Khao Sok was very high on my wish list when we first booked flights to Thailand. It was a bit of an adventure to get there - 6 hours on a minivan with multiple stops (the driver stopped to drop boxes of Nescafé off at a supermarket - so random).
We were staying at Khao Sok Riverside Cottages and had booked a three night stay, including an overnight stay on the Khao Sok floating bungalows.
Our accommodation was amazing - a wooden bungalow in the jungle. The entire facility, including all the bungalows and walkways, are elevated as this minimises soil compaction. They also used reusable glass bottles for water and supported various community initiatives (ie. Providing education for children who are Burmese refugees and, as they’re not citizens, are not entitled to an education in the Thai system).
We went on a canoe tour on our first afternoon there - it was… interesting. Suffice it to say, our canoe guide was an absolute beginner and had no idea how to steer a canoe. We got stuck on rocks and were paddled into the river banks many times. I actually felt bad for the kid, he was in the water trying to steer the boat half the time.
Eventually, one of the most experienced canoe guides took over by tying our boat to his with a rope and steer us as little convoy. Our poor rookie guide!
It was pretty quiet, but we did see some cute monkeys!
We also did decide to give our beginner canoe guide a tip - because everyone had to start somewhere!
We were also treated to massages as part of the package we had paid for - just a massage and the sounds of the jungle. It was slightly less relaxing than it sounds, anyone who had had a Thai massage would know that there is some pretty intense stretching and pushing going on!
The next day we were up early for our overnight lake stay. We got on another long boat and it was about an hours ride through Cheow Lan Lake to get to the floating bungalows.
The scenery is beautiful, but you certainly don’t stay dry on that boat ride - we both copped quite a lot of water to the face!
There are beautiful limestone cliffs through the lake, which is surrounded by dense rainforest - it did remind us a little of Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.
We were really impressed by our accommodation - we stayed at Kee Ree Warin Resort and had expected very rustic accommodation with a shared bathroom and no power. It was much nicer than expected - there was even a glass panel in the floor to ‘fish watch.’ We did see some fish but they were pretty ‘vanilla’ as far as fish go.
We could jump straight off the front deck of our floating bungalow into the lake for a swim - it felt pretty once-in-a-lifetime!
The lake has an interesting history, it was originally damned in the 1980s in order to create hydroelectric power for the region.
Then, as per the website: The valley was flooded in 1987, and in the process five villages were evacuated from the area which is now Cheow Larn Lake. The houses, schools and temples of these villages now rest on the floor of the lake; Thailand’s own Atlantis.
All of this resulted in the lake it it’s current form - the Ratchaprapha Dam supplies sustainable power to large parts of Southern Thailand and the lake has provided fishing opportunities as well as ecotourism.
I did wonder if the locals were annoyed by tourists visiting their once very quiet national park, but apparently there are more job opportunities here than ever before.
We did a few little side trips whilst we were there - a hike, visiting a cave and floating around on the long tail boat looking for animals, but I mostly enjoyed just sitting on our little balcony and relaxing on the lake. It was a pretty memorable place to read a book!
Upon our return to Khao Sok Riverside Cottages, we felt like we’d been given an upgrade to an even nicer jungled bungalow. It had a beautiful balcony and we sat on it for some time, just reading and feeling very peaceful.
We enjoyed Khao Sok for its uniqueness - it felt so different to any other place we had visited in Thailand thus far.
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