It was a much less exciting day due to largely being a travel one, but I figure it’s still worth mentioning. My next destination was Khao Sok, another national park in the area famed for its beautiful landscape with dramatic limestone mountains and the oldest evergreen rainforests in the world. I’d arranged a van to take me there. 

In the morning I ordered breakfast at the hotel (a little extra charge but figured it was worth it). Some eggs, toast, and sausage (though every time I had sausage in Thailand they were more like hotdogs, which was fine with me). Then I got a Grab car to take me over to the van station in town. The van picked me up and we drove for about three hours, stopping every once in a while to let people off at various stops. I was a bit surprised, as in Europe most buses I’ve taken that don’t have a bathroom will do a stop or two along the way at a rest stop or gas station. That didn’t happen, but thankfully it wasn’t a long enough drive to be a problem.

I just enjoyed listening to some podcasts and staring out the window. It was a very pretty drive, especially once we neared the park. 

I arrived at the van station outside of Khao Sok. It was only like a kilometer and a half to the hotel, and the road was actually in decent condition, so I opted to walk. 

I stayed at Khao Sok Jungle Huts resort, a little place with guest houses outside of the national park. At the hotel I was shown to my little jungle bungalow. It’s pretty cute, up on stilts with a little porch area. Mosquito net around the bed and AC, which are both good to have. 

I scheduled a full day trekking tour the next day to go through the jungle looking for wildlife. But the resort didn’t really have anything else I could do for today. The lady at the desk suggested I just “relax” until tomorrow. But that’s not really my style. I asked about a night tour that evening, but she said it would be the same route the next day so she didn’t recommend it. 

I was a little disappointed, but honestly figured it might be for the best. 

I went and walked around a little bit instead, had some snacks and water. I used the hiking app I have on my phone (AllTrails) to see if there were any trails outside the park I could do on my own. There was one listed nearby that was short to the monkey temple. I opted to try that. 

It was basically just following some dirt roads down to the temple. Not really a “hike” but it was a good opportunity to enjoy some wildlife, take some pictures, etc. Saw some monkeys along the way who got super close to me, but seemed uninterested thankfully. I enjoyed taking some pictures of them. They were long tailed macaques, so a different variety than the ones I’d seen earlier in the trip. 

I arrived at the monkey temple and it looked like it was being repaired, and also wanted me to pay to go in. I just opted to look through the gate and snap a few pictures of some monkeys I saw before heading back.

I did a little more wandering down to the main gates of the park and exploring the tiny town, but eventually headed back to my place.

I had a leisurely afternoon having some coffee on the porch, and cleaning up from getting all sweaty on my walks, and then eventually went to find dinner. 

Had some Thai food not too far from my hotel at Pawn’s Restaurant. Most of the food around the park area was European… I mean it’s a very touristy area so maybe they just assume that’s what people want. I went ahead and just had Pad Thai, and it was the most mediocre of the trip. Unfortunately in an area so dominated by tourists I think they can get away with not making the food quite as good and flavorful.

I had some pineapple fritters to finish off the meal which were delicious. It began pouring rain, but thankfully slowed down a bit around the time I was done eating. I headed back to the hotel to get an early night’s sleep excited to go jungle trekking the next day.