Hey Hive! It’s been awhile again but I haven’t traveled much lately. Hive price skyrocketed and I was just silently observing and waiting to get to the next exciting place I can share with you. This month we went all the way up north and all the way down south by car and had a bit of the colder Thai weather in the mountains as well as some nice tropical experiences in Koh Tao.
Khao Kho
Nat always says she misses the cold weather so for our 5 year anniversary we picked a destination up north in the mountains. We got recommended to visit Khao Kho which is about 5-6 hours drive away from Bangkok. It’s a place with many great views and occasionally a sheet of mist covering the valleys underneath you, making it seem like you are somewhere above the clouds. We weren’t lucky enough to see that unfortunately due to the strong wind but had plenty of other beautiful sights to enjoy.
Our hotel was on top of one of those valleys and revealed a great view right in front of our room. Took us almost 8 hours to get to our final destination because Google wasn’t entirely cooperative in showing us the right way in the mountains. Tried taking us through a really off-roady area that was bare jungle, from which we had to turn back and find our own normal way. Had a little hiccup on finding the right address for the place itself as well because google maps sent us to a crossroads with nothing on it as our final stop. With a little help from the locals and apple maps, we did find our hotel in the end and began our little adventure.
The front area of the hotel was made for camping. Most places around here offer tents right outside their ordinary hotel rooms for the more adventurous people.
The hotel itself wasn’t anything spectacular. The rooms were quite ordinary but the views from all around the place were amazing. I found this little area right besides the hotel which was perfect for me to take the drone out and explore the surroundings from above. That idea was very short lived however, since the wind was way too strong and I was getting warning after warning on the screen. Decided it’s best I land and leave the flying for another time.
This was the view right outside our door.
Here is the area besides our hotel I was talking about
Behind the place we stayed at was the White Pagoda of Khao Kho. We went passed it a bunch of times but never really stopped to take a closer look. Glad I managed to capture it from above with the drone.
Our first day wasn’t as eventful because it turned out most places around Khao Kho close at about 5pm. We did find one coffee and restaurant that was on my list of things to see, that was closing at 8pm and went for it. The name of it is Pino Latte and it’s definitely one of the better looking spots in Khao Kho. The place itself is a bit pricey compared to all else but definitely worth it. The food was quite good, the coffee was nice and the amazing landscapes underneath are some of the best in Khao Kho.
Pino Latte
As you can see the view is to kill for. We never went down to the ramp to take pictures because it was getting pretty late and cold but I have some better ones from a different place, that are in a similar context.
The temperatures during the day aren’t that much different than the rest of Thailand (4-5 degrees less but still reaching close to 30 even in the winter period). Mornings and evenings however get a bit chilly with that mountain wind blowing. This time around I made sure Nat brought some of her jumpers and jackets because I didn’t want to freeze again letting her borrow mine. 😄
Here's where we decided to park ourselves at
I really missed the different scenery, being away from the beach and up in the mountains. I've definitely forgotten how easy it is to get lost in the landscapes infront of you.
The Wat Khao Kho Pattanaram Temple was staying high and mighty in the distance. We did visit it on the next day and what a spectacular place that is.
There were many places I wanted to see but we had only 2 days and the distances were big. Everything was 20-30km or more apart and we had to plan our time a bit in order to see most things we wanted to. I really wanted to take some nice videos and photos with the drone but the wind was so strong that I decided not to risk it.
Khao Kho is filled with farms and a lot of them are turned into attractions. I didn’t know but apparently strawberries are quite a popular thing to grow up here in the mountains. There are a lot of flower gardens as well that you can go explore for a small fee. We stopped at one on the way up to our hotel which was a view point, garden and restaurant all at once.
We arrived at this place after breakfast on our second day. The weather was already starting to get hot and there weren't any people other than us and the workers that take care of the garden. From here we took the road towards the big Temple which is around 25km away. Unfortunately I had to reupload and resize some photos a bunch of times and my daily limit will hit if I post any more photos so I will be showing you the Temple tomorrow or the day after when I edit most or all of the rest of the photos from Khao Kho.
I hope my skills with the camera didn't get too rusty and you enjoyed the mountains as much as we did. Hope to be somewhat more active again but we'll have to see how traveling will be in the near future. It isn't as easy to go around every other week while trying to start a business and looking after 6 dogs. :D
Thanks for reading and I hope to see you in the next one!