Khao Sok Thailand

The bus rocked side to side for the five hour ride form Phuket, Thailand to Khao Sok, Thailand. From the beach town of sin, sex tourism and partying to the unknown national park of unspoiled rainforest. “Khao Sok”, the bus driver called out, a rugged looking backpacker, Anthony and I are the only ones to get off.  The three of us hire a truck, the only one around, to drive us down the only road around. The town is small with two general stores, a few restaurants and five resorts catering to the only industry.  The road dead ends at Khao Sok National Park.

In the morning of day one we scheduled an elephant ride for 900 Baht/person (~$30), cliché I know. Being Americans we expected some sort of safety briefing when we arrived, don’t shout, no flash and no sudden movements. Being Thailand, the staff simply gestured toward an elephant and we hopped on. 

An elephant is not the smoothest of animals, both in texture of skin and ride comfort. Their skin is thick and coarse with bristly hairs and we rocked side to side in our seat as we headed into the jungle. Despite the rocking, an elephant ride is pretty cool and it was made even better by the fact that we were taken into the rain-forest. Through streams, over rocks and past trees until we hopped off and got to spend a few minutes at a waterfall. On the way back, this being a rain forest, water fell from the sky as if someone was spraying a water hose at us. We huddled under some umbrellas and laughed in aww of the rain. Afterwards, for 20 Baht (<$1) we treated our elephant to some pineapple. 

On our second day, Anthony was feeling a little tired and stayed in as I walked out one morning to the park. There is a 200 Bhat (~7USD) entrance fee that I was happy to pay. Khao Sok is some of the oldest rainforest in the world and receives around 3.5meters of rainfall a year. Just walking through the paths without a guide I could see a number of interesting animals including, spiders, snakes, ants, birds and leeches.