Hi all Readme.me folks!

Today I have a great travel experience to share. It is about a trip under 2,000 THB budget.

We are going from Bangkok to the southern part of Thailand, Surat Thani. Our destination is known as

....... Guilin of Thailand........

There are 6 people in total including me on this trip.

We are going to take the train to Surat Thani. It is not a normal train, it is " a Free-ride Train"

We guess this is the best way to get there under low cost traveling concept.
Our train number is 171. It departs from Bangkok at 1.05 PM and will arrive at Surat Thani around 0.30 AM.
Let's see if the train will arrive on time or late!

...................................................................................................................................

Remark: The train's timetable may be different so please double check on the official Thai Railway Website

Once you have checked from the official website, you may also call to reassure once again

There is only 1 free-ride train per day. If you miss it then you need to wait for the day after.

You can also take another train to Surat Thani. The ticket is about 257 THB which is not expensive either.

:: PART 1 ::
The starting point of this trip is at "Bangkok Railway Station" or known as Hua Lamphong.

I would like to suggest you to eat something before taking the train. The food you can purchase on the train is "totally expensive."
However, there is one station that you can find food at a reasonable price which is
"Ratchaburi Station." Lunch box is about 20 THB.

We arrive at Surat Thani at 2.05 AM.
The train is late for 1 hour and 35 minutes. T T

Part 1 : Expenses for traveling from Bangkok to Surat Thani
To go to Hua Lamphong by BTS Sky Train and MRT 47 THB + 28 THB
Lunch 50 THB
Food and snacks on the train 20 THB + 20 THB + 20 THB + 20 THB = 80 THB

Question : We arrived at Surat Thani at 2 AM, where will we sleep?

Answer : We will sleep at our friend's house.

Note: If you don't have a friend who is living here and you can stay overnight with, you should take another train. The one that costs 257 THB.
This train departs from Bangkok later in the late afternoon and will arrive Surat Thani around 8 AM or 9 AM. You can go to Ratchaprapa Dam directly this way.

:: PART 2 ::
Surat Thani Railway Station - Ratchaprapa Dam

You have two choices to go to Ratchaprapa Dam from Surat Thani Railway Station.

1. The bus to Phuket, you can take this bus right in front of the train station. However, this bus will drop you off only at the entrance to the dam on the main street. You need to get another bus to the pier of the dam later.

2. The minibus to Kaset Market, you can take this bus right in front of the train station as well. This minibus is about 20 THB per person. It will drop you off at Kaset Market where you can take the van to the pier of "Ratchaprapa Dam" directly. The van costs 200 THB per person. Anyway, please make sure by asking the driver when getting on the van for the drop off spot once again because it might be changed.

We travel with low cost concept so we choose the second choice. I am sorry that I don't have any photos to show regarding this because we were in a hurry and were afraid of getting lost.

We have arrived at the pier of Ratchaprapa Dam where the boatman is waiting for us.

To contact to the boatman is easy. We both have phone number of each other.

He will call and ask what time we will arrive at the pier and make an arrangement for the meeting point. There is nothing to worried about at all.

Part 2 : Expenses for traveling from Surat Thani Railway Station to Ratchaprapa Dam
Minibus = 20 THB per person
Van = 200 THB per person
Private boat transfer = 2,000 THB for 6 people (333 THB each)

:: PART 3 ::
Nang Prai Raft House
Amazing journey to Nang Prai Raft House

This is our boatman who will take us to "Nang Prai Raft House."
I would like to highlight that our raft house has a view of the famous Three Rocks or known as Guilin of Thailand.
No more waiting, let's go!

The beautiful scenery along the way.

We have got our new profile pictures for Facebook from this corner. Wherever we want to take a selfie with beautiful scenery on the background, we can ask the boatman to stop right away.

Nang Prai Raft House is one of the three accommodations which belong to the Khao Sok National Park and run by them.

There are 2 packages available at Nang Prai Raft House as follows.

300 THB per person with no meal and 800 THB per person with all 3 meals included.

I highly recommend you to plan your trip to arrive here around noon so you can have lunch as your first meal directly.

We have reserved 800-THB package with 3 meals included.

The time that we have been waiting for has arrived, the time that we have arrived at Nang Prai Raft House safely.

Let's go to unpack! Well, how is our raft house going to be, let's go and figure it out together now!

The raft house is surrounded by mountains, water, and warm sunlight. This is totally refreshing. ^^

Unpacking is done.

It is time to fill up our energy with the first lunch here, let's go!!

This is our lunch. It is a buffet lunch so you can eat as much as you want (but only some certain items can be refilled).

Talking about the taste, they are all delicious and not too spicy. Thumps up!

There are many activities available here so you can do kayaking or swimming in front of your raft house together with fishes after lunch.

Nang Prai Raft House is the only spot in Ratchaprapa Dam with the most fishes.

This area is called "Wang Pla" in Thai. It means a place where fishes gather and live together the most. You can even feed them here.

Your raft house will come with a complementary kayak parked right in front of your raft house.

You need to deposit only 500 THB for a paddle.

You can get this deposit back once you finish using the kayak.

The reason why you need to do this is that there are many tourists who take the kayak with the paddle but come back without the paddle.

Some of them lost the paddle into the water. This happens a lot and the National Park can't absorb the cost anymore.

After we do kayaking and swim for a while, it is time for us to go visit the famous Three Rocks. These three rocks are pretty similar in sizes.

The nature has created such a thing. It also looks like Guilin in China, a top tourist destination in the world. As a result, it is also called "Guilin of Thailand". After that we will watch the sunset back at our raft house. Let's go and experience it together! How beautiful it will be.

You are about to see the famous "Three Rocks" which is right in front of us.

These tree rocks look similar to one another.

We are now on the boat watching the beautiful scenery during the sunset over the dam.
Not only the sky has started to turn from blue color to golden color but also the surroundings including the water and mountains that have turned into golden color. This happened right after we left the Three Rocks and if you want to know how beautiful it is, go and have a look on the photos below.

This angle toward the light looks so cool, doesn't it?

It would be truly romantic if you are here with your girlfriend/ boyfriend.

All programs are completed so we are going to rest a bit in our raft house before going for dinner.

We plan to come back and have some drinks in front of our place later as well. It must be so nice with a great weather like this.

You can buy some instant noodles, snacks, soft drinks, and alcoholic drinks at Nang Prai Raft House but they are pretty expensive.

You can also bring these stuffs from outside. It is allowed but you need to keep the area cleaned and don't trash anything into the water.

So please be aware and don't destroy the nature.

Note: The electricity here will run until midnight only and there is no power socket available in the room but the main public area. That's why you shouldn't forget "the extension."

It is not allowed to use and bring "Hair dryer" here. If you use it, the electricity in the whole raft house will go off.

We didn't know about this (so we did it). We are so sorry.

If you would like to get more information and make reservation with Nang Prai Raft House, please call

Tel. 081 3657423

Please be aware of third party travel agent because the price will be a lot more expensive than contact Nang Prai Raft House directly.

But now, let us lie down and gaze at the stars in front of our raft house with this slow life atmosphere.

Huh !! There is no phone reception here only AIS that is available.

However, this is kind of good somehow so we could really be on our own and rest truly.

This is the summary of expenses on this trip (2 days and 1 night).

We, LowCost Thailand have got a YouTube channel to introduce to all of you as well.

You can go and watch the video of this fun trip here.

LowCost Thailand - Guilin of Thailand (Cheow Lan Dam)

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