BEST Part of Thailand? Khao Sok National Park | Know BEFORE You Go!

Today is a very special day because we are at the beautiful Khao Sok National Park. Take a bus, a ride up to Khao Sok National Park. Absolutely gorgeous the whole time you're passing through rubber tree plantations and palm tree plantations. It's absolutely beautiful. Most of your hotels in the main downtown area is located near the jungle section. To get to the entrance to where the lake is, where all of the boats leave, you'll actually need to drive one hour to Chao Larn Lake. To get to the pier there's a few different options you can do. The most common one from the downtown area costs $1,500 baht per person. Now that does not include the park entrance fee which is $300 baht. So the total comes out to $1,800 baht per person. But keep in mind that does include transportation, it includes breakfast and lunch I believe. We're opting to do the more DIY approach. So we're taking our trusty little motorbike down to the pier. We're going to see if we can run our game and save a few bucks. When you get here it's time to negotiate for the number of hours you will spend out on the lake. We ended up getting a deal for four hours at $2,500 for four people on a small boat. Now keep in mind you also have to pay the park entry fee which is $300 baht per person. So for $9.25 per person we'll go out on this essentially private boat for four hours. Not bad. Keep in mind this is a comparison to the normal $1,500 baht rate not including the park fee which is a full day tour. So per person it would usually cost $1,800 baht to come out here for the day. So doing it independently, save a little bit of cash for it. Our first stop of the day is a little cove that's about 30 to 45 minutes away from the pier. And then from there we're going to go deeper into the lake. If you couldn't tell already this place is absolutely gorgeous. And as you can see behind me there are these really dramatic limestone cliffs with the lake being the highlight. Now the lake wasn't always here. This was dammed or artificially created in 1982. Shortly after the park was established a few years later in 1982 the Ratchapapra Dam was built which created the Chao Larn Lake. Enclosed it is 165 square kilometers. And the purpose of the dam was to provide electricity to all of southern Thailand. So all along the lake there are these hotels that are floating. And the cost varies depending on the season you're here. We've read that they can cost anywhere from $200 to $300 per night. But this particular one that we are at cost $1,800 baht per person and that includes three meals. So essentially $3,600 baht per night for two people. You get your own private bungalow and honestly if it's in your budget I would say go ahead and do it. Not only do you get to spend the night inside of the lake but you get to wake up. You can jump right off of your bungalow balcony right into the water. Yes, these bungalows are fully equipped with a bathroom. They have a toilet, they have a shower, and they have a sink. Another perk of these bungalows is that there are kayaks readily available. Even if you're not staying here they offer them complimentary which is also a great way to explore the lake. So a little history on Khao Sok. It officially opened as a national park December 22nd, 1980. There's two main parts to it. A jungle trekking section and the lake section which is obviously what we chose to do. Now before it became a national park you're probably wondering how all of this got here to begin with. Approximately 425 to about 380 million years ago this area was covered in water. But the water slowly started dropping enough to where it was warm enough to form corals. So fast forward millions of years and then we started getting limestone deposits here. Now at that time it said that this whole area of limestone and coral was about five times the size of the Great Barrier Reef. And it stretched from China all the way down to Borneo. So fast forward millions and millions of more years and now we're in the ice age period where the water is slowly rising. But that was okay because the corals were rising with the water but it wasn't enough. So eventually the water rose there was a lot of sediment that was deposited. And just over time of the weight of the sediment and the depth of the sediment mixed with the limestone and the coral. It was just a huge pressure system. So then if you fast forward a little bit longer there was some magma under the earth that shot up. I believe it was granite and that mixed with the limestone and the coral. Which kind of caused a reaction and formed a little bit of the compound that we know which is tin. So this area used to be mined for tin in like the 70s. Anyway so now we have the recipe it's all kind of floating around in the pot. But we're still not here to these crazy formations that you see. So then about 66 to roughly 3 million years ago right at the time that the Himalayas were forming. The Indian tectonic plate was pushing against Eurasia plate. Which was pushing into Thailand and basically caused all this uplifting sliding and movements. Which jetted these crazy limestone formations that we see today to be here. And that's my history lesson. The structures that you see here today are a mixture of the limestone, the sandstone and the granite that was pushed up. Over time the acidic rain has kind of weathered them down a little bit. So that's the remaining karst that you see. These are the same types of formations that you can see in Borneo as well as the iconic Ha Long Bay in Vietnam. If you find yourself here in Thailand you might go to Rele Beach. Rele is fantastic. It has this huge limestone cliff wall that's very impressive. But one thing that Jen noted when we were out here is that you get that times a hundred. This thing is loaded with these dramatic limestone cliffs. And that's what really makes coming out here worth it. So it is a little bit more on the expensive side. But again this is one of those slept on areas where you don't really think about coming when you're in Thailand. But I promise you it's worth the effort to get out here. It will not disappoint you to come out here. It is breathtakingly beautiful and quite possibly one of my favorite spots in all of Thailand. So the lake is one adventure you can do but the other adventure involves a lot of hiking. And through that hiking you basically walk through a jungle. And there's a lot of different species of wild animals in the jungle. Apparently there's a lot of wild elephants, tigers, leopards, hundreds of bird species. About the craziest thing we've seen today though has been one little lizard and a few hawks or eagles or ospreys. Whatever you want to call them. You might have a better chance if you do those jungle treks. But do be warned if you choose to do the jungle trekking with that comes a lot of beaches. Some of these cliffs are anywhere from three to five hundred feet tall. They really really make you feel insignificant and tiny. Which isn't a feeling that I get too often. It's mystical, it's magical. I think it's cool just because this is earth. And I think it's unbelievable that these structures even exist. They're not man made. They're just here and we happen to be here. And that's pretty cool. Welcome to the hood gondola. I have my chauffeur paddling me back to the bungalow. I don't know if we'll use that because I sound like an idiot. I feel like they should shoot Indiana Jones here. Or Tomb Raider. Do you know how to tie a fisherman's knot? No.