Khao Sok National Park

Getting to Khao Sok National Park felt like the most chaotic journey of my life. For only $20 on 12GoAsia I booked transit from Koh Phangan to Khao Sok, compared to $300 for my hotel to pick me up once on mainland. The first red flag was the ticket just said Koh Phangan Ferry and destination Khao Sok, but didn’t show any details on how I would get to Khao Sok once on mainland. 

After a quick taxi I got to the ferry and got my sticker so they could identify me. The ferry wasn’t as glam as my ferry over - it was more of a cargo ship with a few human seats. There was no outside seating and the inside seating had no fans or AC. Despite all that it was a fine 2.5 hour ferry. Once we got to mainland, I assumed I would have time for a bathroom break and a snack prior to the 4 hour bus ride to Khao Sok, but no such luck - we were immediately rushed onto a bus and sent on our journey. 

One hour into the bus ride is when things took a turn. The bus pulled over to literally the side of the road and a man came on and screamed “Khoa Sok get off now” repeatedly and angrily until we were all off. It was pouring rain and about 10 of us got off and were rushed into a smaller van. With basically no room for all of our things we took off. We assumed we should get comfortable for the remaining 3 hour drive to Khoa Sok, but within 5 minutes we pulled over and were ordered to get off with all of our things at another random destination. The man who opened the van door instilled us all with confidence in the process by saying “wow so many pretty girls”. Within 2 minutes of arrival the “pretty girls” man ordered me and just one more girl to get our things and get into this other van. Luckily given my age and weight I felt confident I wasn’t going to get trafficked, but I did wonder if I would ever make it there. After another short less than 5 minutes we were shuffled off this van and put on another van which was full except for two seats. Luckily I was able to confirm the people on this van were going to Khao Sok! Again we were not allowed any bathroom breaks or snacks with all these stops. Each van transfer we were rushed and told to move as fast as possible. I tried to not get comfortable because at this point I realized at anypoint I could be rushed off the van to another van. Within 30 seconds of starting the journey the driver pulled over to get gas. 

Sidebar, I don’t understand the getting gas process in Thailand - the driver appears to just pull over to a gas station and tell the pumper something, than literally within 1 minute it is done and no payment is exchanged. This happened at least 10 times while I was in Thailand. How does payment work? Is it faster to get gas in Thailand? I feel like it always takes me at least 5 minutes to pump gas. 

After gas within 2 minutes we pulled over to pick up a kid from school. The 3 hour journey continued with stops every 5-20 minutes to a comical level of absurdity with the driver picking up packages, dropping packages off, getting food, dropping the kid off from school, etc. all while we waited in the car without the option for food or bathroom breaks. It was raining so hard during part of the ride that the driver was filming it on his phone! Finally, after 3 hours we were dropped off at the Khao Sok bus station. I was surprised this was the bus station because it literally was just a bench with a sign on the side of the road. From there a taxi aka the back of a pickup truck drove me to my hotel. 

After a long day of chaotic travel I was excited to get to my hotel room and get some AC. Unfortunately, for me I didn’t read all the details on this hotel and there was no AC and no screens/blocker for bugs to enter my room with mass space between the roof and the walls. Also, I was strongly warned about the monkeys who might break into my room. I witnessed their aggression almost immediately as they jumped onto the table at the restaurant and stole people’s food as they were eating it. I was set to stay at this hotel for two nights, but I opted to start my tour one day early and just do one night with the bugs. To close the day of chaos there was a horrible rain and thunder/lightening storm that kept me awake worrying a tree would fall on my room and kill me as I slept!

The next morning was the start of the Khao Sok with my overnight lake tour starting. Smiley’s picked me up at 8:30 AM and we headed to the lake. The van ride there was 1.5 hours and we were treated with a trip to 7-eleven + bathroom break on the way - truly a luxury after the day prior. After reaching the lake we piled onto long tail boats and were given a 1.5 hour boat ride to our accommodations. Once arriving at the lake houses we were greeted with a lovely lunch buffet of tradition Thai dishes. After lunch we had free time to kayak, float on rafts and just relax in our rooms. It was so quiet and peaceful on the lake. Prior to dinner we were taken on an even boat safari where they showed us animals (mainly monkeys) around the lake and we enjoyed the peace of the lake. In the morning we had another relaxing boat ride then lunch followed by a jungle plus cave hike. The hike was hands down the highlight of the trip. It was such a wonderful hike through the jungle to a cave which had a river running through it. At the cave I was able to use the headlamp my dad got me for Christmas over 5-10 years ago. The start of the cave had tons of bats hanging from the top of the cave and smelled truly horrendous - turns out bat poop smells way worse than elephant poop. The cave was very cool and the headlamp was actually required. At one point the cave got very narrow and we had to swim about 10 feet to get to keep going through. The toughest part of the hike was getting in and out of the boat which required using this rope to climb up a steep cliff and then back down and jumping back into the boat. I did take a minor tumble doing this to get back into the boat because my sandals were all muddy and slippery on the inside.

​After a short boat ride back to the lake house we had another lovely thai lunch and then grabbed our bags to head back to the mainland. After we got back they had vans waiting for us to take us to our next destination. It all was so seamless and such a cool experience.

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