Khao Sok and the Jungle Trek

After a very unorganised and manic journey, we arrived at Jungle Huts in Khao Sok National Park. The scenery yet again was stunning and 'crazy woman' running the place sits with us and describes the treks and shows us how to write our names in Thai.

We met some people on the bus so decided to go for a walk to suss the place out. We walked to another more expensive guesthouse and had some dinner. The woman refused to add noodles to Claire's soup for reasons unknown.

Walked back in the dark and haggled with a tour rep and got 200 baht off our two day, one night trek.

Day one of trek. 



Set off early in back of a truck and reached a dam about an hour later. Then had a longtail boat ride and saw lots of monkeys and eagles. Arrived at our raft huts which were so rickety it was funny. Jumped in the lake literally from our doorstep then had lunch which was great - a huge buffet of Thai food. Did introductions with the rest of the group then off trekking we went.

The trek was ok, we saw a huge diamond snake (or something like that) in the trees. Then we reached the cave where 9 people had died five years ago (found that out afterwards). The cave started narrow and soon we reached deep water that required some swimming and scrambling. I heard this odd rumbling sound and soon after, the guide told us to move a bit quicker. It was a tad scary but soon the cave widened and dried up. We saw hundreds of bats, some catfish and a massive spider. Reached daylight to a bit of relief. I don't really like caves.

More trekking then back to base for dinner which was just as good as lunch, in fact better. Fresh fish and stuff.


Went on a night safari after dinner and saw hornbills, owls and stuff like that then returned to play drinking games. After getting through about ten bottles of some mixed spirit called Hong Thong we were all pretty shit faced. I played some guitar and at about 2am went to bed.

Had to get up early for morning safari during which we saw some gibbons swinging in the trees making their funny noises. Breakfast was just pancakes which were pretty dry if you don't like fruit.

Did one more trek over a mountain and then had a boat ride back to the dam for lunch. Got back to our Jungle Huts and went for dinner with some of the people we had met on the trek. I was knackered so after a few drinks in a reggae bar we went to bed.


Decided to have a lazy day the next day but we still saw lots of wildlife including baby monkeys on our balcony, a chipmunk, a massive toad, some flying lizards and a pet bat who Claire named Rabies.

Had some nice food at this place called Thai Herb and just chilled out. When we were walking home in the dark, the whole town's power went out so it was completely pitch black. That was good fun - knowing that there was jungle nearby made it all the more interesting.

The next day we checked out and planned local transport to Ranong in order to make the border run to Burma so that we could stay in Thailand for 15 more days.

Khao Sok is a really cool place. Pretty scenery, friendly people and good variety. The trek was about £50 each but well worth it for the experience.

Next up, Burma border run.