Exploring Cheow Lan Lake in Khao Sok

Perhaps the true gem of Khao Sok is Cheow Lan Lake and its towering limestone karst formations.

At 71 square miles, this artificial lake and dam were created in the late 80s for power generation, flood control, and fishery. Cheow Lan Lake takes approximately 1 hour 15 minutes by car to reach from Khao Sok. The most common method of reaching Cheow Lan Lake is via a full-day or half-day tour, which includes transport to/from Khao Sok, a 90-minute longtail boat ride around the Lake, lunch on the lake, as well as a cave trekking experience.

The Nam Ta Lu cave on this tour is notorious for water levels up to your shoulders, king cobras and bats. We read a pretty harrowing story about this cave tour gone wrong back in 2007 and quickly decided this was not for us.

To do Cheow Lan Lake sans tour, the easiest way would be to rent a motorbike for the day (~300 baht/day),then rally other visitors to split the fee for a longtail boat.

Ultimately, we ended up going with a tour through our hostel for $1,200 baht, which was the cheapest price we saw. After a minivan ride to the pier, and payment for admission to the pier ($ baht) and Lake (300 baht) we packed onto a longtail boat like sardines and jetted for the lake, enjoying the views. We were seated in the back of the boat right by the engine, so I would recommend earplugs. Don’t forget a dry bag as you will definitely get wet!

After our boat tour along the lake, we enjoyed a vegetarian buffet at the lake bungalows. Everyone then headed out for the cave portion of the tour – we hung back and set back out onto the lake by kayak! With the lake virtually all to ourselves, we rowed from alcove to alcove chasing the shade, spotting monkeys. Loads of fun!!

The next morning we hopped on a minivan headed for Ao Nang, eager to stock up on vitamin D at the beach.