Khao Sok National Park, Thailand

Khao Sok is the place in Thailand where we definitely wanted to go. One of the largest national parks in Thailand, also with a very beautiful lake.
By the way, the lake has a rather interesting story - in 1982 a dam was built and over time this lake was formed. It has destroyed a large area of rain forests under its waters, but at the same time it is now one of the main attractions.

We arrived in Khao Sok from Bangkok, having bought a ticket with a transfer to Suratani (650 baht). After leaving Bangkok at 6 p.m., we were in Khao Sok around 10 a.m.

The accommodation was booked in advance, the cheapest that was found on the booking (400 baht/bungalow). We get off the bus. We are going to look at the map - how far we need to go to housing, and we are being attacked from all sides by people with the names of hotels, asking if we have reservations. Of course, we speak with the idea that they will leave us alone. They do not lag behind - they ask which hotel - and who remembers its name... And there's my name on one of the plaques! It turns out that we are also being greeted. There is generally a service of greeters deployed here - they do not know what time you will arrive, so a specially trained person with a sign greets all buses and delivers them to hotels. That's how we got to our hotel.

A nice bungalow on stilts, its own shower and toilet, all surrounded by greenery, well, just lovely.

The very first walk brought unpleasant news when entering the national park, you have to pay 300 baht per person - a rip-off. Therefore, we decided to wander around, looked at everything that was possible, found a cool interesting excursion to a non-standard place on the lake, but the price for two is not very high - 15,000 baht!

So you have to go to the usual one for 2300. This price includes a transfer, a longtail boat ride on the lake to the place of residence, a bungalow for one night, two lunches, breakfast and dinner, a walk to Namtalu Cave (Nam Ta Lu Cave) and through it, as well as a night and morning safari by boat, a walk through the jungle. In general, a rich program, and in between you can also go kayaking.

Eating in Khao Sok is expensive compared to Bangkok, but in the evening, walking around the neighborhood, we came across a local celebration - February 14 is celebrated on a grand scale. For 40 baht, they give you a festive bowl and water. The bowl is empty, but there are tables with the same food around and you can eat anything and as much as you want. There are fruits, juices, hot vegetables, meat dishes, soups, and even all kinds of grilled animals/birds.

And then the morning came, we had just had breakfast, and the car had already arrived for us. It took 40-50 minutes to get to the main pier. There are a lot of people, and even more boats. After paying for the entrance to the national park, we load into the boat.
Every minute more and more bizarre rocks grow out of the water, and a morning haze hangs in the air...

And here are our bungalows - from afar the view is simply amazing, on closer inspection everything is not so rosy, but still not bad.

We have some free time before lunch and we jump into kayaks. Moreover, there are only three of them and they are single. We went to a couple of bays, saw two flocks of macaques, some kind of groundhog...

That's the trip to the cave. At first, about 1-1.5 hours in the jungle. It's only 2.5km to walk, but rest stops, photos, etc.

And sometimes you can feel like a resident of the jungle and use the vines for their intended purpose

We are finally at the entrance to the cave. Another group comes in front of us. After taking a couple of pictures at the entrance, we plunge into the darkness of the cave.

It is worth noting that the cave is through and a river flows through it. Therefore, it is strictly forbidden to go to this cave during the rainy season. The water level arrives very quickly and you may not have time to get out...

That's the first place where the water will be knee-deep, we pass it with jokes. Very quickly, the guide informs you about the next place where you need to walk on the water - it's already waist-deep here. And finally, the highlight of the route is a narrow passage all flooded with water, the height of the water is about 1.4 meters, this is if you walk on stones, and even deeper. In general, one short woman in our group even had to swim. By the way, you should not worry about things, if you want, the guide will carry them in a hermetic bag and return them at the exit.

I would like to make the following summary about the cave - it's definitely worth going, it's cool there, but I would like more time to take a leisurely and meaningful look at everything and take pictures, the cave is not recommended only for claustrophobics and small children who cannot swim.

And there is a big fish living near our bungalow, it is constantly doing something at one of the logs. We gave her the name Pepper and knew that she would always meet us at home. And why Pepper, you ask, but so that no one would guess.

We just got back to the bungalow, and they're already calling us for dinner. As soon as they ate, they called to the boat. We have a night safari - a helmsman with a large headlight on the stern, a guide with a good lantern on the bow. At first, there were doubts at all, but will we see someone? But still they saw: monkeys, hefty bats, something feline and rhinoceros birds. A little, but nice.

The morning was greeted with a wonderful dawn.

And we went on a morning safari. Pretty quickly they found cute dark monkeys with light fur around their eyes. Then another place.

And then everyone heard the gibbons screaming. Quickly changing course, we rushed to the source of the sounds. And right on the coastal trees we saw gibbons, it's a pity they didn't please us for a long time - they went deep into the water.

Then there was the rhinoceros bird and the second meeting with gibbons. In general, the morning safari was a pleasure!

Apparently, in order for the next group to have somewhere to go, we leave immediately after breakfast with all our things. On the way back, we have a walk through the jungle. As for me, it's a pretty stupid event, no viewpoints, no something locally interesting, everything that happened yesterday on the way to the cave.

We come out of the jungle to a nice pier, where we have lunch and our boat is waiting. 20 minutes to go for a swim and go home.

It's a pity that it's so fast... The lake is large, beautiful, with many interesting corners, but the prices for boats are very biting, and it is not easy to find 20 like-minded people to share a boat rental with them... As for the national park, the infrastructure in Khao Sok is very weak.

And after the tour of the lake, we went to explore the jungles of Thailand, on the territory of the Khao Sok National Park

If you do not use the services of travel agencies, go along the route to the jungle. There are two routes: a short 4km and a long 7km. The short one is now closed, there is no trail as such, we walked along the riverbed for a couple of kilometers and returned.

I forgot to say, there are only two points on the routes that are the closest, where you can officially go without guides, the rest only with a guide. That's what they told us everywhere, but we hope to somehow slip through and go through everything ourselves.
At the start of the long route, we checked the tickets to the national park, signed up for the log that we had entered.

There are waterfalls along the route 1,2 points, and a car primer with branches to the water goes to them. Yes, and the Thais also called waterfalls, which in fact are just small cascades. Waterfalls can only be called those that are located at 5 and 7 points.

So we got to the 2nd point, and there is a house, toilets, beer, water - all conditions. Unnoticed, they slipped past the sign "No entry without a guide" further. By the third point, we realized that it was time for lunch, after all, 3 o'clock. We ate, it started raining! The first rain in the last 2 weeks! We were just about to leave, and here's a local employee. We smiled at each other and ran on until they saw us. And he caught up with us and says we have to go back, it's already evening. All our explanations about the tent and the burner did not lead to anything, because he does not know English. We had to return to the second point and spend the night there, but we were treated to tea /coffee and bananas.

Although they told us in the evening that you can go on in the morning, but somehow some people had something about the guide, so in the morning we got up early and quickly went further along the trail.

Here is already the 4th point - there is also a waterfall type, we will go to the fifth on the way back, firstly it is 1.3 km away from the main trail, and secondly we saw the map that from there you can go to the rafflesia trail, which we want to do.

The 6th point at first seemed like an unremarkable flood of the river, but swimming around the bend you see a gorgeous stone canyon, and at the end of it there is even a cave.

The path to the 7th point constantly goes steeply up, then steeply down, but still leads to a waterfall. But attention should be paid not only to the waterfall, but also to climb up the rock wall and walk along the river, which has washed out the most interesting passages among the rocks.

It is worth noting that the water in the river is clean and cool, and there are many places for swimming along the trail.

The road back flew by quickly and we are already at the turn to the 5th point. A small descent to the river. To ferment the river and along the tributary, constantly changing the shore, we go with a small climb. After a kilometer, the trail leads to a waterfall, under it a tub with a bunch of fish.

A little exploration and we go further along the marked trail. To the left of the waterfall, the trail goes up the slope, at the top the trail continues and exits... to another waterfall, which is twice as high as the first one and it is not marked on any map.

Photo, exploration and to the left of the waterfall there is another trail even with ropes hanging. There's a big log and another cable at the top, which means we're going right. But they walked a little more and the trail began to disappear completely. And by the evening, in general, we decided the morning of the evening was more complicated and stayed the night in the jungle.

GPS showed that we are 2.5 km away from the road in a straight line, but we know that without a trail it can take a whole day, it is easier to move along the riverbed, but we do not have a map and the direction of the river is unknown. We decided to walk along the riverbed in the morning and see if the river is going in the right direction.

We stopped in a remote bamboo forest in a small clearing, even lit a fire - also made of bamboo, and then enjoyed the singing of wild birds all evening.

The morning came imperceptibly and we went out, 30 minutes showed that we were going the wrong way and it was decided to return the same way.

We quickly escaped to the main trail. And there are always groups with guides and guides who look at us warily, they understand that we spent the night somewhere upstairs...

We stopped to buy and now we are leaving the park, we recorded what time we left, it turned out we walked for only 1.5 hours :-)

In Khao Sok, they took their belongings from the hotel and went to the bus stop.

The bus should be there in 30 minutes, but today is the first day of the Chinese new year, so we left only 1.5 hours later, for Phuket.

Information about the cost:

• Bangkok - Khao Sok 650 baht bus
• Entrance to Khao Sok National Park 300 baht
• Excursion to the lake 2 days/1 night 2300 baht (+300 baht for entrance to the park)
• Bungalow for two 400 baht
• Food from 80 baht per serving
• Khao Sok Bus - Phuket 200 baht