Khao Sok National Park
Khao Sok is in the Surat Thani Province that borders the provinces Phuket and Krabi. For us, a logical destination after spending time in Phuket. It is the place to go after spending time on the beach.
Before my trip to Thailand, the only thing I knew about Khao Sok that it was “nice to visit”. Now that I have been there I can say that Khao Sok is not just nice to visit, it is the place you should add to the itinerary because it is just too beautiful, amazing, stunning, wonderful, surprising and so much more to skip.
Khao Sok National Park
Why is it so amazing? That is mostly because Maarten and I LOVED Khao Sok National Park. Khao Sok National Park is part jungle and home to Cheow Lan Lake. This lake is a man-made lakes topped with lake houses where you can stay a night or two. The lake even has a dam called Ratchaprapha.
Khao Sok has limestone karsts that rise out of everywhere that are millions of years old and are home to quite some wildlife. The water is a perfect temperature to swim in and has no dangerous animals.
The trek into Khao Sok National park begins with a boat ride across Cheow Lan Lake. We booked a longboat for 1500 THB for ourselves, so we could take pictures without bothering other people and decide ourselves where to stop.
The starting point to your boat ride is near the dam. Think of concrete, metal and dull brownish water. After being in the longboat for around fifteen minutes, the scenery opens up and becomes spectacular. This is the time to admire the scenery, because now the limestone karsts are rising up, the water turns a deep turquoise green and the noise fades away. The karsts are wrapped by the jungle. You can see old, huge vines and sometimes a monkey. Not only have we admired the view, we also had time to swim, hang out and eat lunch at one of the lake houses during our trip.
Art’s River Lodge
If you want to make your childhood dream of sleeping in a treehouse come true, book a night at Art’s River Lodge. All kinds of different tree houses next to the river. The treehouses are small and basic but fun to stay in for one or two nights.
Pawn’s restaurant
TripAdvisor or as Maarten pronounces it: “Trip Adviseur” has been our biggest friend during this trip. It helps you by finding the best restaurants and other stuff, for your current location, in every price range. So after reading the raving reviews of Pawn’s we knew we should eat there. It was probably one of the best chicken dishes in our whole trip and the fresh pineapple shake is to die for.
