Bangkok is Thailand's vast and endlessly energetic capital city: a place where gilded Buddhist temples stand in the shadow of luxury hotels traffic-choked boulevards give way to tranquil river klongs and street food stalls serve some of the finest cooking in Southeast Asia.
Thailand: Night Hiking in Khao Sok National Park
🌿 Thailand: Night Hiking in Khao Sok National Park
🥾 The Day-Night Safari
Khao Sok trekking and hiking in the National Park is some of the best in Thailand. The rainforest around Khao Sok is home to an extraordinary abundance of wildlife that has been evolving and diversifying for tens of millions of years. You can hike to waterfalls, natural swimming holes carved out of ancient limestone, and caves that were formed long before humans ever thought to explore them.
It was another leisurely start to the day, the kind we’d both grown rather fond of, as we didn’t have any activities planned until the evening. Our adventure was set to begin at 4:30 pm, when we were heading out on a six-hour day-night safari deep into Khao Sok National Park. The park, which was officially established in 1980 as Thailand’s 22nd designated national park, offers a genuinely impressive range of hiking options to suit all abilities and appetites. These range from a comfortable half-day trek, ideal if your knees are making their feelings known, all the way up to a full-day expedition and the day-night hike that we had opted for. You can tackle these trails with or without a guide, though given what we later encountered in the dark — more on that shortly — we were very glad to have had expert company.
At the appointed time, we met up with our guide, Wee, at the hotel lobby and set off together for our night safari adventure!
🌳 Into the Rainforest
After paying for the park entry ticket at the gate, we headed off along a well-worn trail that plunged us into the heart of the rainforest almost immediately. This is a forest that, according to researchers, is believed to be somewhere in the region of 160 million years old — considerably more ancient than the Amazon — and you feel that age pressing in around you as you walk. The canopy above is extraordinary, layered and dense, allowing only fragmented shafts of the late afternoon light through to the forest floor below.
Wee set a robust pace from the off, and we did our level best to keep up with him, which became increasingly challenging given the humidity. We were soon absolutely glistening with sweat — not perspiring gently, mind you, but properly dripping. I also started to feel a bit as if my blood sugar had taken a bit of a dive, which was not entirely surprising given the exertion. It didn’t help one bit that several sections of the trail were quite steep, climbing sharply up through the undergrowth before dropping away again just as abruptly. The plan, Wee explained, was to walk approximately 3km along this trail to reach a Ranger station positioned beside the river, where — rather brilliantly — he would then prepare and cook our dinner using a freshly cut bamboo trunk as both pot and serving vessel. It was not something either of us had ever heard of before, let alone experienced.
As we walked, Wee pointed out the extraordinary flora and fauna of the forest around us with the easy familiarity of someone who has spent years learning every inch of this place. He pointed out small holes in the mud banks on either side of the trail and explained, rather casually, that each one would be home to either a tarantula or a black scorpion. From that moment on, we made absolutely certain we stayed firmly in the middle of the trail. After walking around 2km, Wee paused, produced a large, curved knife from his pack, identified a suitable bamboo shoot measuring approximately 12cm in diameter, and proceeded to chop off a section roughly 3 metres in length. He then hoisted this considerable length of bamboo onto his shoulder and carried it the rest of the way to the Ranger station, as though it were the most natural thing in the world.
🍳 Cooking with Bamboo
Once we arrived at the Ranger station, it was still light enough to see what we were doing, which was a bonus. I left Wee to his preparations — Karen watched on with considerably more interest than I managed — and headed down the hill to the river to take some photographs while the light lasted. When I returned, Wee had transformed that section of bamboo into something genuinely impressive. He had cut it into three lengths of approximately 60cm each, with one end of each section naturally sealed by the internal chamber wall of the bamboo and the other end left open to receive the ingredients. He had prepared three separate dishes: rice, a vegetarian green curry, and a mixed vegetable dish, each packed carefully into its own bamboo cooking container. He had also brought along some mushrooms, which he threaded onto bamboo skewers with practiced efficiency, and he had somehow contrived a cake mixture that went into a smaller diameter bamboo cane — this, he informed us, would be our dessert, which immediately improved my mood considerably.
With all the food prepared and packed into the bamboo, Wee built a fire beside the station and rested the bamboo canes at an angle onto a metal frame positioned directly over the flames. Now we waited. We were far from alone out here — there were another five separate groups of tourists at the Ranger station, all having their meals prepared in the same fashion by their own guides. It had rather the atmosphere of a rather unusual open-air canteen, in the middle of an ancient rainforest, in the dark.
🕯️ Dinner by Candlelight
It took the best part of an hour for the food to cook properly, and by the time it was ready night had fallen completely and thoroughly around us. Wee took more sections of bamboo and fashioned serving bowls for the food, as well as individual bowls for us to eat from — all cut and shaped with his knife in a matter of minutes. He also made a pair of chopsticks from bamboo for each of us, which rather put those little paper-wrapped ones in Chinese restaurants to shame. We sat at one of the tables in the picnic shelter and Wee brought out two candles to give us some light to eat by. It was, genuinely, rather romantic, which is not something either of us had anticipated from a hike through a rainforest that had already introduced us to the concept of scorpions living in the walls.
And then the food arrived. I’ll be honest: when we booked this activity, I had been quietly concerned that the portions would not be sufficient for six hours of fairly demanding trekking activity. Boy, was I wrong. Each dish arrived in its own generous bamboo serving bowl and there was a frankly embarrassing quantity of food. Everything was delicious — the green curry in particular was excellent, infused with a very slight smokiness from the bamboo itself. By the end, I genuinely could not have squeezed in another single mouthful if my life had depended on it. The only slight problem was that we now had to walk 3km back out of the park.
🕷️ The Night Walk
We had not seen a great deal of wildlife on the way into the park during daylight, which is entirely typical of a tropical rainforest where the majority of creatures are either extraordinarily well camouflaged or simply far more active after dark. But as we walked back along the trail by torchlight, we were treated to a remarkable display of the creatures that are either much harder to spot in the light or are wholly nocturnal in their habits. There were large spiders in abundance, leaf insects so convincingly disguised that we would have walked straight past them without Wee’s guidance, frogs of various sizes calling from the undergrowth, and lizards frozen in the torch beam. One tarantula had a genuinely extraordinary electric blue-coloured stripe running along its legs, which looked almost impossibly vivid against the dark forest floor. We also spotted a black and yellow mangrove snake making its slow and deliberate way along a branch, evidently in the process of stalking a gecko that appeared blissfully unaware of its predicament.
The closer we got to the village on the way out, the more groups of people we encountered, all with guides, all on their own night safaris. It was, and there is really no other way to put this, like Piccadilly Circus on a Friday night. Every bend in the trail seemed to produce another torch-wielding group coming the other way. Whilst we were very glad for the company earlier, it must be said that the sheer volume of people on the trail in the final kilometre made the experience feel considerably less intimate and immersive than the earlier part of the evening had been.
🌿 Off the Beaten Track
On the way into the park we had followed the main trail throughout, but on the return Wee asked if we’d like to go off-road into the rainforest on a much less frequented path. We jumped at the chance without hesitation and soon found ourselves on a dramatically narrower trail, stepping over fallen tree trunks, ducking under low-hanging branches, and picking our way carefully around the more extravagant root systems. It was so much more fun than the main trail — the kind of walking that actually feels like an adventure rather than a pleasant woodland stroll.
At one point we came to a small gully with a narrow stream running through it, where we found another group of tourists and their guide all crouched down on their haunches, bent at a rather peculiar angle and peering intently at something tucked underneath a pile of logs. It turned out to be a small black and white rodent with a notably long, pointed nose, which the guide’s group insisted was a type of rat. We were not entirely convinced by this identification, but none of us were in a position to argue with any great authority at that particular moment in the dark.
At roughly this point I became the focus of unwanted attention from a large hornet, which immediately got Wee rather agitated and animated in a way that led us both to conclude, very quickly, that being stung by this particular insect would not be a pleasant experience by any measure. We hurried away from that spot at a pace that I think surprised even Wee. A little further on he paused and pointed out a kingfisher that had settled in for the night on a low branch, its bright yellow chest remarkable in the torchlight, looking entirely unbothered by the procession of torch-wielding tourists stumbling past beneath it.
🏕️ Back to Camp
Finally, after what had been an absolutely extraordinary six hours, we made it back to the starting point of our adventure, where we were collected and driven back to Our Jungle Camp. We’d had a genuinely amazing night — one of those evenings that reminds you precisely why you bother leaving the house — but we had to get back to our room and prepare ourselves for the next leg, which was our overnight trip to Cheow Lan Lake.
About Khao Sok National Park
Located in Southern Thailand in the province of Surat Thani, Khao Sok National Park was officially established in 1980, making it Thailand’s 22nd designated national park at the time of its creation. It encompasses a remarkable landscape of thick native rainforest, cascading waterfalls, dramatically majestic limestone karst cliffs that rise hundreds of metres from the forest floor, and the vast, island-studded artificial lake of Cheow Lan, which was itself created in 1982 following the construction of the Ratchaprapha Dam.
The rainforest in this particular region of Thailand is considered to be one of the oldest and most biodiverse on the planet, widely believed by scientists and ecologists to be even older than the Amazon rainforest in South America. This extraordinary longevity is explained by Thailand’s geographical position — the country has remained in a broadly similar equatorial location throughout the last 160 million years, meaning the local climate was relatively unaffected by the successive ice ages that devastated flora and fauna across much of the rest of the world. While other regions of the planet experienced severe, prolonged droughts as a result of those climatic shifts, the Khao Sok region continued to receive sufficient rainfall to sustain its forests, allowing life to continue evolving here in an unbroken chain that stretches back to the age of the dinosaurs.
By the early 1900s, much of Thailand had been extensively deforested by commercial mass-logging operations that stripped enormous areas of the country bare in the space of just a few decades. Khao Sok’s survival, remarkably, owes a considerable and unlikely debt to a group of Thai students who had become communist insurgents following the turbulent political events of the mid-1970s. Fleeing government forces, these students established a stronghold deep within the Khao Sok forest, and during the period from 1975 to 1982, while other areas of Thailand were being rapidly and irreversibly stripped of their rainforest, these insurgents — in their efforts to keep the Thai Army at a safe distance — also effectively blocked the activities of loggers, miners and hunters from entering the area. By the time the students had finally departed from Khao Sok, the forest had been officially gazetted as a National Park and brought under formal legal protection. It is now protected from logging under Thai national law, which is one of those historical ironies that history occasionally throws up.
Khao Sok National Park covers an extensive area of 739 square kilometres and extends into portions of the Khlong Yee and Khlong Pra Sang forests, as well as parts of the Krai Son and Khao Pung areas in the Ban Ta Khun district and the Khlong Sok and Panom areas within Surat Thani province. It shares borders with three further national parks, making the combined protected area one of the largest and most significant blocks of wilderness in mainland Southeast Asia. The terrain was sculpted during the same dramatic tectonic shift that also created the Himalayan mountain range, with the limestone karst peaks pushed upward over millions of years to form the dramatic formations visible throughout the region today. Ground level across most of the park sits at around 200 metres above sea level, with average mountain heights of around 400 metres, and the tallest peak within the park reaching 960 metres.
Planning Your Visit to Khao Sok
| 📍 Location | Khao Sok, Surat Thani Province, Thailand 84000 |
| 🕖 Opening Times | Daily, 6:00 AM – 6:00 PM |
| 🌐 Website | thainationalparks.com/khao-sok-national-park |
| 📞 Phone | +66 77 395 139 |
| khaosok@dnp.go.th | |
| 🚤 By Boat | Longtail boats to Cheow Lan Lake depart from Ratchaprapa Dam, approximately 65 km east of the main park entrance |
| 🚗 By Road | The park entrance village is on Route 401, approximately 100 km north of Surat Thani, 110 km east of Khao Lak and 200 km north of Krabi; songthaews and taxis available from nearby towns |
| ℹ️ Notes | The park is one of the oldest rainforests in the world, estimated at 160 million years old. Cheow Lan Lake and its floating raft houses are the park’s most iconic experience and require a separate boat trip. Wildlife including elephants, hornbills and the rare Rafflesia flower can be spotted on guided jungle treks. Leeches are common on trails after rain — wear long socks and bring repellent. |
🎟️ Entry Fees
| Thai Nationals | Foreign Adults | Foreign Children (under 14) | Cheow Lan Lake (additional) |
|---|---|---|---|
| ฿20 | ฿300 | ฿150 | From ฿300 per person (boat transfer) |
🚗 Getting There
Khao Sok National Park is reached via the small village of Khao Sok, which sits at the park entrance on Route 401 and serves as the main base for accommodation, tours and jungle treks.
From Surat Thani: Approximately 100 km north-west, around 1.5–2 hours by road via Route 401. Shared minivans run regularly from Surat Thani town and the ferry pier at Don Sak, making this the most common arrival route for travellers coming from Koh Samui or Koh Phangan.
From Khao Lak: Approximately 110 km south-east, around 1.5–2 hours via Route 401. Minivan transfers are available through most Khao Lak guesthouses and tour operators, and the route is straightforward by rental car.
From Krabi: Approximately 200 km north, around 2.5–3 hours via Route 4 and Route 401. Shared minivans depart from Krabi town and Ao Nang, often with a change at Takua Pa; private taxis and tour transfers are a more comfortable option for the longer journey.
From Phuket: Approximately 160 km north-east, around 2.5 hours via Route 402 and Route 401. Minivan services run from Phuket Town, and many visitors combine Khao Sok with a Phuket stay as a two- or three-night jungle detour.
By Air: The nearest airport is Surat Thani Airport (URT), around 1.5 hours’ drive from the park entrance. Phuket International Airport (HKT) is a viable alternative at around 2.5 hours. Neither has a direct public transport link to the park, so a minivan transfer, taxi or pre-arranged tour pickup is recommended.
The Best Time to Visit Thailand
The Best Time to Visit Thailand
Thailand’s climate is more complex than most, and the single most important thing to understand before planning a trip is that the country has two distinct coastlines — the Andaman Sea to the west and the Gulf of Thailand to the east — which follow opposite monsoon cycles. When the Andaman side is being battered by the south-west monsoon between June and October, the Gulf coast around Koh Samui and Koh Phangan is largely dry. When the north-east monsoon swings in from November, the situation reverses. Bangkok and the north operate on a third rhythm of their own. Getting that geography straight is the key to avoiding a soggy fortnight.
🌞 November to February — Cool & Dry Season
This is Thailand at its most comfortable and, not coincidentally, its most visited. The south-west monsoon has retreated, the north-east monsoon brings dry, cooler air down from China, and the result across most of the country is warm, sunny days with low humidity and pleasantly cool evenings — particularly in Chiang Mai and the northern highlands, where temperatures can drop to 15°C or below overnight in January. The Andaman coast — Phuket, Koh Lanta, the Phi Phi Islands, Krabi — is fully open and at its most inviting, with calm, clear seas ideal for snorkelling and island-hopping. Bangkok is at its most walkable. The trade-off is straightforward: this is also the most expensive and most crowded window of the year, with accommodation on the popular islands booking out months ahead around Christmas and New Year.
Packing: Lightweight breathable clothing for the days, a light layer or thin long-sleeved shirt for cooler northern evenings and air-conditioned transport, swimwear, reef-safe sunscreen, a hat, sandals and a smarter pair of shoes for evenings out.
🌶️ March to May — Hot Season
The coolness of January fades quickly into an often ferocious heat that builds through March, peaks in April and only begins to ease with the first pre-monsoon storms in May. Temperatures in Bangkok regularly hit 38–40°C, the air in Chiang Mai and the north becomes hazy with agricultural burning, and humidity climbs steadily. The saving grace is Songkran, Thailand’s exuberant water festival, which falls in mid-April and turns the streets of every city and town into a good-natured nationwide water fight — one of Southeast Asia’s great travel experiences, and worth timing a trip around specifically. Rates drop noticeably from the December–February peak, and some travellers find the heat manageable provided they plan outdoor activity for early mornings and evenings. By May, the first Andaman resorts begin closing for the low season as the south-west monsoon approaches.
Packing: The lightest, most breathable clothing you own, a refillable water bottle, high-SPF sunscreen, a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and a change of clothes for Songkran if travelling in April — you will get soaked regardless of your plans.
🌧️ June to October — South-West Monsoon
The south-west monsoon arrives in earnest from June, bringing heavy, sustained rainfall to the Andaman coast, the Gulf of Thailand’s western shores and much of the interior. Phuket, Krabi and the Andaman islands receive their heaviest rain of the year, seas turn rough, and several of the smaller island resorts close entirely between June and October. Bangkok floods periodically in September and October, when rainfall peaks. The Gulf coast, however — Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, Koh Tao — follows the opposite pattern and stays comparatively dry through this period, making it the right side of the country to base a beach trip. The north and inland areas receive regular rain but often in short, intense afternoon bursts rather than all-day downpours, and the countryside is extraordinarily lush. Prices across most of Thailand drop to their lowest, and popular destinations feel genuinely quiet.
Packing: Quick-dry clothing, a lightweight waterproof jacket or compact poncho, waterproof sandals, a dry bag for boat trips and electronics, insect repellent, and a flexible itinerary that can bend around weather disruptions.
🌀 November — North-East Monsoon (Gulf Coast)
November sits in a transitional position that deserves separate mention. For most of Thailand, it marks the beginning of the best season — the Andaman coast reopens, Bangkok cools and dries, and Chiang Mai starts to feel wonderful. But the north-east monsoon, which is bringing all that dry, pleasant weather to the rest of the country, simultaneously pushes rain onto the Gulf coast, and Koh Samui and Koh Phangan see some of their heaviest rainfall of the year in November. Flooding can be significant, and a handful of years have seen the Samui airport disrupted. Anyone with the Gulf islands on their itinerary in November would do well to adjust either their timing or their destination.
Packing: Similar to the cool and dry season for most of Thailand — light layers and sun protection — but with a waterproof jacket and a contingency plan if travelling to the Gulf coast.
Overall Best Time
November to February is the easiest answer for most visitors: the weather is at its most reliable, the widest range of destinations is fully accessible, and Thailand in the cool season has a particular lightness to it that is difficult to argue against. For the Andaman coast specifically — Phuket, Krabi, the Phi Phi Islands — December to March is the undisputed prime window. Travellers who want the Gulf islands and can travel outside peak season should target February to April, when the Gulf coast is dry, the Andaman is still perfectly good, and the worst of the heat has not yet arrived. Those happy to follow the sun around the peninsula’s two coastlines, and who plan accordingly, can piece together an excellent trip in virtually any month of the year.
Where to stay
1. Our Jungle Camp
Nestled between the Khao Sok rainforest and the gently flowing Sok River, Our Jungle Camp is the most characterful place to stay in the national park — and arguably one of the most atmospheric eco-resorts in Thailand. The accommodation ranges from single- and double-storey treehouses to bungalows, bamboo huts and adobe houses, all meticulously crafted from natural materials by the pioneer of nature tourism in Thailand, Dick Sandler. Wake up to gibbons on the roof, spot hornbills from your private balcony, and dine at the on-site FARM restaurant, which draws produce directly from its own kitchen gardens for a genuine farm-to-table experience. The resort also serves as a launchpad for the full range of Khao Sok adventures — overnight floating bungalows on Cheow Lan Lake, elephant encounters, night safaris and jungle hikes — all bookable through the resort’s knowledgeable team.
2. Khao Sok Palm View Resort
Just 200 metres from the entrance to Khao Sok National Park, Palmview Resort is one of those quietly wonderful family-run places that makes a destination feel like home. Simple but spotless wooden cottages are tucked amid a small palm plantation, each with a private balcony overlooking the surrounding greenery and equipped with fans, mosquito nets and modern bathroom facilities. The family behind the resort — led by the endlessly energetic host Kong and his mother, who cooks the Thai dishes in the all-day Palmview Restaurant — is consistently praised by guests for helpfulness, warmth and a can-do attitude when it comes to organising tours. Trekking, canoeing, overnight lake trips to Cheow Lan and onward transfers can all be arranged here, and the main village is just a five-minute walk through the trees.
3. Budget – Coco Khao Sok Hostel
Coco Khao Sok is a family-owned hostel right in the heart of Khao Sok village, just eight minutes’ walk from the national park entrance, and it sets a high bar for what a backpacker base should be. Rather than traditional bunk beds, guests sleep in individual pod-style units with privacy curtains, their own reading light, charging station and luggage compartment — a small detail that makes a big difference after a long day in the jungle. The in-house bakery and coffee bar turn out an impressive breakfast, and the on-site restaurant covers Thai and European dishes with vegetarian and gluten-free options. Local staff are expert at organising everything from guided canoe trips and jungle hikes to the much-loved overnight floating bungalow experience on Cheow Lan Lake, and a free shuttle runs to and from the bus drop-off point on arrival.
More to Explore
