Updated: 07/07/18 | July 7th, 2018
Located in the south of Thailand, Khao Sok national Park has always held my imagination. It’s continuously rated as one of the best parks in Thailand, with incredible trekking, camping, limestone karsts, cooling rivers, and a beautiful lake. ever because I’ve been concerning Thailand, I’ve been trying to visit Khao Sok, but the road bends in mysterious ways, and for one reason or the other, I’ve never been able to make it.
But this time, I used my going to friends and my job as “tour guide” as the excuse I needed to finally push myself to this park. and I’m happy I did — I’ve been to numerous fantastic national parks in Thailand, but this is one of the best.
I spent three days surrounded by dense jungle, animals, and cooling air. The highlight of my trip was the day-long jungle trek I took. starting out late in the morning (9:30), my friends and I met our guide, purchased our park entrance tickets, and drove to the far end of the park. instead of doubling back on the main trail, we would explore another trail, hike 400 meters to see some huge flowers, head toward a waterfall, eat lunch, and then walk back to the main park entrance.
It all seemed easy enough. I visualized a well-worn trail and a mildly strenuous day hike. We were doing 11 km in the jungle, so it wouldn’t be a cake walk, but I didn’t anticipate that this trek would be much of a challenge, especially because the last half was on the park’s main road.
Jeg tok feil.
Very wrong.
This hike was stressful, challenging, leech-infested, and exhilarating all at the same time.
It started out easy enough — we hiked 400 meters to visit huge parasitic flowers, which attach themselves to vines, then sap the life from them to grow. After nine months, they blossom, spray their seed throughout the jungle, and die within four days. However, while in bloom, the flowers are a sight to see.
The hike to the top wasn’t very tough. The trail was well worn and had incredible vistas from which to view the surrounding jungles, and I didn’t break much of a sweat. On the way up, we caught sight of a troop of gibbons making their way through the treetops. Gibbons in Khao Sok are rare to see, so it was quite amazing, especially because I love monkeys, though they moved too rapidly to be photographed. By the time I clicked my camera, they had moved on, so instead of fruitlessly capturing a photo, I just viewed them in their glory.
When we got to the top, our guide told us we would hike down to the waterfall. I assumed he implied we would be heading down another trail.
Again, I was wrong.
Our trail had opened up at the top of the waterfall and our guide looked at us. “OK, we’ll eat lunch, but first we have to get down. It will be no problem. We have ropes, and I go first.”
My friends and I looked at each other hesitantly. To get to the base of the waterfall, we were going to have to embrace our inner Indiana Jones to rappel down the side. As you may know, heights make me incredibly uncomfortable, and I opted to go down last as I worked up the courage to never look down.
However, we didn’t encounter too numerous steep drop-offs, and soon I was vying to the lead the way. We would rappel down ropes. When there was no rope to guide us, we scaled the rocky sides of the waterfall, holding on to vines as we made our way down to the base.
But the waterfall was not the worst of it. After lunch, we had to hike downriver, following the river, which sounds pretty simple. walking along a river bed is typically not a challenge, but not here. There was no trail or easy path. in some cases we had to walk on large, wet rocks, climb up the narrow embankment, or scale down vines again when the river became impassable.
And the leeches only made it worse. By the time I walked out of Khao Sok, I had taken seven leeches off my legs, and a few even found their way onto my arms. Luckily, unlike the leeches in northern Thailand, many of these leeches were small and easy to get off. Unfortunately, my friend didn’t notice one until the end, which by then had enlarged so much, it left a scar on his foot.
After the river and subsequent leech removal (cue The Life Aquatic jokes), we were in the home stretch — it was now an easy walk through a bamboo forest back to the park entrance. On our way out of the park we were given a farewell by another troop of monkeys. These weren’t gibbons (I forget their proper name), but they jumped around for a while, playing in the trees, and gave us one last exciting thing to remember.
When it was all said and done, our hike had lasted a little over eight hours. Back at my guesthouse, I took the hottest shower of my life, scrubbed myself clean, and collapsed on my bed.
Though tiring, this jungle trek was the most exciting in my recent memory. I left Khao Sok with a sense of rawness. here the lack of people and trails let you feel as if you are exploring the jungle for the first tid. Jeg elsker øyeblikkene når du reiser som får deg til å føle deg som om du har avdekket en skjult perle. Som om du hadde funnet et sted eller et sted som lenge var glemt av mennesket. Det er kanskje ikke tilfelle, men den følelsen av undring, eventyr og utforskning er det som driver meg på mine reiser.
Og i Khao Sok var det bare meg, jungelen og den følelsen av eventyr.
Men jeg kunne ha gjort uten igler.
Logistikk
Du kan komme til parken gjennom Surant Thani eller Phuket. Mange hoteller vil tilby deg privat transport for 2000 baht, selv om du kan ansette en taxi fra Surant Thani for rundt 1700 baht og fra Phuket for 2800 baht. Hvis du er sammen med en gruppe på fire, kan dette være en god avtale, da det er mye raskere og langt enklere.
Hvis du går med offentlig buss, er minibussen 240 baht hver vei fra Surant Thani Town og 320 Baht fra Phuket. Det vil slippe deg på hovedveien som fører opp til parken. Du må gå resten av veien.
Inngangsbilletten til parken er 300 baht.
Å ansette en guide fra en av turoperatørene eller gjestehusene (veldig anbefalt på grunn av mangelen på markerte stier) koster 600 baht for halv dag og 1200 baht for hel dag. Night Fotturing er 600 baht for 18.00 til 21.00.
Det er bare en minibank i byen.
Du kan finne billige pensjonater for 300 baht per natt med veldig grunnleggende innkvartering og kalde dusjer. Rommene blir bedre på rundt 600 baht per natt og luksuriøse rundt 1400 baht per natt. Telt tilgjengelig for leie fra 250 baht for 2 personer eller 300 baht for 4 personer. tilbehørskostnad per person; Pute 10 Baht, teppe 10 baht, sovepose 30 baht, ark 20 baht.
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Bestill turen til Khao Sok nasjonalpark: Logistiske forslag og triks
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