We started our time in Thailand island hopping the south west as we arrived in Koh Lipe from Langkawi, Malaysia (see my island hopping guide to Thailand https://expeditioningloveandstuff.com/2016/12/03/adventures-in-thailand/ )
Khao Sok national park:
So our Thailand mainland trip started on a bus from Phuket heading north to the epic national park of Khao Sok. There are many tours available to guide you through the park and all are available at Khao Sok itself. However as always we went it alone so here’s how we tackled what looks quite a daunting leg of the trip due to not much information online.
The bus dropped us off on the main road at the entrance road to the park. This is the road which many hotels of all budgets as well as bars restaurants and tour operators are based. We actually had the best food here! The roads were completely flooded when we arrived so gladly accepted a lift in a pick-up to a hotel. The road itself is only a couple of km long so we had planned to just walk along to find somewhere to stay. It turned out this particular hotel was also completely flooded out so we gave our apologies and simply walked away to another, drier place round the corner!
The park has 2 main parts; the jungle bit at the top of the road and the lake which is 60km away. Entrance fees are 300 baht each and only last 24hours so we wanted to try and do both in the same day.
We woke up early, had breakfast and rented a scooter to drive the highway to the lake which was signposted all the way. We got there at 10am before the coach loads of people pulled up and asked to rent a boat for half a day to explore the lake. It cost 1500 baht but meant it was just us in the boat whereas to book on a tour would cost 800 baht each and the boats were very crammed. After we arranged the boat we queue jumped with the boat guy to pay the park entrance fee and set sail.
The lake itself is simply stunning! I have never seen such pure emerald green water in my life and so calm. The dongs and mountains that litter the water are breathtakingly big the whole place looks prehistoric and I expected to look up and see teradactyles swooping around! We cruised around stopping at the floating hotel for ice coffee before we had to head back to see the second part of the park.
We had lunch back at the main road to the park by our hotel and used the same park ticket to enter. There are many routes clearly marked with maps on boards along the main route. We had seen that posters may be up stating that it is not possible to go further without a guide but theses are not the national park property and have been placed by tour operators so that you book a guide. We only had an afternoon so couldn’t go too deep into the jungle but we saw plenty of monkeys insects and lizards and scrambled around the river and waterfalls. To be honest again as in other national parks we have visited in Asia, the experience as beautiful as it was, was pretty tame so we were very glad we went the same day as the lake and not spent another entrance fee and whole day for this part.
We arranged a sleeper bus to Bangkok with our hotel as the price looked the same everywhere we looked. Be advised if you do the same that it will be a minibus cram packed full with more people than seats that will leave you at a tour operator that seems in the middle of no where for a couple of hours where the sleeper bus will collect you. Also, the sleeper bus isn’t the best. The seats are standard for any coach, the bus made many stops with the lights coming on fully every time. I like to think I can sleep anywhere through anything but I think I got 1 or 2 hours maximum.
Bangkok:
All too quickly it’s 5am and you are at Bangkok southern bus station which is the other side of the river to downtown and Khaosan road which is where our place was. Luckily a guy in the bus was heading the same way so we were able to share a taxi rather than catch another bus and a 4km hike. The first taxi driver quoted 700 baht which we declined and got another for 350 baht so as tired as you may be don’t be ripped off!
We got to our place too early for check in so we headed to the nearby market and had some food.
When we were allowed to check in we crashed straight out in bed and slept! Little did I know that my body was already fighting a nasty bug… We woke up to darkness so headed straight to Khao SAN road for food and a knees up! Khaosan road is definitely a backpackers heaven!
Aside from drinking, there are many temples and palaces in Bangkok close by to the tourist district as well as a stadium to see real Thai muy boxing. There are also floating markets just outside of Bangkok and tours are offered to see the famous bridge over river kwai.
However, I woke with a predictable hangover so didn’t feel like sightseeing. We planned to rest and see a boxing match on the evening. The evening came and I felt worse. I woke the next day worse still and realised it was more than a hangover so unfortunately we didn’t see as much of Bangkok as we had liked to.
Chiangmai:
After 3 days of feeling very sick I started a course of antibiotics but I was still too sick to get out of bed for another few days meaning our planned trip to Chiangmai mai never happened. Maybe next time Thailand?!
So from my bed in Bangkok we caught a flight to Vietnam to spend a couple more days in bed there! Be sure to stay tuned for my how to keep fit and healthy in the road blogs!
Has anyone been to Chiangmai? I would love to hear what we missed out on!
expeditioningloveandstuff 