If you like to take your
roundtrip in the South of Thailand , it would be a good idea to
visit
the national parks for example
Khao Sok, Khao Luk and Tham Bokkarani.
Recommend as accommodation
are in the Khao Sok national park the " Tree
Tops River Huts ", the meals
are very good. The huts are build in trees, are very simple,
but good , directly at the
river. In the national park are very often power failures, do not
forget a pocket lamp, oil
lamps are for free on the rooms.
Nevertheless I had to set
a warning: don't make a trip with the guide from the " Tree Tops
River Huts ". I made
such a trip and after one hour across jungle country steep up the
mountain I was near a circulatory
disturbance. Before the trekking it was told of a second
guide for such situations
for going back to the lodging. But there was no second guide to
lead me back, thus I had
on february 9th 2000 to wait alone in the jungle 2 hours until the
group came back .
I had a little practice
in jungle trekking from former journeys to Norththailand , Cuba and
Costa Rica , thus it was
not so hard as for a beginner who was never before in a rain
forest. Nevertheless it
was a crying shame and irressponsibility .
At the best you explore
the Khao Sok by canoe.
The
Trip I made you can book by tour operators - without the jungle trecking
- ( 4 days ).
It starts in Phuket, shows
you the west coast of this island, goes through Khao Luk, Khao
Sok and Tham Bokkarani national
parks , to Ao Nang and Krabi. The accommodations
in Ao Nang are to find in
many travel brochures as quarters in Krabi. On the trip the Phang
Nga area was explored by
canoe , but the guide paddled only, not the guest. I like to
clear up in this context,
during the sea canoeing tour shown on my sea canoeing
page
the guests had to paddle
too. If anybody had never done it before, he/she will learn it.
Money: Cash is not
without risk. Credit cards are accepted at hotels , you get
ready
money at banks. Because
they have credit card crime they sometimes do not accept
credit cards , for example
one day long. In this situations it's well to have traveller
cheques too (American Express,
Thomas Cook) for a time of 2 - 3 days .
At present (November 2001) informations of the german Department
of State tourist
should carry along the passport, not leave it in hotel safes.
If you cannot show your
passport by controls or round-up by
police you may will be imprisoned for one night.
Copy of the passport will do it too, but copy the visa
you get by your entry (tourist
stamp) too.
© Copyright by Dieter Klinkhammer, all rights
reserved.
Last updated: May 15th 2004