space in it, guarded by the figure above.

Outside, there were numerous buildings, including monks’ accomodation, a crematorium, a large communal building, and several beautifully decorated smaller buildings.

This building was under maintenance and is currently being repainted. We peeked through the doors and saw a magnificent Buddha statue inside.

Mae Yai Waterfall

After the temple, we had planned to walk to Mae Yai Waterfall, however when we saw it was 3.5km away, we decided to flag down a passing taxi instead. We were glad we did because it was all uphill and would’ve taken us ages to walk there…I can only imagine the misery and moaning that would’ve caused!

The taxi driver kindly waited for us to have a look at the waterfall and then dropped us back at Khao Sok town centre so we could get some lunch. Thai green curry for Shaun and I, stir-fry chicken and veges for Anna and stir fry squid and rice for Leo.

River Tubing Trip

Initially, we were tossing up between a kayaking trip or tubing trip, but the kids both voted for the tubing, so we did that. We’re glad we did! It was so much fun drifting down the Khao Sok river in inner tubes, accompanied by a guide who knew the river well. He kept us in a raft formation for the swifter rapids and let us drift on our own for the slower ones.

Along the way, we saw monkeys playing on the banks and a couple of mangrove snakes all curled up on overhanging branches. The views of the jungle and cliffs along the river were stunning. We don’t have any photos from this, as we left our phones safely at our accommodation.

Khao Sok Overnight Lake Tour

In our research about Khao Sok, we had looked into booking an overnight lake tour online to stay in the floating bungalows on Khao Sok Lake. It was quite pricey, so we decided to wait and book at the accommodation if we chose to go ahead with it. Experience has taught us that these tours are often cheaper when booking in person at the destination, although I wouldn’t risk it in high season if you had your heart set on a tour or experience. This proved to be the case, and we saved over 1000 Baht each on the price! All up, the tour cost about NZ$140 per person.

We were collected at 9am the following morning, joined by a Dutch family of 5 who were also staying at our accommodation, for the hour long drive to the pier where our boat would depart from. Several other travellers met us there. All up, there were three families and a group of about eight young backpackers. It was quite a mixture of ages, but everyone was lovely and friendly, so we were very lucky with our group.

Once we had paid our National Park entry fee (200 baht for adults and 100 baht for kids), and a random pier admin fee of 20 baht per person, we boarded our boat and put on life jackets.

Khao Sok lake was created in the early Eighties, when a hydro dam was constructed to generate power. The area was flooded, becoming the enormous beautiful lake that it is today. People and wildlife living in the area were relocated, and many local people make a living out of the lake today from the tourism it attracts.

The boat ride across the lake was pretty noisy, splashy (for those of us at the front), and windy. This was juxtaposed with the breathtaking view of the lake with its gorgeous green-blue hues, lush jungle surrounds and steep limestone karsts rising up above us.

The Floating Bungalows

We were staying on floating bungalows about an hour away, and when we arrived, we were served a delicious Thai lunch.

A Jungle Trek

After putting our belongings in our bungalows and preparing for our trek with the right shoes and clothing, we boarded the boat for the short trip around to the start of our walk. Once we had all disembarked, we were straight into it with a river crossing across a log bridge!

Anna was delighted, being the acrobatic little monkey that she is. Leo didn’t even have time to protest as we were in a line of people who were just getting on with it. We were so proud of him, as he’s not a fan of balancing, but he nailed it! I think he was quite proud of himself as well. The photos from the walk are a bit cloudy because we needed to keep the phone in its waterproof pouch.

As we walked alongside the river, Anna pointed out the elephant ear leaves that our family call “umbrella trees”. Our guide, Tong, stopped and cut one off for Anna to use as an umbrella, telling her to be careful not to touch the milk from the cut as it can make you very itchy.

Anna was stoked and used the branch for a good half hour until she needed to use both hands for scrambling along the bank as the path disappeared.

After another river crossing, we entered the jungle properly, walking up alongside a stream to our destination.

Tong showed us how you can use bamboo as a musical instrument, cutting some and fashioning two flutes for the youngest children on the trek. It made a high-pitched sound like a recorder, and each flute had a different tone.

Aside from the bamboo and large leaved tropical plants, the lush greenery reminded me of bushwalks at home. It was very muddy underfoot, and we were glad we had invested in river shoes for the walk rather than sacrificing our sneakers.

It took us about an hour to reach the cave, which we couldn’t enter because it was raining and therefore too risky, and from here, it was another ten minutes of wading through water – waist deep at times – to get to the waterfall.

The kids scaled a tree and a large rock to get to the little pool at the top, where they had a wee dip…until someone discovered a leech on them and everyone hurriedly hopped out! We then waded back downstream ad walked back through the jungle to the boat. Along the way, it was even more muddy and slippery than before, after all the foot traffic and poor old Shaun went for a skate while helping Leo stay upright. His worst injury was bruising on his ribs, which has lingered for a few days.

By the time we arrived back at the final river crossing, we were pretty sore and tired…my legs were rather shaky after all the clambering and climbing so I was feeling pretty nervous about the return log crossing, especially with muddy shoes.

We all made it with no accidents, proof that you can always do more than you think you can!

Back at the boat, we discovered that Anna had also hosted a leech for while, although it must’ve drunk its fill and fallen off.

At the bungalows, we all jumped in for a refreshing swim. The lake is very deep in parts, and we really noticed the lack of bouyancy swimming in fresh water compared to sea water. Anna wore a life jacket the whole time when swimming in the lake.

One of the other families had young children, and even though they were Dutch, both children spoke some English, so Leo and Anna loved having playmates for a change. They really enjoyed their company.

Sunset Safari

That evening at 6pm, we went out on a sunset safari on the boat. We saw a couple of monkeys and a few birds. The most memorable part was the sunset, which was beautiful.

Returning to the bungalows was magical, as the limited electricity had been turned in, and the twinkling lights welcomed us back.

After an amazing Thai dinner of sweet and sour veges, rice, whole fried fish, massaman curry, and pumpkin, we chatted to the other guests for a while until our children were ready for bed. We hit the sack at about 9pm and passed out. Throughout the night, I woke several times to the sound of downpours outside, and every time, the sound of water hitting water left me desperate to go to the loo! I waited for the rain to subside before running the floating boardwalk gauntlet in the moonlight.

The Giant Jam Sandwich?

Leo and Anna have a book called the The Giant Jam Sandwich (thanks Tanya, Dom & Theo) and our time in the jungle has really reminded us of this book. Whenever you use jam or honey, you are besieged by wasps on a mission. They love sweet smells so much that I even saw them descend of someone who had just put on perfume! The kids learned the hard way by dousing their French toast in honey at our first breakfast at the Blue Mountain in Khao Sok. Now they know not to touch sugar or anything with sugar in it in the jungle!

The following morning on our lake tour, we were served the most delicious, fluffy pancakes. Unfortunately, many of our fellow tourists hadn’t learnt the sugar lesson and there were a lot of uneaten pancakes that morning. Leo, Anna, Shaun and I quietly ate our jam/sugar free pancakes away from the wasp frenzy.

Unfortunately, we couldn’t do the morning sunrise lake safari because of a heavy downpour, so breakfast was served a little earlier than planned.

After breakfast, we had free time to swim and kayak. The father of the Dutch children took Anna out on the kayak with his daughter, and the girls had a wonderful time soaking up the still morning on the lake.

Pra Kai Phet Cave

After our free time on the lake, we packed our things and headed back across the lake on the boat. About halfway across, we stopped to explore Pra Kai Phet Cave.

It was a short, slippery, muddy 15 minute walk alongside a stream to the cave entrance, although we all managed to stay upright!

Inside, there were hundreds of bats asleep, nestled up amongst the stalactites.

There were also huge cave spiders on the walls, minding their own business.

We followed the group about 30 metres into the cave before making our way out again. It was amazing to see the size of this cave. There are hundreds more like it throughout the landscape of Khao Sok, and you can see many cave openings when you look up at the cliffs.

This rock formation is a well-known landmark and symbol of Khao Sok Lake. It was beautiful sailing through here, as we learned that a temple and village is submerged beneath the lake here. We asked about the people who had lived here and found out that they were relocated as part of the dam project. It does make you wonder how disruptive this was to the local people and their way of life.

Back to Khao Sok National Park

After our trip back to the pick-up point for the van journey to Blue Mountain Khao Sok, we stopped briefly for lunch at a viewpoint over the dam, which showed the size of it. Comparatively, the power station on the other side didn’t seem all that big, but maybe it was just hidden from view.

The drive back was very quiet, with most of the children and some of the adults nodding off on the way. When we arrived, we collected our clean washing and dropped off all our wet, muddy things to be washed overnight. It’s a rather nice change not having to do the laundry myself, although at times things come back a bit shrunken from too long in the industrial strength dryers!

After showering and getting into clean, dry clothes, we went out to our favourite local place, Khao Sok Rasta Restaurant Thailand, for a delicious last dinner. The owners were so lovely, and it had a beautiful view overlooking the river. All up, we ate here about three or four times for lunch and dinner.

On the last evening, I got crispy fried fish with green curry sauce, and it was amazing.

They also had fire dancing later in the evening, although we only watched this for a short time as the choice of song – “Because I got high” – was not particularly appropriate, nor was the smell of weed smoke wafting through the air!

The Rainy, Steamy Jungle

Overall, the temperature in Khao Sok was the coolest that we’d experienced so far, getting down to 24 degrees one day. It was interesting experiencing the steamy tropical weather of the wet season in the jungle, and the challenges this presents in the way of mud, flash floods and getting things dry because the air is always heavy with moisture.

Even getting the 30 metres between our rooms proved to be a challenge during periods of rain!

The downpours brought relief from the humidity, and the intensity of the rain was like nothing we’ve ever seen before. It was also incredible how quickly it stopped and started. We were looking forward to drying out on the islands, where we were headed next to meet our friends  Nick, Sarah and their kids Lucas, Ben, and Sophie for 5 nights on Koh Tao and 7 nights on Koh Phangan.