Kho Surin

This is one 0f those places where bringing your own hammock is a real good idea.

Ko Surin is one of the north Andaman islands between Phuket and Ranong - the area is north of the Similans, Khao Lak and Takua Pa. The mainland base is about one hour north of Takua Pa in the town of Kuraburi.

I pinched this map off Bolesav's Trip Report elsewhere on this site - image Thaiforest Booking

Modified Google Earth image of same - might be worth clicking to enlarge.

A bit more detail of the main visitor areas - definitely needs clicking.

Check-in is at the National Park office at the mainland pier about 17km WNW of Kuraburi town. If you have not booked your bungalow online you can do it here. You can't book tents or tent spaces online. For campers the main concern of the NP people here seems to be checking your transport ticket (and I guess making sure there are tent vacancies at busy times) - you pay your 400baht NP fee (5 days) along with camping fees when leaving the island.

If you have booked with one of the travel agents in town you will get free transport down to the pier. Tom and Am Tour (email: tom_am01@hotmail.com) which has a counter at the bus stop (closed when I arrived on a Sunday, as was the other counter of Barracuda Diving) and whose main street office can be seen as you walk down the short access road from the bus station, went a step or two further - picked me up from my accommodation and provided a simple breakfast at their office. Their cut seems to come from selling you a boat ticket - although I also stayed at their riverside bungalows nearby - 300b instantly dropped to 250 when I jokingly asked if 300 came with dancing girls. Bungalows not flash - worth about 250 by North Andaman standards although you would pay twice this in central-south Andaman. Located at north end of shopping strip just across the main road river bridge - short walk to all services. 7/11 24h store in service station next door (not noisy - bungalows are set 250m back from road) but non alcohol! Another 7/11 selling booze is 5 minutes walk away in central main street, but won't sell this before 5pm in the afternoon - local law strictly observed.
Kuraburi has several other traveller type places plus the more midrange Greenview Resort about 10km south of town in real scenic countryside close to the highway. I think Greenview arranges Surin transport thru Barracuda Diving.

Arriving at the Surins. Speedboats moor beside one of those floating piers - but campers going to area #2 (as we all were) are loaded into longtails which move alongside speedboats.

The websites will tell you the choice is between slowboats and speedboats from the mainland, but such had been the decrease in visitors since the coral bleaching episode began that the slow boats were only running on weekends in March '11.
I'm not whelmed by speedboats, having suffered some horrifically rough and wet trips, but fortunately conditions both across and back were pretty calm. Trip takes maybe 50-60 minutes - highlights are Ko Ra, a mountainous island with good beaches close to the coast (and only one eco resort which I didn't have time to visit this trip) and Richelieu Rock, a submerged reef about 75% into the journey with around 10 dive-boats (most live-aboard) moored above what is supposed to be the best diving in Thailand.

Approaching the back-beach at camping area #2 - longtail trip takes maybe 10 minutes and is included in the price of your speedboat ticket. From the back-beach it's a flat 250m walk thru the rainforest across the isthmus to the camp area and better beach at Ao Mai Ngam.

Ao Mai Ngam is a pretty nice beach - good enough to make my list of Thailand's best beaches. Maybe 500m long, book-ended by mountainous headlands, clear water, white sand, lots of nice tree shade in back of the beach, plenty of sand left at full high tide. Campers got a kick one morning with a small (approx 300cm) shark cruising slowly at high tide close to the beach. It took off like a rocket when a gung ho dude decided to do a Steve Irwin and grab the little thing.
Unlike the arrivals beaches in area#1 and back beach at this area#2, it is possible to do reasonably good snorkelling from the beach - although any decent coral is a fair way out. Mai Ngam does suffer from the low tide blues, but clean sand rather than ugly rock is exposed and swimming is still possible by wading out another 50m. Negatives include cheek-by-jowel tents under the beachfront trees for maybe 40% its length, but you could argue they are partly hidden by the trees and less intrusive than a bungalow joint or two.

They do pack them in, but Mai Ngam is nowhere near as congested as the camping beach in the arrivals area. Coral bleaching crisis saw way fewer visitors (an expat March regular told me a third of normal week-day March visitors) so that I managed a beachfront tent - far right of shot. Tents here went back several rows - futher along the beach they were beachfront only.

Tents front left are National Park "small" versions - 300b a night although I paid 180b single. My tent was pretty good - sufficient room for two people and gear although not quite high enough to stand in, and very waterproof - it poured on two nights. The larger 450-300 NP tents looked maybe 20% bigger. National Park provides bedding for 60b a night - a very thin sleeping mat which is actually a yoga mat, a good sleeping bag which is unnecessary and a small pillow. I found the mat so thin I hired two sets of bedding. Still a bit thin on the padding although combined pillow thickness became just right.
Quite a few people including my neighbours had brought their own tents and bedding.
Very close proximity of neighbours may worry some people, but I found my French neighbours friendly and helpful. Not so some of their countrymen who decided they were the camp gendarmes and acted in a rude, arrogant manner which unfortunately confirmed the stereotype of their nationality. "We stay here 4 weeks for the past 5 years!" Whoa - tres impressive!!! Move over Moken, we got a new mob claiming traditional ownership.

Layout of Ao Mai Ngam National Park Canteen/Administration area right and camping area left. Camping area has been extended further to the left - there are now 10 sub-zones and each can take at least 25 tents, not the 3 the image suggests. Back zones virtually empty when I visited but apparently NP can haul up extra tents in busy times quickly. To its credit NP keeps the area very clean of leaf litter etc and the toilets and showers were always presentable. With crowds down I never had to wait at these. They and routes to them were lit 24 hours. This image from Ko Surin Diving expands nicely when clicked.

These tents were at the front of a back zone behind my beachfront one. Nicely decorated - the dwellers seemed to be permanent locals, but I couldn't work out if they were NP workers or transport company staff. Worryingly, one dude seemed to play music all night - it was going 3am one night, 5am the next (I picked up a bug and had to make sleep-time wc runs: btw I am not blaming the terrible NP restaurant food, I think I picked this up on the mainland) - music was the dire Thai love song stuff, not too loud but not soft either. The lapping of the wavelets covered this noise from my tent but I would hate to be in his zone which could happen when things were busy.

National Park restaurant. Big open sided joint near beachfront with more alfresco seating outside. Which created mass migration when sudden storm hit.

Food absolutely dire. I'm on record saying I've never not enjoyed Thai food - even that stuff in highway food stalls been stewing for 5 years which you down when the bus stops for 15 minutes tastes good to me, but the NP restaurant grub was terrible - tasteless, greasy, relatively expensive and limited in choice ("no beef, no squid only chicken!"). I got so dismayed with the ultra-greasy offerings I opted for a fruit plate ("only pineapple!") and two boiled eggs for my last 3 meals. Couple this with tardy, surly and rude counter service. Hey and NP restaurants no longer serve alcohol.
Boss lady Am back at the travel agency in Kuraburi did tell me to raid a 7/11 and take as much food as possible plus coffee/tea. Well I took coffee but not much food. I did smuggle in a bottle of rum.

BTW I've found NP restaurant food at Tarutao, Khao Lak, Khao Sok and Adang tasty and cheap. Why so bad and expensive here? I got the impression the place's cachet as the prime snorkelling island in Thailand has bred complacency - the crowds come anyway and are a captive market. NP staff in the reception area were pretty slack and surly too.
BTW Boleslav who stayed at the area #1 - the arrivals beach area - in the bungalows says in the Trip Reports section that the food was pretty good in the canteen there. I had one meal there - it was a step up, but not that great. Maybe NP Surins has a new caterer.

Positives: Free fresh cold water and boiling water were available on that table mid-restaurant in shot. Table service was quick and the boys kept the place tidy. Bread was availably at 5b a slice and a toasting rack was set up outside at breakfast with comp jam. The ordering area had a very limited range of noodle-cups, snacks, juices and soft drinks for a bit of variety. If the women could stop yaking to serve you.

THE ARRIVALS BEACH

This is the beach at the arrivals pier - pretty small, not that attractive (I saw no-one swimming). Visitors information shack at the inland end of the pier and this area's National Park restaurant just behind those trees in back of beach at left. Short track leads away from camera to bungalow-tent area on the nice back beach.

Ao Chong Kaad, the back bungalow/camping beach in the arrivals area was pretty nice, but not a touch on Mgai Ngam. A sign behind camera said DANGER - NO SWIMMING HERE. So naturally I had to see why. There was a pretty good tidal current ripping thru (this beach is on the narrowish passage between North Surin and South Surin) which at the time was carting a fair bit of natural junk like lumps of jelly-like stuff, twigs etc. Note no problems with currents mid beach or further from camera. The Nature Track between the arrivals area and the Mai Ngam area starts from the far end of the beach - there was a nice small patch of sheltered sand about 3 minutes into the track probably also accessible from this beach at lower tide levels. About half way along the track is a beach similar to the one in shot which is the Thai Navy Surins Base site.

The tent area behind the beach is way more congested. They seemed to have crammed about the same number of tents into a quarter of the area of Mai Ngam - and because it's so confined, they don't bother taking tents down when it's not busy. As far as I could see there were only one or two tents occupied here on a weekday March '11. It seems that in unbusy times, unless you ask for this area you are automatically taken to the much more attractive Mai Ngam site.

The National Park Bungalows are mainly located on steep slopes behind the beach. As far as I could see these 2000baht ones mainly had very limited sea and beach views thru the heavy tree canopy. The 3000 baht ones in a separate area were better in this respect.

I have to say that 2000baht for a bungalow without aircon is an ask (the 3000 ones do have this and looked to be able to house families easily) - I stayed in similar NP bungalows in the south Andaman not too long ago for a third these prices.
An English couple I talked to on the return speedboat said yep - value not great even at the 1400 they paid online for the 2000 jobbies. Now I have checked the NP website - can see no mention of 1400 and the guy in the Book-In section near the pier quoted me 2000. But there is another website people wishing to book from overseas can use - perhaps it has managed to screw a decent discount out of NP in these quiet coral bleaching times. Booking from overseas on the official NP website is real hard because they want your deposit paid into any branch a nominated Thai bank or a regional NP Office within 36 hours or similar. The other website can do this - for a fee - which makes that 1400 even better value if this is how it was done.
Bolesav has some pix of the 2000 bungalows' exterior/interior in the TRIP REPORT section Surins page.

Map of arrivals area - the floating pier is not shown but is roughly where "Island" is printed bottom right. Once again the area has been expanded - this shows only one row of 2000 bungalows at 19 instead of two. 6 tent symbols for at least 150 tents. Click to expand.

SNORKELLING
I didn't go to the Surins to snorkel. For a start I knew that even in best times the coral/fish are roughly equal to an area I have snorkelled extensively in good times -the Similans - maybe a bit better, maybe a bit worse, but close. That is, some of the best in Thailand but not mind-blowing compared to world's best. And secondly I knew the well publicised coral bleaching of late 2010 into 2011 had badly affected the situation.
How badly? Well one LP Thorntree poster was claiming all the coral was dead - hur hur hur, dude's been popping the hyperbole pills - not even close. But yep, there was a hell of a lot of dead coral although strangely I saw very little of the startlingly white bleached coral. Maybe we have passed first phase. Less coral equals fewer fish - there were some about but hardly exciting although people on my snorkelling trip did see a few harmless black-tip reef sharks at Ko Rae (and one turtle).
I gotta say the afternoon snorkelling trip was underwhelming - water was too deep for good visibility by surface snorkellers and for easy dives to the bottom by blokes like me done our ears in from too much lobster-chasing etc in days past. And the boat guys seemed to have no English or even hand directions for where the good stuff was once the longtail was moored. In all, the stuff I saw was maybe 5th rate by world standards and I had no desire to do next morning's snorkel trip to other areas (if they can't show you at least one good area in the afternoon it suggests they don't have much better on the other trip).
But hey, when I discussed all the above with the English couple from the bungalows they said hold on, they were still very impressed - beats the North Sea hands down. Good point.

Ao Mai Ngam is good in that you can snorkel normally okay stuff off the beach - not possible in the Arrivals Area or at the accommodation beaches in the Similans as far as I know.

Stuff close to the beach was pretty dead but out there where the boats are moored is the reef drop-off and it seemed as good to me there, particularly to the left, as at my snorkelling trip locations. It is a hell of a long way out to this zone but at low tide you can wade most of the way.
A bloke told me it was also good near a small beach around a tiny headland to the right of the boats (not the big far headland you can see top right) but I swam no fins, no snorkel way out to the mooring zone drop-off at high tide and I was blowed if I was going to swim another 500m to this beach area.

DIVING
I didn't see any evidence of dive outfits located on the islands. Heaps of daytrip and overnight diveboats work over the area from Khao Lak, Phuket, Kuraburi and more local islands like Ko Kho Khao and Ko Phra Thong.
At the time of writing authorities had closed two Surins area dive sites because of the bleaching crisis but there's a heap of others.

THE NATURE TRAIL
This joins the Arrivals area 1 to Area 2 starting from the far north end of Ao Chong Kaad and arriving at the southern end of the back beach across from Ao Mai Ngam in Area 2 - see the second Google Earth image above. A leisurely walk one way took me about 50 minutes. It is relatively flat with with no sustained killer slopes, sticking fairly close to just above the rock platform. When you come to the Navy beach, go directly out onto the sand and walk to the very far end where the track moves up into the bush again. There is pretty nice rainforest and sea glimpses along the track plus the usual NP educational panels about flora/fauna/landscape etc, in the usual poor condition.

The educational panels weren't the only things in poor repair. At least 4 wooden stairways or bridges along the way were in similar disrepair and looked like they had been that way for some time. What does NP do with our 400baht entry fees?

Aint gonna fix this one real quick. Looked to have come down last wet season - I'm wondering if more slumped in the unusually heavy rains which caused unseasonal flooding in southern Thailand in late March/early July 2011 just after I left.

Note the lack of any other walking tracks in the Surins. Any other island of similar size would have some to more distant beaches, viewpoints etc.

THE MOKEN VILLAGE
The only other attraction at the Surins is a visit to the Moken (sea gypsy) "traditional village" on the south island.
Now I know I should do this for you guys if I'm going to publish a SURINS page - but I gave the visit a miss. First I'm not real big on cultural stuff. Second, Am back in Kuraburi told me the Moken have traditional things like colour big-screen TVs these days. Third I was under the impression that true Moken are nomadic - never stay in one place long enough to build more than make-shitft dwellings. Not the south-sea island type bungalows I saw from the speedboat as we passed on arrival.

UNDERWHELMED.
Some of you dudes may have correctly read between the lines to realise I was less than gruntled about the Surins. I'm not blaming the coral. But the cost of accessing the place, the high National Park fees, the discomfort of their joke for a sleeping mattress, the dire dire dire not-cheap food, the disrepair of some facilities, the rudeness and slackness of restaurant counter and NP book-in staff, the overpriced bungalows, and the lack of walking tracks to other beaches or any viewpoints left me less than whelmed.People see overhead photos of the landscape like the one above from the National Parks website and get blown away, yet the Surins can't hold a candle to Phi Phi Ley, Phang Nga Bay or Railay in the landscape stakes. I reckon its comparable to Ko Tao - not shabby but not oh-wow! from ground/sea level.
Don't get me wrong, I didn't dislike the place. But high price of access had stopped my visiting it until after about two dozen other islands - which is fitting because that's about where I rate it. Most of those other places I regret leaving after my too short visits (forced by trying to fit too many places into the 3 weeks that family commitments confine me to each LOS visit) but after 3 days on the Surins I wasn't upset be heading elsewhere. I'll be back, but not some time soon - partly to check the coral when it recovers but mainly to see if National Parks has lifted its game, particularly with the food.

UPDATE JAN 2012 - MV who has several trip reports in that section of the blog contacted me with the following:
"Back from 35 days on Surin. Coral bleak, fish not much better. Reef very broken exposing lobster and octopus. Morays all gone, even starfish.
Highlights: 3 eagle ray in formation, turtles and a bumphead parrot as well as 3 octopus and lobsters."
M says things were very quiet on the island and promises a Surins Trip Report with some pix whan he gets the chance, but he is more or less on the road constantly (lucky man). I will put up a link here when it comes in.
GOOD AS THE SIMILANS?
I dunno because I have never stayed on the Similans. I've seen all Similan islands, many of the snorkel sites and called in at both accommodation sites on Poseidon's live-aboard snorkelling trip but that was completely different and 3 of the best days I've spent in Thailand. I'm going to try to do 3 nights at the Similan National Park camp site #1 some time soon. Camp site #2 would be unfair - Donald Duck Bay's beach blows Mai Ngam out of the water. And just about any other beach in Thailand.

WHEN TO GO
National Parks shuts down in the wet season. The website below will give the dates of closing/opening. Thais have a thing for island national parks on weekends and public holidays so if arriving then you may find bungalows booked out and all tent spaces taken. At least in times of healthy coral.

GETTING THERE
From what I can gather, National Parks does not run boats. These are left to the travel agents and dive outfits in Kuraburi who can sell you a ticket and shuttle you to the pier. These people combine customers to get a full boat in slower times.
You could go to the pier independently but there is no guarantee there will be seats left - and a motorcycle taxi may charge you the 200 I heard a traveller quote (a fairer price is the 70 I paid to an equal-distance more southern Kuraburi “pier” for Ko Phratong - organised by the helpful Am - March 2011).
From memory the Surins speedboat and pier shuttle cost me 1650 return. The boats leave around 0900-0930 and take about an hour (speedboats). My return speedboat and shuttle van got me back to Kuraburi town about 1515. Time enough to make the bank which closes 1600 but has ATMs outside other times.

FROM PHUKET, KHAO LAK, RANONG and CHUMPON - regular buses to Kuraburi run between Phuket and Ranong - roughly hourly. Some continue on to Chumpon for KO TAO. Phuket is about 3.5 hours Lak 1.7 Ranong 2 and Chumpon 4.

Note if you are coming from KO PHAYAM or LITTLE KO CHANG there is a SURINS ISLAND TRIP boat which does 2 day snorkelling tours, staying in NP tents overnight.
This boat will also take you down one way. Cost seems high at 2000 but you get to do all the first day activities including snorkelling some spots along the way and meals. I don’t know if your first night's NP and tent costs are included. It’s the only way you can leave Phayam and Chang and be on the Surins the same day, unless you are prepared to charter your own boat from Kuraburi which will cost you way more than 2000.
Thia boat tends to moor in Buffalo Bay Phayam and there are posters up around both islands advertising it. Major problem - it may not be departing the same day you want to leave.

Not too that quite a few Surins trips originate out of KHAO LAK - accommodation places and travel agents organise boat tickets and pier shuttles. Simply means starting an hour or so earlier than from Kuraburi.

FROM BANGKOK - some but not all Bangkok-Phuket buses run thru Kuraburi via Ranong. There could also be separate Bangkok to Takua Pa buses but these may go along the Surathani-Takua Pa road (route 401) rather than via Rangong and Kuraburi. Anyway, the ticket offices at Bangkok's southern bus terminal will put you on the right bus.
I think you would be looking at something around 11 hours to Kuraburi. For people wanting to jump straight off the bus and onto transport to the Surins I reckon an overnight bus starting before 2100 would do the job.
Even though the turn-off to the pier is aboout 6km on the Ranong/Bangkol side of Kuraburi town I’d go right into town and hoof it to one of the travel agents at/near the bus stop. They actually run the boats and put on transport to the pier.

FROM TAKUA PA - all the above buses will do the one hour trip, but there are also local rattlers which maybe take a bit longer.

FROM SAMUI/PHANGAN and KHAO SOK. Jump on a route 401 bus at Surathani bus station and jump off at Takua Pa. Then take one of the buses above.

FROM KRABI and PHANG NGA- there are a few daily buses Krabi to Kuraburi and more Krabi to Takua Pa. As far as I know these all pass thru Phang Nga bus station, but I have also seen Phang Nga to Takua Pa rattlers.

WHICH IS THE BETTER – THE SIMILANS OR THE SURINS?

Coral and fish conditions seemed about the same although I don’t remember lots of medium sized fish near the beach at the Surins’ Ao Mai Ngam. I did see a nice baby shark.

When the coral recovers it will be possible to snorkel a pretty good reef drop-off at Ao Mai Ngam. You need a boat trip for the same type of stuff in the Similans.

Ao Mai Ngam is a sweet beach, one of Thailand’s better ones, but the main beach at the Similans HQ island is another step up – no low tide blues for a start and the water seemed clearer and bluer. Donald Duck Bay at Similans island #8 is better again.

EXCEPT – both Similans beaches get heaps more daytrippers. For people-watchers like me this is a plus, but maybe not for

Ao Mai Ngam is a nice beach but the Simialans Front Beach at NP HQ at island#4 is a step up.

As is the beach at Donald Duck Bay on Similans island#8

Landscape/seascape at both Surins and Similans are equally attractive.

I think the Surins’ camping area at  Ao Mai Ngam is better than at HQ Beach in the Similans (although the alternative Surins’ arrivals beach camping area at Ao Chong Kaad is really cramped and crammed).  Ao Mai Ngam is divided into neat little sections, has a greater number of toilet blocks which always seemed clean and has the possibility of beachfront camping sites although only for a limited %. Then again it had more pains in the bum long-term campers who thought they owned the place when I visited.

I didn’t think the bungalows were superior at either site but the Similans has more. I think camping enthusiasts will enjoy the Surins' Ao Mai Ngam more.

Restaurants  were dire at both locations but the Similans’ HQ beach one was slightly better.

National Park staff  were equally rude.

The Similans has considerably better walks and viewpoints.

Overall I’d give it to the Similans.

KURABURI

Kuraburi is the mainland base town for the Surins and islands like Ko Phra Thong and Ko Raya - it's about an hour by bus north of Takua Pa and 2 hours south of Ranong. Distance between the two white arrows is 750m.

The town is a strung along the main highway with a main street shopping area about one half the length of Khao Lak's main centre. It's a pretty quiet place with good variety of stores, a couple of 711s, one bank with ATM, several trip booking places and a few places to stay. There is a night food market runs just right of the L for TOM AND AM TRAVEL.

Accommodation
If heading from south to north, one option would be to ride thru the shopping street on the main road and as soon as you reach the bridge at the far end check the two bungalow places on the inland side (the further of the two you have to go down a 200m track from the road). I stayed in the further one last month, forget its name - it's associated with Tom and Am Travel who have a shopfront left side heading north in the middle of town opposite the road into the bus station, and also a desk at the bus station. It had basic rooms with bathroom for 300 asked - I got 250. Very quiet.
A guy tenting next to me in the Surins stayed at the joint the other side of the bridge - said real nice bungalow for 400 odd including basic breakfast.
If you get out at the bus station the first of these places is little more than 5 minutes walk.

There are some other places back behind businesses in the central town - I remember a sign showing bungalows in back near Barracuda Dive's shop. Barracuda also has a desk at the bus station. BTW there is a mum and pop trip booking agent on left side of the lane leading down from the bus station - seemed to have good contacts but poor English.

If you want flashpacker-lower midrange accommodation look for the signs alongside the main road about 8-10km south of town in twisty hilly jungle country for Kuraburi Green View Resort. If on a bus, ask the conductor/driver to stop the bus when there. They are very reliable.

I also copied this info when doing research for my trip - I don't know who the poster was:
In Kura Bury there is a very good place to stay my husband and I have stayed there several times Boon Piya resort,
179-180 M1 T Kura is on the main road in Kura Buri tel 01-7525457 . It is very simple but very clean with you own shower and loo , little bungalows and the owner Panich who runs it is a very nice man . It is used to be about 800 bath the night and there is a nice place next door for breakfast in the morning.

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Boleslav has an account of a Surins visit when the coral was good in the TRIP REPORT SECTION here which includes staying at the bungalows, a critique of snorkelling spots in good times and some underwater shots like the one below.

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LATEST INFORMATION
Trip reporter ACK visited the Surins in early December 2012. He emailed me this info:

Returned from five days Surins. Was to be ten but park not open until Dec5. Coral is absolutely toast. Worse than last year if possible. Fish are gone as well. Wife and friend did daytrip to Koh Tachai. Same story.

On both beaches in park, huge amounts of sand have washed ashore. In the water, sand (dead coral) has washed over everything at shallow depth killing all in its path. Beaches are markedly higher. Much erosion, now easier for water to penetrate deeper into camp. Many large trees at risk. Mangrove on the small beach facing Chankot (entrance to Mai Ngak camp) has thinned immensely and looks unhealthy. Mangrove on Mai Ngam on also suffering.

No fish or marine life. 10+ hours in the water. No shark, no turtle, one lobster, one octopus. Only few grouper and they were all off Koh Torlinda. Many, many common and hearty reef fish now gone. No tuna or trevally as well. As I stated years ago and was brushed off, the entire ecosystem has collapsed. The only thing Thailand will be fishing is squid.

It is no longer worthwhile to rent gear or take a snorkel boat. It is DEAD. Boat times have also been cut to 2hrs. Tolinda is now said to be no longer visited (too far too see nothing) but np boats were running on our trips.

The weather was good, appears we wedged ourselves between two storms. Was worried about your trip as we had a very odd storm front roll in on the Andaman side, then stalled out over gulf.

Have a friend on Phayam now. Says its lovely. Friend returned from Khood but just says it was nice and has not sent me photos for you.

The (caretaker) bungalow on Ao Mai Ngam is again available this year for b2000. (above). No prebooking. Also a back house that has 7-8 beds at b3000.

Vegetation in campground looks better with the hordes gone, no one is breaking it. Cant swear by this but seems there is much less bird song in the morning at dawn. Odd I know but it was in fact something that struck me on more than one morning.

Restaurant was better. Lunch is decidedly best meal. We were even able to get food spicy to Thai standard.

Fees are slated to go up. Park fee to 500b for 5 days. Stevenl says rescinded, but no indication in the np. Jan1. Boat prices also going up. No longer recommend Sabina (transfer) and with that TomAm (never did recommend Tom). . Use Barracuda (Dive) . Hah, name is Barracuda but no barracuda in the water. Sabina boat prices said to go up. Their daytrip price was already jacked up. Wife had big discount but we understand price was b2500 from Surin. They did not use their boat but piggybacked on Barracuda's trip or organized jointly.Imagine all operators are suffering hugely from the bleaching.

Please tell your fans to rent tents in park, tents are newish, biggish and only b300

DEC 2013 - wonderingstar just sent me a link to his recently completed snorkelling page on the Surins. He reports the coral is still messed up, the fish are good and the food is now okay. He has heaps of info plus literally hundreds of pix and plenty of maps. A great page:  http://whatsthesnorkellinglike.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/thailand_surins/

JAN 2015 - ACK has been back to the Surins and provides this update.

The coral is absolutely finished in Surin. I had hopes, but no, its not coming back. Worse, what few fish hanging on are gone. Really tragic. An entire ecosystem vanished in < five years.

Food was good, by and large. Surins has new ranger. OK bloke, serious but fun. For variety of reasons they don't stay, but he might make it.

Restrooms getting slow upgrade and there are some tiny improvements. Very tidy.

Sabina Tour bought Baracudas boat. Its a great boat and really made the trip out very pleasant.

Park fees headed to B500 for five days.

I saw some nice bird life. Its quieter so the birds come down out of the canopy. An Andaman.Nicobar pigeon (rare on this island), pair of new kingfisher (did not see the one from yrs past), two mynah! Excited about that as well as an oriental pied hornbill (wife says they may have brought it here. It was young. The usual suspects, kites and imperial pigeons. Fruit bats largely vanished..

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Some web sites that provide info on the Surin islands:
SURINS ISLANDS COM
SURINS ISLANDS DIVE SITES
KURABURI GREENVIEW RESORT
NATIONAL PARKS WEBSITE

If you see mistakes or have extra information, please fire them in below. If you have questions, please ask them on THE FORUM which I check most days. I only visit individual island pages occasionally.
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IF YOU VISIT THE SURINS YOU MIGHT BE INTERESTED IN NEARBY LOCATIONS LIKE KO KHO KHAO, KO PHRA THONG, PHAYAM, LITTLE KO CHANG, KHAO LAK, KHAO SOK, PHUKET - PAGES ON EACH CAN BE ACCESSED THRU THE INDEX

You may also be interested in the relatively close SIMILAN ISLANDS

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KHAO SOK

Last visited March 2011

Part of Lake Rajjaphapa (Rechapbrapho/Cheow Law) from the Lake-Trip viewpoint.

Okay, we aren't talking beaches here. But there are plenty of spectacular islands - with karst limestone cliffs climbing 200m from the water.
But the main reasons I did this page are - the location is a natural for travellers moving between the Andaman and southern Gulf islands - the area is among the most asked-for on travel websites - and this place is one of the most enjoyable I've visited in my travels and one I hadn't been to in 0ver 10 years, hence the lack of a page until now.

The main park HQ, walking trails and bungalow area is about one hour by bus from Takua Pa to the west and maybe 2.5 from Surathani in the east. Travellers' minibuses also come across from the Krabi area.
The popular lake trips start at the dam area about one hour east and it takes another hour to cruise across to the raft houses and jungle-cave walk area (modified Google Earth image).
MAIN PARK HQ-BUNGALOWS-WALKING TRAILS AREA

When you arrive at the bus stop on route 401 (the bus-conductor will make sure you know) there will be some touts from various bungalow operations waiting to show you pix of their places. This is great if you are unbooked like me - because they can provide free transport the 1 to 2km down to the accommodation. If booked into a place a songthaew makes fairly regular trips from the bus stop. The travellers' minibuses tend to drop you (and pick up again) at the bungalows.

I went with the guy from Khao Sok Evergreen House because the other tout waiting was from Jungle Huts where I stayed first trip - I like to try new places. Above is my "tree house" - like most tree houses I've seen in Thailand this is built on stilts up under the canopy of a tree - not on the tree itself. Shaded for all but about 3 hours in the afternoon which becomes prime clothes-drying time - if the thunderstorm doesn't set in which it did each afternoon I was there. Bungalow with bathroom cost 300 lowered to 250 because of single occupancy. Good condition but basically a box on stilts with comfy bed and good net.

Evergreen House is a pretty sweet operation. It is quite close to the park boundary but some distance down tracks to the right as you approach Park HQ. Only 3 tree houses and 3 normal bungalows in a spacious garden setting. Very friendly hosts Gai and Noi. Laid back restaurant showing advantage of mainland setting and plenty of competition with good food at the lower end of budget restaurant prices. Small supermarket, internet and swimming hole maybe 3 minutes walk away.
ph 0066 77395144 - www.evergreenhouse2007.net - email khoasokevergreen@yahoo.com

"Main street" runs down from the bus stop to the park HQ. Lots of traveller-orientated businesses along here - trip booking agents, minimarkets (one front left has an ATM), restaurants, bars and some accommodation places. Surprisingly uncrowded in this shot (people had told me Khao Sok is much busier than the 90s. Surprising until Gai told me it was Full Moon Party day on Phangan - he had 12 guests the previous day but only me at time of pix. Most of the accommodation is on laneways off to the left of this street - tracks are in much better condition than days past - many are paved.

One of the biggest changes from my first trip was the number of new accommodation places and how existing places had expanded and upgraded. This is a new section at Jungle Huts which has an interconnecting elevated walkway to the new elevated restaurant. The place still has cheaper old-style bungalows and tree-houses but they were a bit neater than when I stayed last century. Jungle Huts was known for its entertainingly eccentric restaurant staff - these guys would be pushing early-mid 30s now, may be different.

The above bungalows are 800 on the website at time of writing but Jungle Huts does not offer aircon on environmental grounds. Plenty of similar places with aircon (note it gets quite cool towards sunrise - the only place in the south I've needed a full blanket - but late afternoons can be warm and steamy) One joint even had a neat looking pool. Misty Mountain Resort or similar.

Of course you don't need a resort-type pool if you stay at the oft-praised Art's River View Lodge (or several other places along the river). Outsiders are welcome to swim but it would be good politics to order a drink or snack at the elevated restaurant behind camera.

The nearest swimming spot to my bungalow was about 3 minutes away at Bamboo House. The pool extends maybe 30m to right of frame. I shot this from adjacent Bamboo Bar which is a cool place to be stuck when the afternoon storm breaks. Keep those Changs coming ………..


GETTING THERE

Details will be clearer if you click image to expand.
Minibus operations to and from Sok cover plenty of areas these days. Note a lot of the above services involve a change to ferries, bigger coaches, trains or even another minibus at centres like Surathani, Krabi, Trang, maybe Hat Yai and Chumpon.
Note that your bungalow can arrange these tickets just as well as the trip-booking agents.

ROUTE 401 BUSES - around 10 services a day run hourly between Surathani and Takua Pa (from where most go on to Phuket via Khao Lak). It took me about an hour to come up from Takua Pa and I think Surathani is around 2.5. These buses pass by the railway station some distance out of Surathani town itself. Note that not all Surathani-Phuket buses go via highway 401 - some go via the southern route thru Phang Nga town so check at the bus station for a Khao Sok bus.


THE PARK WALKS

The entrance to the park is a short walk from most bungalows. Here you pay your 200 entry fee for 24 hours (March 2011 cost). Check the LAKE TRIP section for how you might be able to make this extend for the best part of two days.
Very close to the entrance is an exhibition-educational Visitors' Center where you can pick up good maps of the main walks, a park restaurant, a nice picnic area alongside the stream, national park bungalows/camping area and a rather swish youth hostel where a bunch of grade school kids were having a great time.

This is a copy of the hand-out map from National Park Visitors' Center (sic if yer not a Yank) - I've added a bit of info. Click to expand image for detail.

The two main tracks are well signposted and don’t need a guide for daylight exploration. Combined they are just a little too long for the average trekker to cover in a day. Because I did most of the more popular western walk in '97 before a heavy storm forced retreat, I started on the northern walk this latest trip.

THE NORTHERN WALK
This track starts up a fairly steep section of stairs behind the park restaurant.

This is a true rainforest track, much more so than the early stages of the western walk. Narrow, steep (much more so than the focal length of my elcheapo Cannon suggests in this shot), lots of leaf litter, a horde of leeches despite it not yet raining (but pretty damp from yesterday’s rain).

Leeches - don't freak out. These little devils are not poisonous like ticks - as a matter of fact some medicos say the anticoagulant they inject to thin your blood is good if you have blood pressure problems (or something like that). Face it, leeches are still used in modern hospitals for a variety of treatments. Main problem is that the anticoagulant makes the puncture-mark bleeding harder to stop (good old pressure works eventually) and the punctures can be itchy which leads to infection from scratching.
Leech socks which are impervious canvas or plasticticised, going up to just under knee-level are most effective. Got a shot of some down page in the LAKE TRIP section. Leeches mainly lurk in the wet leaf litter and lower vegetation and leap onto lower legs, feet - they can actually burrow through less impervious socks, trousers, even some shoe types (a wild leech before it becomes blood-endgorged is quite a skinny streamlined dude) - although this takes time and if you are checking every 100m like me you will get them long before they do the dracula bit. I find wearing shorts makes spotting them much easier than in longer trousers. I have an idea liberal applications of insect repellent may discourage them too.
When you finish your trek, check your torso too. I have had a few here in the Australian bush.

About 50 minutes up the northern track it splits - the western part goes across this bridge and then climbs steeply to San Yang Roi. Trouble is the bridge was barricaded with ACTIVITY PROHIBITED IN THIS AREA signs. Of course I had to see why - the bridge was in poor repair with circumferentially-enhanced types in risk of busting thru. And a fallen tree partially blocked the steep set of stairs starting on the other side. Both problems looked at least a year old - what does National Parks do with our 200baht entry fees? Hint - read above about the snazzy youth hostel.

After 5 minutes of steep stair-climbing the across-bridge track meanders thru some dense high forest before coming to a circular switchback around a huge emergent tree in an area which must be virtually directly above the river. Must be because I could hear it way down there - couldn’t see anything but immediate trees from an area the notes hint is a viewpoint.

Back down on the main northern track I moved another 10 minutes on to a nice natural pool which would be great for swimming. Past here the path deteriorated sadly - narrow, steep, muddy, unclear with lots of false leads and no indicator marks on trees or signs, meaning frequent backtracking - after 15 minutes I figured I was making less than 1km in an hour which meant that the final destination Sip-et-Chan Waterfall was something like 6 hours return to that point. This would give me no time to recheck the main western track before nightfall, so I turned back towards Park HQ.

THE WESTERN TRACK
Although longer, this is way easier and busier and than the northern track (I only saw 2 other trekkers in over 3 hours on the latter, dozens on the western route). There is also more to see with 7 pools or “waterfalls” along here.

The first 2km or so is a wide path with a few relatively easy slopes. Past this it narrows to a proper rainforest walking track - quite narrow with some steepish climbs and drops - but does not become difficult in normal conditions. On my first visit at the turn of the century I had to turn back at shortly after reaching the final falls at #7 because a deluge turned the track into a mud stream with thousands of leeches. I remember it became quite slippery in parts but despite this I made the 7.5km back to HQ in 2 hours.

At the 3km mark a short side-track leads down to this attractive pool at Wang Yao. Deliciously cool water saw quite a few people swimming behind camera. A guide here was telling his small group the water is usually very clear in dry season - recent days had been quite wet.

Thai “waterfalls” are often a short drop over a few rocks as in background. Note rainfall starting. Later at my bungalow it absolutely poured, just as hard as when I first visited - I’m glad I turned back when I did this latest trip.
Some of the other falls along this track are a bit more impressive - but we aint talking Niagara folks. I remember the pool at #6 and the pool and falls at #7 were quite nice when I called in the previous trip. Note the side-track out of #7 was pretty indisctinct back then - maybe it has improved.

OTHER BUNGALOW-HQ AREA ACTIVITIES.
Elephant rides, guided treks to distant waterfalls and viewpoints for overnight camping, river inner-tube rides/ kayaking, flower tours and guided animal spotting treks are offered at the bungalows, tour booking offices and park visitors’ centre. Some of these would involve transport to more distant locations - this is one big national park.
Guided animal spotting is most successful as night treks - Khao Sok is famous for wild elephants, deer, tigers, leopards and tapirs but all I’ve seen on day trips are a few birds and bulk leeches. Plus a few crashing sounds in the undergrowh. I gotta admit night safaris are not my thing - I’d much rather be tucked in tight with Blow-Up Britney than charging around the boondocks with a flashlight.


THE LAKE TRIP
I did the Lake Trip in ‘97 but did not have the time to stay overnight on the raft houses where daytrips call in for lunch. I was determined to stay a night this trip. The extra 1000baht (2400 v 1400) gets a surprisingly comfy floating bungalow, 3 excellent meals and some extra activities on the second day including a trek to a wonderful viewpoint which I thought nearly as good as first day’s cave walk. Plus the exclusivity and serenity of a night on the lake.

Starting point - the Lake Park HQ/Visitors' Center about one hour north of main HQ-bungalow area - around 50km further along 401 to Ban Takun and then another 8km or so down a side road to the north. The Visitor's Center has the usual educational stuff, toilets, shops, restaurant.

At the small building to the right you will pay another 200 baht entry fee - unless you delay your previous day's entry into the main HQ area's walking tracks until say 10.30am as Gai from Evergreen House advised me, in which case your arrival at the lake should be before the 24 hours is up - and you will be waved thru on presentation of your previous day's ticket (time of entry the previous day is stamped on it). In this way I got 3 days in the park areas for 200 - they don't check your ticket on exit from the lake.

The gang - only 7 of us staying overnight - plus another 5 with a different operator. However there were another 20+ daytrippers at the raft-houses having lunch before their cave trip.
Bloke on the tiller is our guide "Mr Big", an excellent source of information and good humour.
It's 26km across the lake to Ton Tuoy raft-houses. Plenty of spectacular scenery along the way so the longtail didn't hurry - took about an hour.

The raft houses. Restaurant area is larger buildings slightly right of centre. Guest accommodation left, worker accommodation right.

Chez Tezza at the raft houses. Basic box with 2 double mattresses and a good net. My mattress and pillow pretty comfortable. Magic waking up with the moonlit lake framed by the window. Couples got their own place of course - the two single girls in our group were asked to share - I was the only single bloke so got a place all to myself. Well me and Britzer.

Bungalows (here from rear) have outside bathrooms - this is a shot from the second, higher bathroom block which has better facilities (but still a bit decrepit) than the first - about half as high on the same pathway. Make sure you carry a torch - path is lit until generator quits in the early hours, but not lit well in sections.

Sam from our trip sent me this shot of the raft houses (image uncle_sam)

THE CAVE TRIP
Starting immediately after luch, this must be the highlight of any Khao Sok trip. It's the second time I've done it, but that did not diminish enjoyment at all.
The first section involves a short longtail ride further up the lake branch the raft houses are located. We have extra passengers including other overnighters and some of the daytrippers.

Out of the boat and about a 30 minute walk to the cave. This involves numerous shallow river crossings - good sandals or hiking boots are probably best here - I wore joggers which were okay but soggy of course - flip-flop sandals aka thongs/jandals in Aust/NZ are a no no. Mr Big went bare foot - not a good idea unless you have been doing this all your life.

Click to enlarge to check the plastic leech-socks the second dude heading towards camera above has. He was the first of a big group coming away from the cave - looked to be an up-market daytrip group from Phuket, Phang Nga or Khao Lak. You can even come from Krabi on daytrips. Phuket and Krabi would be around 7 hours return vehicle time alone - too far for me.

Cave entry - as you can see, quite narrow. In fact the first 15 minutes of the 40 minute trip is confined to the narrow creek section. Here you are wading constantly - at one stage it is too deep to wade so non-swimmers should avoid although I found I could haul myslelf along this short section using hands on rocks both sides without swimming. Claustrophobics should also avoid. The guides carry a wet pack for cameras and valuables in this section. Each trekker is given an effective head-band light.
Note this section floods after heavy rain - a flash- flood some years ago saw several people lost. Guides are very safety-conscious (Mr Big and friends had to haul victims out of the cave) - will not enter if conditions seem risky. There is a trekking by-pass for such times.

Sam shot Corrine modelling headband flashlight.

After 15 minutes or so the cave widens and most progress is not thru water. Cameras are handed out but my crap Canon's flash failed 2 seconds after the warranty expired and so I have no shots of the limestone formations (not mind-blowing like some caves), bats and spiders. But I'm hoping some of my fellow travellers will email some shots.

Okay, Anette from Germany sent me this cave shot.

And Sam from England this one of a bat colony......

---plus this of hundreds of spiders nesting on the walls.


The cave exit (much bigger than the entrance) doesn't need a flash although the 3 seconds or so the lens was open saw some camera shake.

Sam's flashlight does a much better job of this area.

The track splits here soon after cave exit. The daytrippers take the right branch which gets them to a waiting longtail closer to the park HQ - the overnighters take the other which eventually goes back to the original mooring point close to the raft-houses. Both routes involve about a one hour trek thru very good rainforest - true to its name because by this stage it was raining. There are about 10 creek crossings along the way.

Mr Big had a very good eye and spotted this small fringe-back lizard lurking in the bush.

Still raining back at the raft-houses. Excellent time for a swim. Image from Sam.

Near DINNER TIME! Dinner was done on a multi-plate share system. I thought the food was very very good for quantity, taste and variety. There seemed to be unlimited free bottles of water on the tables. Coffee and tea were comp and beer, soft drinks and juices could be purchased.


SPOT-LIGHTING
After dinner we took off on a one hour lake cruise to see if we could spot any animals or birds. Not greatly successful - an owl, a couple of eagles and one hornbill. But it sure was nice out there cruising the lake in the moonlight/spotlight.

NEXT DAY
First view in the morning - glassed-off lake and misty mountains. I just had to do a lengthy swim to wake me up (water surprisingly warm despite Mr Big reporting a 30m depth) - several other guests took the comp kayaks.

7am saw a one hour pre breakfast animal spotting tour - once again several birds of prey, a half dozen monkeys crashing around high in the trees and ------
This happy camper - a bigger monkey feeding his/her face in the grass alongside the lake. Didn't seem overly impressed with Mr Big's monkey calls.

THE VIEWPOINT TREK
Around 9am we packed up our gear and headed across lake 30 minutes to the start of the viewpoint trek. The actual viewpoint isn't at the highest point in the shot thank God, but on a ridge in the vicinity of the yellow arrow head. Still took over 3 hours return.

I'd class the overall walk up through excellent rainforest as a real good workout for a person of average fitness - they will require quite a few stops. For fit people there are no killer slopes, but this last 15 minute stretch was good value to get the pulse rate up. Once again my camera's focal lenght de-exaggerates the steepness. Rocks very sharp here - Mr Big bare-footed as everywhere else. Unfortunately you do not get a view until the very top - but it is worth it as the shot top of page shows.

Sam's shot from the viewpoint.

Mr Big missed this dude on the way down, but eagle-eyed Sam holding it didn't.

Once back in the boat, we headed for the Lake HQ. I have an idea some trips squeeze in a waterfall visit and a swim, but a storm was threatening so we made for shelter.

I modified this Google Earth image to show approx positions - the cave is perhaps a little to the right of my place-marker.


GETTING TO THE LAKE INDEPENDENTLY.
Get the route 401 bus to drop you off in the fairly big town of Ban Takun. Mention "lake" to the conductor. This town is around the 53-54km markers from Surathani. Mr Big told me there are motorcycle taxis the 8km or so to park HQ. You can charter longtails here - but the 26km out to the raft-houses would not be cheap - ditto for a lake cruise. Of course shared between friends it may be fine.
Note I saw at least 2 other raft house operations but they seemed closed mid March 2011.
If coming from Krabi, the cross-mountain route hits 401 much closer to Ban Takun than the main Park HQ-bungalow area. You could bail-out of the minibus and wait for a passing bus or motorcyle-taxi. The latter might be scarce away from town..

If you see any errors or have additional information, please post below.
If you have questions, please post them in THE FORUM section accessed via the INDEX which I check most days - I check individual pages like this Sok one only occasionally.
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