The Khao Sok National Park of Thailand lies in one of the wettest areas in that country with an average rainfall of around 3,500 mm. It is therefore a proper Rainforest, but the good news for those who don't appreciate trekking in soggy boots and wet ponchos, is that the really wet season is generally restricted to between the months of May and November. Outside of those months the area is fairly dry apart from the odd day when it rains just enough to maintain the lush greenery we love so much. The Park is made up of hundreds of limestone outcrops (karsts) rising to between 400 and 1000 metres.
Flora and Fauna in Khao Sok National Park
The quantity and diversity of the flora and fauna is such that it has not yet been fully studied. Among the many interesting floral species is the world's largest flower, Rafelesia which produces blooms of up to one metre in diameter. You will also come across a species of bamboo which is one of the largest in S.E. Asia as well as many orchids, ferns and palms, including the rare White Back Fan Palm.
There is also rumoured to be a small number of tigers and bears in the forest, as well as many monkeys, gibbons, pangolins and the rare mountain serow. Several species of birds, including the Hornbill, inhabit the forest and can be observed (binoculars are useful on a trip).
Wen to Go and What to See at Khao Sok National Park
To see Khao Sok National Park at its best and to make the experience a truly rewarding one, an organised package is just the thing. Foremost in this field is the Elephant Hills Experience Company. Because of their many years working in the area with the elephants, what is offered is something you won't find elsewhere. Instead of just riding on the elephant and ambling from place to place, you will get up close and personal and have a hands-on experience with the animal. You will be encouraged to interact with the elephant, to learn from the mahouts how to control it, give orders, and how to care for it.
Part of what is called The Elephant Experience means that you will prepare and feed the animals during the day, watch them bathe in the river and then scrub and clean them. Just like humans, elephants take a dietary supplement to help with digestion and overall well being and you will also learn how to administer these.
Looking forward to a future, you will be encouraged to help with the planting of some of the food ready for next year.
Tourism is now offering a good life to elephants which, at the turn of the century in Thailand, numbered 100,000. Today they number around 3,000. Their decline is a matter of evolving jungle systems, technology overtaking the work that the elephant used to do, and the need for land for other issues. If a sustainable existence can be offered to the domestic elephants and the animals are cared for properly, then there is no reason why their numbers cannot be built up, although not to anything like they once were.
Anyone who has visited Chiang Mai or Bangkok and saw these magnificent animals being paraded in the hot, dusty streets of the cities, begging for food for themselves and their mahouts, will be overjoyed to see the way they are treated in their natural habitat, the Khao Sok National Park.
Mari Nicholson - Award Winning travel writer and historian, member of British Guild of Travel Writers.Travelwriters.co.uk, and Society of Women Writers and ...
