Click here for Khao Sok pictures Click here to see an image gallery of Namtaloo Cave.

Adventure travel is one of the fastest growing areas of the travel industry. It appeals to discriminating people who want to do something different, something involving more participation and activity. Nature tours in Khao Sok National Park are our speciality. Our goal is to show you the wonders of the natural world without impacting the eco-systems we visit.

We use traditional touring canoes which are suitable for both beginners and experienced paddlers for our nature tours. All of our leaders take beginners through the principles of proper technique. Guests then apply these techniques for paddling in beautiful, safe vacation destinations.

Our favorite canoeing destination is Khao Sok National Park. Khao Sok is a short drive from Phuket. Khao Sok is part of a protected area of 4,400 square kilometers of mountains and jungle, with a 165 square kilometer reservoir. being part of the largest area of old growth jungle in Southern Thailand, Khao Sok hosts many large mammals including wild elephants, Gaur, Tapir, deer, cats, wild pigs and more. Contrary to popular belief, Khao Sok is not a true rainforest, but a tropical evergreen forest or tropical monsoonal forest. There is a definite dry season and more importantly, the entire mass of jungle is surrounded by non-indigeonous deciduous forests. It is certainly an impressive remnant of the former rain forest that covered Thailand before the arrival of rubber plantations and oil palm plantations.

Staying in remote floating bungalows in Khao Sok National park, we paddle out to quiet coves and witness the movement of birds and wildlife in their natural environment. You create a bond with nature when you sit still. You absorb the rhytmn of life itself. The floating bungalows are owned and operated by the national park system. These are not PaddleAsia's bungalows.

When planning your vacation in Thailand, consider our goal: to share our enjoyment of southern Thailand's fascinating natural environment in small intimate groups, traveling at our own pace in areas where we see few other visitors. We take you to our favorite places, and you will experience for yourselves why we love to return to them, time after time. We have minimal impact on the areas we visit. We go to appreciate what nature has given, not to alter it. Our trips are not suitable for people who like to see new places through tour bus windows.

Our primary means of experiencing an area is paddling. We use muscle-powered kayaks to lessen our impact on the environment and to get closer to nature. We find paddling our own craft to be the most practical balance between exposing our guests to a new environment and not interfering with existing ecosystems.

We extend our love of human-powered travel to including mountain biking. Rural Thailand offers plenty of opportunities to ride a mountain bike. Besides encountering friendly villagers, the backroads often harbor birds and other animals.

We also offer hiking to special locations. Overall, however, our ability to see birds and wildlife is much greater when we are paddling our mobile viewing platforms (a.k.a. canoes). It is not so easy to look around for wildlife while walking through the jungle. Unlike trekking, we don not have to look out for roots, thorns, rocks or leeches.

Photography - Wildlife and scenery

If you are into wildlife or scenery photography, Khao Sok is going to make you very happy. With each hour of the day, the changing light brings forth opportunities for amazing photos. Be it on foot or on the water, the variety and abundance of wildlife also presents incredible wildlife photography opportunities. Here is some more info on Khao Sok's hornbills. Here are some general images from Khao Sok. To see some professional photos of Khao Sok, check out our friend Frit's site.

Each trip is important to us. Your contentment is very important to us. Extra care and attention is given to every trip. A sizeable number of our guests come to us through word of mouth. We pride ourselves on this fact and intend on it happening more in the future.

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Guest comment - Deb Cliburn - Sept 13 to 16, 2008:
"It was incredible. Our first trip out on Saturday evening we saw 2 elephants and another two showed up and got in the water for a swim. We had to back up the kayak. It was incredible. Anyway, on the different trips over the 4 days, we also saw a barking deer, (and heard it bark.) We saw at least 3 different hornbills including a group of 5 or so great hornbills.. We saw sun bears 3 times and I have great video of those. And we saw dusky Langurs, macaques and gibbons. We saw a pair of woodpeckers. I forget their exact names but they are beautiful. The male has a red crest and is black and white and the female is more yellow colored. And if I remember right there is a great whatever woodpecker and a common whatever woodpecker and we saw the common ones. We saw osprey, gray-headed fish eagles, asian fairy bluebirds and an owl. And yesterday we saw, although not very clearly, a wild boar. At the bathhouse I saw a 4 foot monitor lizard and I am unsure who jumped further."

August 2009 - we were treated to a delightful sight: two elephants, an adult and a youngster playing in the water. They didn't seem to mind that we were watching them.
We kept our distance, because we didn't want to disturb their playtime. It was a show that we will never forget. In 2009, we saw elephants on most trips.
Click here to download a 35 meg high qualityMP4 Elephant video. Click here to see more elephant images.