Scooter Ride to Bokkharani National Park – Thailand

During our trip to Thailand we stayed in a great little beach town called Ao Nang. This town has a great beach vibe with palm trees, beautiful beaches, shops, jungles and countless wooden Thai boats waiting to take you for a ride. Lindsay had spotted a picture in the Lonely Planet guidebook of an incredible looking jungle full of trees, waterfalls, etc called Bokkharani national park. We noticed that this was fairly close to Ao Nang so we decided to rent a scooter for the day to check it out. We took off on our scooter and the drive out to this national park was a blast. We passed Buddhist temples, food shacks, etc as we winded through the jungle. Most of the drive was on a very busy highway and our little scooter required that we drive on the shoulder of the road. Fast cars, motorcycles and large trucks would come flying by. In addition to this there were numerous times when rain showers would come slamming down on us. At one point the rain was so strong that we had to pull over and stand underneath an abandon building just to take cover. We were both soaked to the core and just stood there shivering while the over sized helmets on are head bounced around. :) Needless to say it was quite an adventure. We finally made it to the park and were literally blown away at what we saw…it shattered our expectations. First of all we were the only westerners around which always makes you feel like you have found a gem. Second of all the natural beauty of this park was mind blowing. Picture the most beautiful movie set that Disney could build, add 3 times more waterfalls and you start to get the picture of what this place looked like. Giant trees and lush jungle flowers grew amongst numerous pools of water and countless waterfalls. The color of the water was turquoise blue and it sparkled next to the green trees. We walked around taking it all in before finally deciding to take a swim. We found a great swimming hole and began jumping in and out of the water via the numerous rocks and waterfalls that were around. Then a group of young Thai kids (probably around 13) came by and showed us that you could climb a tree next to the water and jump in. I couldn't resist following the Thai kids up the tree for a good jump into the water. :) We sate in that area for hours just swimming, talking and taking in the unbelievable beauty that was around us. We then started the long drive home on our trusty scooter (again with rain showers, fast trucks, etc). We pulled in to Ao Nang right at sunset and spent the rest of the evening cruising the beaches and coastline on our scooter. We stopped at one point to watch the sunset (and locals swimming) before heading back to our hotel back in Ao Nang. It was an incredible day.