Khao Sok Family Jungle experience
Having spent the last 6 weeks in the popular holiday resort island of Phuket, Thailand it’s safe to say that we had a realisation that being close to nature is WAY more important to us as a family than we initially thought. The noise and traffic of Phuket is a stark contrast from the vast wilderness that we left behind in Kenya, and we had started to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into. Was moving to Thailand going to be the right move for us? That was, until we realised how close we were to so many beautiful places that are just a short (subjectively) drive away, like the beautiful Khao Sok National Park!
Arriving to Khao Sok National Park
The view on the drive in told us immediately that we were in a place that would make our souls happy!
Khao Sok National Park is one of the world’s oldest rainforests, and home to 48 species of mammals, including wild elephants, gaur (Asian bison), Malayan tapirs, sambar deer, bears, monkeys (long-tailed macaques, langurs), gibbons, and more. The icing on the cake is that it’s just a 3 hour drive (which to us is short) from our accommodation in Phuket, and the moment we realised this we immediately started looking for family friendly adventures for that same weekend!
Ancient forest
Khao Sok is home to dozens of species of mammals and some stunning rivers & waterfalls
Having spent the last few years living in Kenya we’re no strangers to roughing it, and have been on several bush camping adventures where only a thin canvas separated us from the wilderness (including animals) outside. With that said, we set out to find an accommodation that could scratch our adventure itch without necessarily having to dig our own toilet (yes that’s the reality of bush camping!). Something that could connect us to nature, and take us on adventures whilst still providing us with a comfortable bed, and a good meal. A place where Malia could run barefoot, get mucky and wet, and (hopefully) not ask for her tablet or a TV for the entire weekend (watch this space!).
Enter - Our Jungle Camp!
Where do we start with this place…
Our Jungle Camp
You wouldn’t think that this place is walking distance to the main town. It feels like a hidden oasis
OK so first a disclaimer - it’s rainy season right now so we were somewhat at the mercy of the weather. That didn’t stop us from having a blast, but during the dry…er season (it is a rainforest after all) there really are endless possibilities for activities here. We (however) stuck to activities where we wouldn’t be drastically affected by downpours, because as much as we were craving adventure, we also just wanted a somewhat relaxing weekend together!
Having only 2 days with Our Jungle Camp meant we had to be smart with our activity choices. The camp offers so many fun things to do but some of them are multiple day adventures in the Jungle, and although this is DEFINITELY up our street, we figured on this occasion we’d stay close to camp and sample as many of the short, family friendly activities as possible to get a real feel for the property, and to be able to give you guys an honest review.
Checking in
The first look at our beautiful rice paddy bungalow. Such a wholesome vibe!
Our arrival day started with a beautiful bamboo rafting experience. This was extremely serene and peaceful, floating down the river on a traditional bamboo raft with only the sounds of the trickling river, the jungle around you…and the 7 year old asking “are we there yet”! Luckily Malia didn’t have to wait too long before we stopped at a beautiful “jungle cafe” where coffee is brewed in bamboo sticks over an open fire and served in bamboo cups. For us, anything that includes coffee is already winning, but the combination of natural surroundings, traditional cooking AND coffee was the perfect way to start our little adventure.
After coffee it was time to continue down stream a short while where we saw a viper in the tree and plenty of monkeys before being offered the opportunity to swim. On this occasion we didn’t take them up on their offer, and continued to our end point where the car was waiting to take us back to camp. What a great experience to start our adventure in Khao Sok!
The next day it was time for Jungle School! Our Jungle Camp is VERY family friendly and as such they attract a lot of families who want their kids to get a taste of nature. Every weekend they run their Jungle School where the kids have the opportunity to learn shelter building, foraging and making their own jungle art using the items they have foraged for. This is a great activity for kids (and the parents) to socialise, giggle and get a little mucky. Malia really enjoyed picking different flowers and leaves to make her jungle masterpiece (her words!), and I (Adam) really enjoyed throwing a bucket of water over the kids to test how water-proof their shelter was… Spoiler alert - it wasn’t the slightest bit waterproof and they all got wet haha!
That afternoon it was time for something we had been looking forward to since booking Our Jungle Camp - River Tubing! It’s funny how the simplest activities are sometimes the ones you get most excited about but the idea of just floating down the river in a rubber tube and being at the mercy of the currents was something that all 3 of us were excited to try. Unfortunately mother nature decided we needed an extra level of adventure to our experience and unleashed a heavy rain storm on us that day. Most normal people would have postponed the tubing to later in the day when the rain stopped but my thought was “we’re already going to be wet, so what’s the harm in doing it anyway?” This theory was somewhat accurate, although I didn’t quite take into consideration that 45 minutes of being wet without any sun to warm us up would mean the three of us looking quite blue by the time we reached our disembarking point! The tubing itself was a lot of fun and highly recommended, but if you’d like to learn from our misfortune - Just wait until the rain stops and it will be a lot more enjoyable!
The evening was time to warm up by the fire with our jungle cooking experience. Our Jungle Camp has an outdoor kitchen area where guests can cook their own dinner using traditional bamboo cooking techniques. Remember the coffee that they brewed in bamboo earlier? Well that technique can be used to cook entire meals. No pots and pans, only bamboo tubes and fire!
We cooked chicken green curry, a vegetable curry, steamed rice, and (amazingly) “pancakes” for dessert! Now you’ll notice I used “quotation” marks for pancakes. That’s because there’s no pan involved so maybe they should be called “pipecakes” or “tubecakes”, as everything here is cooked inside a bamboo tube and therefore the pancakes come out as one long cylindrical shaped pancake which you slice into pieces. If anything this is way cooler than having traditional pancakes though and suffice to say we absolutely demolished every bit of them! The amazing thing about this whole process is that it’s not a gimmick or just something cool to show their guests. Our guide explained that quite often when he goes overnight camping in the jungle he will use this method to cook his dinner. No need to carry pots and pans with you, just chop a couple of pieces of bamboo, make a fire and you’re good to go!
By the way - Our Jungle Camp actually offer this as an experience for anyone interested! This is something I would for sure love to do next time with Our Jungle Camp - and believe me there WILL be a next time!
Now at the beginning of the blog I talked about wanting to be close to nature but still comfortable, and the accommodation here offers exactly that. All of the chalets here are built from local, natural materials and are designed in a way that allows air to naturally pass through them. In line with their eco-friendly ethos they don’t have air conditioning but to be honest we even found ourselves turning off the fan in the night as it got chilly.
Our weekend at Our Jungle Camp was exactly what we needed to reconfirm our reasons for moving to Thailand. This place is the ultimate base for all things adventure whether you’re a family, a couple or a solo traveller. We can’t wait to spend a few more nights here so that we can try some of their multiple day experiences!
Learn more about Our Jungle Camp and why we think they are awesome here:
https://www.khaosokecoresort.com/why-us/
Check out all of the Our Jungle Camp experiences here:
https://www.khaosokecoresort.com/khaosok-tours/
Check out their accommodation options here:
https://www.khaosokecoresort.com/accommodation/
If you have any questions about this experience make sure to reach out to us via Instagram DM and we’ll be happy to help! Alternatively you can contact us on the form below