Thailand - Khao Sok National Park

We spent a day at Khao Sok National Park, heading out before first light by longboat, across the manmade Cheow Lan Lake. We were back at the pier by 10am, but those four hours on the lake as the sun came up and the karst peaks silently surrounded us were four hours I will remember happily for years to come.

We had a fairly easy day cycling Thapput to Ban Ta Khun where we were staying for two nights, just a few miles southeast of Cheow Lan Lake. In the last few miles we were reacquainted with our karst friends as a huge backbone of rock rose up to our left.

That evening, after getting noodles and snacks and on my way back to the hotel, I met with a rare gigantic albino Water Buffalo coming the other way. Beyond the actual impressive physicality, I can’t describe how big this creature FELT. Like he took up more space than his physical presence.

In the dark hours of morning we were cycling the very tough 3 miles (4.5km) up to the lake. The steep road seemed endless in the black. Once at the pier, there was only a handful of people about. We met with our boatman and slipped out from the rows of longboats bobbing gently on the water into the lake.

Passing the Ratchaprapha Dam it was hard to comprehend how recent and huge an endeavour the dam was. It was completed in 1987 creating this enormous lake, displacing 385 families and local extinction of several fish and bird species in the process, and now provides 240 MW hydroelectric power for Southern Thailand.

The sky was turning coral pink and apricot behind us. Our boatman cut the engine for a while and we bobbed gently appreciating the sunrise.

Khao Sok NP protects a 160-million-year-old rainforest, considered older than the Amazon. The lake is the NP’s centre-piece, a complex flooded valley with many narrow, fjord-like bays and hidden inlets. We sped through its dramatic jungle topped karsts and near-vertical cliffs formed from ancient coral reefs. Now a dark watery world of submerged mountains, their peaks are living jagged giants that erupt nearly 1,000 meters straight up from the water. It is like moving through a scene out of Avatar. It feels otherworldly, a place of beauty hard to describe or capture.

We pulled up at Klong Ka Lakehouse. This is one of about 20 floating raft house resorts on Cheow Lan Lake. Budget constraints meant we hadn’t opted for a raft house stay, yet we enjoyed a kayak and swim.

Being on a kayak, without the loud growl of the long-tail boat, I could appreciate the quiet of the lake, the only sound I made the rhythmic, hollow plink of droplets falling from my paddle blade. I felt like a gliding ghost in the landscape: slipping through a world I didn’t know. I followed the edge of an island, listening to birds hidden in branches far above - catching sight of a hornbill flying into the canopy - and looking through the clear green water at the waving reeds below. It is so rare in life to be out on your own, just you and nature, and nothing else. Nothing else. It gives you a frightening realisation of how far removed we are from this natural pure state. How alien we are in it, and for me at least, a keening to better belong to it.

Swimming in the lake with Lilz was delicious. The water was a perfect cool calm temperature. The mountains rose up around us.

On the hour boat ride back to Cheow Lan Lake pier the light on the lake was changing, slowly waking up to the dazzle of brilliant white hot sunshine. Shadows and light beams played across craggy karst crenellations.

As we got closer a growing armada of long tail boats were heading our way, full of tourists flocking to see the lake’s delights themselves. At the pier tour groups were spilling out of minibuses and being herded on to boats. It felt loud and busy and full of an energy that didn’t match our own. We were happy to get back on the pedals and cycle up onto the dam road away from the bustle.Læs mere