Khao Lak
When we told the manager at our hotel on Karon Beach that we will visit Khao Lak, she elaborated on all the different places that she and her family have visited along that stretch of coastline. According to her, locals that wish to enjoy the Andaman Sea but avoid the crowds on Phuket often opt for Khao Lak. As we disembarked at Thap Lamu Pier, 15 minutes away from central Khao Lak, we found this was the ideal place for us after the structured pace of the scuba diving liveaboard.
There are numerous accommodation options in and around Khao Lak, some hidden away, with access to small beaches and alcoves. We stayed on Nang Thong Beach, close to the Khao Lak Lighthouse. The beach is very child friendly, and it is a short 5-10min stroll up the road to several restaurant options and a large supermarket.
While you won’t find the (often repetitive) retail offerings of Patong Beach here, there are enough markets along the main road to satisfy the bargain(ing) hunters.
We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Khao Lak, so much so that we extended our stay. As always, extra time and research in a location leads to unexpected surprises, like Memories Beach where the children checked into Seapiens Camp for an afternoon of surfing lessons, while we watched from afar relaxing with beer in hand.
The culinary highlight was an early dinner at Phu View Restaurant. This hillside restaurant offers reasonably priced Thai dishes with possibly the best sunset views over Khao Lak.
A bonus is the free pickup/drop-off service that they offer from resorts in the area, recommended instead of a 15-minute uphill slog.
The extra time spent on one place also gave us an opportunity to plan ahead, including our immediate next destination. In the end we decided, based on conversations with and recommendations of fellow travelers, that it was time to leave the coast for a change and head inland for camping and trekking.
JUNGLE ALL THE WAY
Our first stop was Sawasdee Lagoon, off the main tourist track. with no public transport options, we had to arrange a private transfer and even our driver had to stop and ask for directions!
Our first impression was that it looks like the sort of place where students would come for a nature breakaway or teambuilding exercises. There are about twenty 2-man tents, spaced a few metres apart, set up around a small lake. Each tent is equipped with two (thin) mattresses covered with crisp white sheets, large white towels, an electricity access point, and a fan.
The tents, camping sites and ablution blocks are very clean and modern. They also proudly display the award for ‘cleanest ablution facilities 2016’ and it still lives up to the accolade.
It was midweek and we found ourselves the only guests for the two days we spent there. Communication with the family that run the campsite was not the smoothest, but as there was wi-fi around the office and main buildings we got by just fine with Google translate, pictures and a lot of gesturing and laughing on everyone’s part.
What makes this camping experience even more real, is the very loud croaking and buzzing sounds coming from the surrounding jungle. In fact, the ‘quietness’ of nature was so loud that it took some getting used to as we tried to get to sleep the first night.
There are lots of free activities to enjoy from bicycle rides, games and canoeing on the lagoon.
This is a true authentic experience, but to add to this was the old truck turned into a small spaza shop that visited the campsite every day. You get to try all kinds of interesting Thai treats, like sticky rice with sugar syrup.
Two days of sleeping on the ground was enough, so we headed to Khao Sok National Park, covered by the oldest evergreen rainforest in the world.
This park to the northeast of Khao Lak covers a large stretch of jungle. It is widely offered as a day trip (with different itineraries depending on the sites or activities you want included) by Tour Operators in Khao Lak but I would recommend that you stay in the area (two or three days is good) to make the drive out there worthwhile. The first thing you need to know is that there are two different zones to the park, with the west and east entrances to the park about an hour’s drive apart. Choose your accommodation based on the different experiences each side has to offer.
We stayed in Khlong Sok, just down the road of the western entrance gate. From this entrance, you can explore the jungle trails, find your way to the park’s waterfalls and caves, and even pitch a tent. We found great value for money accommodation options along the main road and a wide choice of restaurants and food stalls.
Our first jungle trek was two hours into the Park (tip: if you buy your entrance ticket after 16h30 you can use it again for the next day). The hike through the bamboo forest along a clearly demarcated path was easy, albeit a little slippery in places due to recent rains.
We encountered several leeches along the way, a common occurrence but more so after the rain. I was wearing white socks, so it was me that spotted the first uninvited passenger by my ankle. No one warned us in advance, so this caused about 2 minutes of wild panic with everyone ripping off their shoes and socks for an inspection. Now warned, we kept an eye out and started noticing them, about the size of a toothpick, ‘standing’ on one end and swaying around looking for an unsuspecting victim to attach themselves to.
Apparently, and we only read this afterwards, they are quite harmless in the sense that they do not pass diseases to their hosts. They detach once they have gorged themselves, but due to the anti-coagulant they secrete the wound will continue to seep blood for a while afterwards and leave an unsightly wound to heal.
In short, it is more the gross factor than anything else that make them unwanted. Apparently, you can get ‘leech socks’ that are too finely woven for them to attach through, but we did not see any of these for sale.
Another recommended attraction is Cheow Larn Lake, an artificial reservoir created when the Ratchaprapha Dam was completed in 1982. Also referred to as the ‘Emerald Lake’, the mesmerizing colour and towering limestone karsts make this one of the most beautiful destinations in Thailand. We considered booking the ‘floating village’ accommodation on the Lake but instead opted to stay in our Tree Hut in Khlong Sok and do a day trip out. Pickup was around 08h00 and we would be back by 18h00, so nothing too taxing.
Once at the Lake, we met our guide and what a treat he was! An older gentleman with broken but passable English, his infectious energy and commentary added to what was a thoroughly enjoyable day. He ushered us, and about 8 other tourists, onto his longtail boat and we set off at high speed, flitting between rocky outcrops, staring up in awe at the sheer rockfaces and trying to spot birds and monkeys.
To put sightings at a distance to scale, our guide used his reference of choice, comparing each of the animals to the size of a standard chicken.
We spotted groups of large fruit bats, the ‘flying fox’ (or rather ‘flying fok’ as pronounced by our guide). These are about the size of a chicken.
Our standard day trip included three stops, the first being an hour-long trek into the jungle. This is where our guide really came into his own, extracting potable water from bamboo, catching large spiders with his bare hands, making ready-to-wear accessories for the kids and carving knives from the flora that he would later use to cut our post-lunch mangoes.
The second stop was at the floating villages, where we were served a traditional Thai lunch of green curry, deep fried whole fish caught from the lake, rice, and fruit. After lunch we had an hour of free time to jump off the floating restaurant’s pontoons, swim, and row around. These are pretty much the same activities we would have enjoyed had we stayed at the floating village. Whilst enjoyable for the afternoon, I am glad we did not pay the premium to experience this novelty accommodation as I fear the children may have gotten bored after a while.
Our last stop on the way back was the Coral Cave where we ventured about 500 metres into the darkness with the aid of headlamps provided by our guide. Though impressive, these caves are frequented by tourists and their actions are not really monitored. It made me think of the sections of the Cango Caves in Oudtshoorn where you can see the damage caused by vandals and souvenir hunters before it was cordoned off by the authorities.
As we made our way back to the pier, our guide spotted two large hornbills in a tree. They were impressive in size (at least 4 to 5 chickens), even at a distance, and our guide was very keen to show us their wingspan. No amount of shouting or cajoling on his part could, however, persuade them to leave their perch. I am also not sure if it is in the National Park Guide handbook to launch small projectiles with a slingshot at the local fauna, but it was quite the spectacle watching him perform his hornbill flying dance.
Back at our hut in Khlong Sok, we all agreed that the lake was a spectacular highlight and the ideal way to end off our jungle trekking expeditions. So, off the beaches and islands we go!
