A weekend at Khao Sok National Park

Hello everyone! 

I have officially left Bangkok. The city was fun, but in the end, there is way more to do in Thailand than just stay in Bangkok. 

I spent an incredible weekend at Khao Sok National Park. I have in Thailand for about 9 days so far, and it is the best experience I have had yet. Maybe one of the best things I have ever done. 

I ended up taking an overnight train to Surat Thani. That was my first long train trip, and it was actually a lot of fun. Pretty much everyone on board were tourists, so I had the opportunity to talk to some like-minded people. On the overnight train, I had a bed, so it felt like I was in first class on an international flight! 12 hours later, around 7:15am, I arrived in Surat Thani and got on a bus to Khao Sok. The bus ride was about two hours. When I arrived, someone told me about a lake tour that was offered. By the sounds of it, I couldn't not do this, so I ended up doing it!

On board the night train from Bangkok to Surat Thani!

The lake tour was the best part. We were driven to the lake, and boarded a long tail boat. After about an hour, we arrived at some bungalows, where we spent the night. It was very basic, but being about 2 steps from the lake was awesome. The water was very warm, and it was so fun to swim. I was the only American on the tour, along with quite a few Germans, two girls from the UK, three people from the Netherlands, and one person from Brazil! Quite an international group. 

Accommodation for the night!

After we had a chance to swim, we went trekking through the jungle. I have never been in the "jungle" before, so this was a very cool experience for me. The jungle was full of many bugs and we walked across the river several times. There were quite a few waterfalls, it was all very green. We reached a cave, but we couldn't go all the way through because it had been raining the day before, so a lot of the cave was completely full of water. We went part of the way in and stripped down to just swim clothes and swam part of the way through. It was a really cool experience! 

Jungle trek!

The next morning we went on a morning safari boat ride, and saw a few monkeys and some birds. We had some delicious pancakes after that and then went to another cave! I was very surprised to learn there are 5 caves at Khao Sok. 

This weekend was one of the best, and I am now at Koh Phangan, an island on the eastern side of Thailand. More to come on that soon!

Zach