After a few beach days in Khao Lak, we drove our rental car for 2 hours to the Ban Cheow Lan pier where the boats leave for one of the 16 resorts in Khao Sok. We parked at the pier on a paid parking lot, after which we walked to the pier where we were already met by someone from Panvaree resort who bought us entrance tickets to the park, these are 300 baths each. The Khao Sok National Park is a great destination in the south of Thailand. You cannot skip a visit to this park if you are in the region. It is one of the oldest rainforests in the world. You will see special limestone rocks, waterfalls, a beautiful lake, and special plants and caves. There is also a large variety of wildlife living in the Khao Sok National Park, of which you can see a few during your tour through the park if you are lucky.
After a cup of coffee the boat was ready at 11:30 am and we left for the Panvaree resort en-route enjoying the great nature before we knew it we were already at the resort. Panvaree resort is one of the more luxurious in Khao Sok. The rooms include food and a day program of tours. At 5 am Sunset tour and the next day at 6:30 am Sunrise tour and at half-past one, you can visit the caves and walk a bit through the jungle. We decided to do all the tours except the jungle because we only brought our flip-flops. Instead of the jungle, we booked a private boat to be able to take some pictures of the amazing rocks in peace.
During the day most people chill in their water villa or you can go kayaking, swimming, or fishing and there are plenty of activities to do. It is recommended to book at least 2 nights so that you have time to do a Sunrise and Sunset to be able to take pictures in the beautiful light. During the day, the light is often very harsh, which means that there is a hard haze over the jungle and rocks and your photos are not as beautiful as during the golden hour. The bungalows we stayed in were air-conditioned and had 2 beds with an upper floor where possibly 2/3 children can sleep. There was also a TV that we never actually use in a hotel on vacation and a mini-fridge. The hotel also offers the possibility to serve breakfast in bed if you want to be pampered once, this is recommended.
The only drawback of the Panvaree resort we found is that everything in Thai is on the website and for example information on which pier you should drive is nowhere to be found, also the day filling is not mentioned anywhere on the site in English. not even with what is included. Perhaps this is because most tourists book a whole package with a taxi through booking sites, for example from Phangna or Khao Lak and Phuket.
The food was, by the way, very well cared for and plenty of portions, if you wanted more you could also indicate this but we did not find it necessary. The Panvaree resort is a 40 min boat ride from the Ban Cheow Lan pier. Not far from the resort there are 2 amazing photo spots, the three rocks and another spot with different islands. You can kayak here, you also go on a long sunset tour.
The Khao Sok National Park is truly a paradise on earth. The park consists of one of the oldest rainforests on this planet, and crystal clear blue lake, unique flora and fauna, cave systems, and huge, green, limestone cliffs. It is advisable to stay a minimum of 3 days and 2 nights. In Thailand we usually book everything ourselves and then go on the road with a rental car, if you want to go cheaper than most places, you can also take minivans everywhere to when you can book tours.
