This National Park is way down in the southern tip of the island and not easy to get to without a motorbike or car, or get a songthaew to take you. It isn't very large and there isn't really much there apart from an interesting lighthouse. In typical Thai style it costs foreigners 200 baht to enter and 40 baht for Thais. It's a bit of a misnomer to call it a National Park because it's really very small indeed. Pleasant enough though, but spending more than 2 hours here is stretching it. There is a token effort at the park side of it, though, with a few trees labelled with Latin names to give the impression of scientific study, a 1.7 km long walkway around the perimeter and an old lighthouse. It's a bit of a scramble up to the lighthouse but my two arthriticky old knees managed it OK. Kids would love it, but the path is a little close to some pretty sheer drops to keep your eyes on them. There's a small Thai-style open restaurant which serves the usual Thai food that they think only foreigners can eat - pad Thai, fried rice, pad grapow etc but it is distinctly canteen-style and looked pretty unappetising. All in all, a reasonable way to fill in an afternoon once you do the trek there.

We were exploring the west coast of the island when we got to the park entrance and thought why not. At 200bht per person plus an amount depending on your type of transport, it’s not cheap. It’s actually a tiny amount of space. Most of the one beach isn’t swimmable unless the tide is fully in due to the number of rocks. The beach sadly has lots of washed up litter on which we were surprised, especially given the park entry fee, wasn’t being cleared. The scramble up to the lighthouse gives a good view but is a 10 minute activity. The staff seemed more interested in keeping the grass immaculately manicured than anything else, which jarred with this being a national park. We saw one small lizard the whole time we were there. We saw more wildlife on the ride down. Would not reccomend the time/cost of this

We had been here before earlier in the year but on this occasion decided to “do” the walk through the rain forest. Entrance to the National Park is not free and if you are a foreigner( even if you live in Thailand) the entry fee is 200 baht. Fee for the car plus Thai driver is 70 baht. There’s plenty of car parking, toilets and a small shop and staff are very helpful. The path leading immediately from the car park into the forest was closed due to a fallen tree so the walk starts from the far end of the beach. It is quite steep in places and slippery so proper footwear is essential. Their are certainly some challenges! There’s a couple of places where a small concrete bridge crosses what might be a stream bed…the only problem being that much of the bridge has disappeared so, unless you can balance on a concrete beam a few centimeters wide, a detour is necessary. As you gain height, there are some wonderful views down to the sea as well as magnificent trees soaring up to the canopy. We did spot briefly some spectacles langurs but whilst they kept an eye on us for some considerable time, we couldn’t always see them. Depending on who you ask, the walk is anything between 2.5 km to 3.5km! Time wise, it really depends how much notice you take of them tress, plants and wildlife. Despite some of the difficulties, it is well worth attempting this walk for a rain forest experience. Not sure how suitable it would be for young children. Proper footwear, some water and a fully charged camera battery are essential!