Stay in a tree house for a night - * fantastic family fun*

Hi to all,

We are a family of 2 teenagers and a 12 year old. We decided to venture out of Phuket and do something a little different and we did!

We had such a memorable trip. We booked a trip through Kris at limestone lake tours - highly recommended. A very friendly, efficient lady, who has been living in Phuket for a few years now and is married to a local Thai person and runs her own tour business. Kris is orginally from Australia and is very helpful.

Kris can put together a trip to suit your family / or couple.

We choose to do the following:

We were picked up byu an airconditioned car ( van) and taken to the Kao Sok National park. This took about 3 hours from Karon Beach. I would recommend if you are going to do this tour to stay a little closer to the National Park, to cut down on such a long car trip.

We arrived in the national park and were taken by jeep to the elephant trek place. The kids got to sit in the back of the jeep and thought this was terrific. About 20 minutes drive through the park.

We then all bought a drink, either water, soft drink or even a beer all cold from local people who sell near the elephant trek.

We then got on our elephants for a 1.10 min elephant walk. I need to say that it was a little scarey at first, because you are up high and the elephant tends to plod along, not a smooth ride, but you are safe and yes, you must hold on at some places.

The elephants move along through the jungle and it%26#39;s fantastic, they go through very very narrow pathways, where you think they won%26#39;t be able to cope, but they manage, no problems! they walk through water - not deep and it%26#39;s enjoyable. Please remember to bring a strong insect repellant and you won%26#39;t have a problem.

You go 1/2 way and then stop for a while and then you return back the same way. by now you are really relaxed and taking in all the peaceful, scenery,.

You arrive back and feed the elephants some banana%26#39;s that a lady sells to you (cheap) and at this stage you can pay for you photo that someone has taken when you first went up on the elephant. - Yes, a good quality photo, for not much money.

After thisyou are taken by the jeep to your jungle house accommodation. We stayed at the Jungle House, there are other types, but we are very happy with this, We highly recommend this place. The food was some of the best food we have eaten. Both Thai and western and all fresh ingredients. You can sit at the casual restaurant - well it is very casual and order food whenever you desire.

Your accommodation in the tree house is clean, and has a fan, flushing toilet and net over the bed. I recommend you once again put insect repellant on prior to going to bed, but he nets around the bed were of a very good quality and had no holes. Basic accommodation, but hey, it%26#39;s a tree house after all and I think it was one level up from camping.

When we first arrived at the tree house, we then hurried off to go on a canoe ride down the river with a guid. Two people each canoe. This took 2 hours and was wonderful and relaxing. There were monkey%26#39;s at places on the embankment and it was a gentle flow of water. We stopped off at a place to have a swim - so wear your costumes, it was a large rock that you climbed up on and then there was a rope swing you could have a go on. It was a lot of fun and the water wasn%26#39;t cold at all, - worthwhile getting your hair wet ladies!

We then continued along and at the end , we got picked up by jeep and taken back to our cute tree house accommodation.

We enjoyed a delicious meal - including my 2 fussey eaters! and the next morning about 8am we headed off by car to the raft houses. My kids enjoyed wonderful pancakes for breakfast!

I would also like to add, that although you are deep in the jungle , you feel safe and there are places close by that give you massages, we ran out of time, but if we had time we definitely would have had a foot massage each, by local people and very cheap - 200 baht for 1 hour.

A car drove us to the wharf where we met Kris , I guess this car trip was about 1 hour . Kris made us all feel very welcome and delightful and very helpful.

TWe then took a long tail, traditional wooden boat to the raft houses along the Chieow Laan Lake, so peaceful and beautiful. This took about 1 hour and then you are at the raft houses.

Amazing small huts built on floating bamboo poles across the lake. Very basic accommodation. I%26#39;m glad we didn%26#39;t stay here overnight as it was a bit too basic for my liking - being in my mid 40%26#39;s I like a flushing toilet in my room at night and this accommodation you would have had to walk to the toilet with your own torch. It was in a beautiful setting, the scenery was brilliant, so if your not one to worry about a toilet in your room - stay there. check out a web sight on Chieow Laan Lake raft houses ( google it)

We swam in this lake and the water was superb, warm and we also had canoes we could take out ( no extra cost) and we did have a lot of fun and shared some wonderful family memories here, playing around. It%26#39;s a fresh water lake, so no sharks etc.

We had a delicious lunch here at the raft house - fantastic food and at some time in the day we visited the coral caves. We all thought the coral caves weren%26#39;t worth visiting. It was a hike up a hill in the muddy ground for about 1.20 min and down the hill. and this would have been worthwhile, but the caves were a cave, and I reckon if you have seen one cave, you%26#39;ve seen enough, we all thought this.

So, I would recommend doing all of the above except the coral cave. But if you did go to the coral cave, it was a bamboo boat ride over and you arrived there in 10 minutes and then you walked in this cave and stayed there for about 40 min and then boat ride back and then a hike over this hill. You arrived back at the raft houses only then to get on your long tail boat back to the wharf. The long tail boat was really enjoyable and a relaxing hour.

At the wharf Kris is there to greet you and you then you are ready to go back to either another night in the jungle ( one night was ideal) or back to Phuket accommodation. We were all looking forward to a foot massage near our hotel.

Different holiday and well worh the kids seeing a different part of Thailand.

Happy to answer any questions.

Simone

Stay in a tree house for a night - * fantastic family fun*

Hi Simone,

Isnt Kris great? Isnt Khao Sok ever better?! It was one of the highlights of my trip and some of the best food I had eaten in Thailand. We stayed at the Lake overnight and loved it but yes very basic!

I too highly recommend time spent in Khao Sok!

Reet xx