Travel Diary - Backpacking through Thailand: The Southern Part

Khao Sok National Park

The first destination after the domestic flight from Chiang Mai was Khao Sok National Park. The rainforest inside this park is mostly primeval forest, which means that it is very old. The rainforest of Khao Sok is even older than the Amazon rainforest in South-America. The first night we slept at a little house of Riverside Cottages, in the middle of the bush and a real recommendation. That night we got our first massage, not a Thai massage after several warnings from co-travellers, so it was a relaxed evening.

The next morning, we departed from the Riverside Cottages early for a two-day tour through the National Park. With a traditional Thai longtail boat we sailed the beautiful blue/green water of the enormous lake surrounded by rainforest and immense rockeries. During the tour we hiked through a cave with bats and enormous spiders, we climbed a waterfall, we kayaked in the pitch dark looking for monkeys, owls, mouse deer’s and other wild, and as a highlight, we slept on little houses which floated on the water with ‘jungle music’ in the background. What an experience!! Definitely the highlight of this trip.

Ao Nang

After Khao Sok NP we moved to the south towards Ao Nang (Krabi). This is where we took a longtail boat to the famous Railay Beach, of which we had high expectations. Unfortunately, we were a bit disappointed because of the plastic that had washed up upon the beach. Luckily, we knew that there was another beach at 20 minutes walking, which turned out to be one of the most beautiful beaches of the trip, Phra Nang Cave Beach. The beach is surrounded with beautiful rocks and even has, yes really, a penis cave, in which people sacrifice images and figurines of penises in order to satisfy the fertility gods. The beach is, in contrast to many of the beaches on the Thai islands, a nice beach for swimming since it gets deep pretty quickly. Come before 10 in the morning to have the beach for yourself and to be ahead of all the tour boats which visit the penis cave.

The second day in Ao Nang we hiked the Tab Kak Hang Nak Nature Trail. We knew it would be heavy, but it turned out to be heavier than we expected. Firstly, we were soaked because of the sweat, thereafter we got completely soaked because we ended up in a tropical rain storm during our hike, this did not make it any easier. To make matters worse, after reaching the top, we were not able to find the rock for the picture we came for. Bad luck? Luckily, the view was still beautiful, we heard the screams of gibbons on our way up, and we spotted a Pokémon and a scorpion on our way to the top.

Koh Phangan

The next destination was in our planning because of one reason. The famous Full Moon Party. Enough reason for the 13-year old me to want to go to Thailand. Yet, we decided to stay on the other, quieter, side of the island. We stayed at Sunset Cove Resort, which was a bit our of our budget, but so worth it! It was a little paradise with an infinity pool, directly connected to the beach and with the best breakfast we had on our trip. On Koh Phangan we took it slow and mainly rested and tanned. We visited, among others, the beautiful Mae Haad Beach at which a little island is connected to the main land by a sandbank. Beautiful!

The full moon party was worth the visit as well. We met up with a couple of other Dutchies we had met on the way and ended up on a kilometre-long beach with thousands of party people. Soon, we walked around, covered in glow in the dark paint, with our buckets booze (at the full moon party you do not drink from glasses, but from buckets) in our hands. We enjoyed the many different kinds of music, fire shows, the beautiful full moon, and drunk people who decided it was a good idea to jump through burning ring. What an experience and what a night! When we got home the full moon disappeared and the sun already rose. Unfortunately, this was also the night in which my phone decided to stop working, so the many pictures we took this night (and the rest of the trip) are gone. Luckily, we still have the memories, and we will never forget those!

Koh Tao

After the party island Koh Phangan we went to Koh Tao, the diving island of Thailand. Before the trip we both planned on getting our open water diver certificate at Koh Tao. But after I realized that almost all of my past attempts to get into the water from a boat ended in panic attacks I decided not to go for it. Stef already got open water diver certificated in the Netherlands and was still able to do four beautiful dives at Koh Tao. But still, I felt the urge to get over this fear of mine, that’s why we decided to join a snorkel tour. We saw some beautiful fish, coral and… a turtle! Stef also saw a shark, squid and swordfish during the tour, but at that moment I was too busy trying not to forget to breath (luckily). I can’t say I did not panic, but hey, I did it! And who know, maybe in a couple of years I will be an open water diver as well…

Besides exploring the world under water, we hiked to two beautiful viewpoints (with success this time). The John Suwan Viewpoint and the Koh Nang Yuan viewpoint, both worth the climb! We also relaxed at the most beautiful beaches with gorgeous blue water. Although it is mainly known for its diving sites, Koh Tao is much more than just a diving island.

Bangkok

The trip ended where it also started 3,5 weeks ago, Bangkok. We made the most out of our last days in Thailand by visiting the train market, a floating market and the Grand Palace. All three were extremely busy with tourists (that’s why we skipped those in the first place), but very nice to have experienced. We decided to spend our very last night at a rooftop bar. Because of the crazy traffic of Bangkok, we almost missed the sunset, but when we reached the 49^th floor of the Mariott Hotel we were rewarded with a beautiful red sunset and a breath-taking view over Bangkok. As icing on the cake we found out that it was happy hour during the sunset, 50% off on all cocktails… what an end!!

After the long preparation the 3,5 weeks in Thailand went by extremely fast, and we had another amazing, unforgettable trip. Thailand is a beautiful, and easy to travel, country and the Thai people are extremely nice. Despite the mass tourism and the millions of people who travel to Thailand each year, we found many places in which we were virtually the only tourists. Even though Thailand is a very popular country, I would definitely recommend travelling to and exploring the country!

Now off to a new adventure!