Khao Sok National Park | Cavern and Cave Diving Thailand/title> <meta name="description" content="Scuba diving Khao Sok national park in Southern Thailand, PJ cavern and cave diving tours and courses, cave diver training, dive Khao Sok" /> <meta name="keywords" content="Cave diving, cave dive, Thailand, Koh Tao, PJ cave diving, Khao Sok, cavern, DSAT, andi, PADI, dive training, ccr, Kanchanaburi, dive course, trimix, dive sites" /> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"href="layout.css" /> <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"href="styles.css" /> <link href="favicon.ico" rel="shortcut icon" type="image/x-icon" /> <meta name="robots" content="INDEX, FOLLOW" /> </head> <body> <div id="outer"> <div id='minilink'> <table width="410" border="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td class="micro"><a href="http://www.simplelifedivers.com/">Main Website</a></td> <td class="micro"><div align="center"><a href="http://kohtaothailand.simplelifedivers.com/">Scuba Internships Blog</a></div></td> <td class="micro"><div align="center"><a href="scuba-internships-thailand.php">Dive Internships Movie</a></div></td> </tr> </table> </div> <div id="hdr"> <div id="title"> <h1>Cave Diving Thailand > Khao Sok National Park</h1> </div> <table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0"> <tr> <td width="35"> </td> <td width="*"><div id='rssnews'><a href="http://thailandcavediving.com/dive/cave-diving-thailand-khao-sok/">Cave Diving Thailand: Khao Sok Trip Report</a><br /> <a href="http://thailandcavediving.com/dive/2km-cave-at-khao-sok-thailand-cave-diving-exploration/">2Km Cave at Khao Sok: Cave Diving Expedition</a><br /> </div></td> </tr> </table> </div> <div id="main"><img src="images/khao-sok-national-park.jpg" alt="Khao Sok National PArk Thailand" class="pic2" /> <h2>Khao Sok National Park, Southern Thailand</h2> <p> Khao Sok is a giant 739 square kilometer national park in Southern Thailand, located roughly midway between Suratthani and Phuket.<br /> Established as a national park in 1980, Khao Sok has spectacular scenery above and below the water allowing both divers and non-divers to enjoy one of the most scenic destinations in Thailand.</p> <p><img src="images/cavern-diving.jpg" alt="Cave diving in Khao Sok Thailand" width="200" height="299" class="pic" />The local geology consists of striking limestone cliffs, partially eroded by mildly acidic acid rain to expose the karsts layer. The rolling foot hills are covered in dense rainforest which is home to an enormous range of wildlife. Mammals resident to the rainforest of Khao Sok includes tigers and leopards, sun bears, tapirs, deer and gibbons, meanwhile keen ornithologists can see hornbills, wood-peckers and king fishers. There are no mosquitoes in Khao Sok.</p> <p>The Pasaeng River flows in to the valley created between the limestone cliffs. In 1982 a company called EGAT created the Rajjapraba Dam to generate electricity for Southern Thailand, which is turn has created a giant 165 square kilometer lake.<br /> The breathtaking scenery and divers wildlife have meant that Khao Sok National Park has become a popular tourist destination for jungle safaris, elephant trekking, canoeing and kayaking.</p> <p>Accommodation in Khao Sok is simple but charming in traditional bamboo Thai style huts at the lakeside, complimented by authentic tasty Thai cuisine.</p> <h3>Cave Diving in Khao Sok</h3> <p> <img src="images/cave-dive-thailand.jpg" alt="Cave dive Thailand" width="200" height="282" class="pic" />Damming the river to form a huge lake has yielded a fantastic opportunity for exploration for divers. Scuba diving in Khao Sok there are great options for introducing new divers to cave diving and for seasoned cave divers alike. Plus non-overhead environment diving in the lake itself offers a number of interesting highlights.</p> <p> Prior to the establishment of the national park and encouragement of tourism, Khao Sok was very rural. Now about 30 years since the dam was created, many of the local adults at from pre-dam Khao Sok are approaching old age and senility, so gathering information about what lies below the water is challenging.</p> <p> Plus the lake is little dived so there are vast opportunities for exploring new cave systems and charting new dive sites. When we first started diving Khao Sok, we were told about three known cave diving sites. Since then we've dived more than 18, and given the vast size of the lake will continue to devote much of our time and effort to finding and exploring new caves.</p> <p> The lake itself has generally good visibility of around 15M. There’s little water movement and the water is warm, averaging about 28°C. There’s a thermo-cline sitting at about 30M, with very clear green water.</p> <p>To date we've experienced the best diving conditions during February, when water in the lake resembled clear green spring water.</p> <p><img src="images/khao-sok-accommodation.jpg" alt="Accommodation in Thailand's Khao Sok National Park" width="560" height="375" class="pic2" /></p> </div> <div class="contact" id="contact"> <form id="form1" name="form1" method="post" action="http://www.thailandcavediving.com/webformmailer.php"><input type="hidden" name="subject" value="cave dive" /> <input name="Name" type="text" value="Your Name" size="20" /> <br /> <input name="email" type="text" value="Email address" size="20" /> <br /> <textarea name="textarea" id="textarea" cols="20" rows="2">Enter your message</textarea><br /> <input name="send" type="submit" value="send" /></form></div> <div id="side"> <h5>Cave & Cavern Diving in Thailand</h5> <ul> <li class="side"><a href="http://www.thailandcavediving.com/">Cave Diving Homepage</a></li> <li class="side"><a href="http://www.thailandcavediving.com/dive/">Latest Cave Diving News</a></li> <li class="side"><a href="http://www.thailandcavediving.com/dive/category/cave-diving-trips/">Upcoming Trips</a></li> <li class="side"><a href="cave-diving-videos.html">Cave Diving Movies</a></li> </ul> <h5>Cavern & Cave Diving Training & Courses</h5> <ul> <li class="side"><a href="intro-to-cave-diving.html">Introduction to Cave & Cavern Diving</a></li> <li class="side"><a href="cavern-diving-course.html">Cavern Diver Course</a></li> <li class="side"><a href="cave-diving-training.html">Full Cave Diving Training</a></li> <li class="side"><a href="trimix-diving.html">Trimix Diving in Khao Sok</a></li> </ul> <h5>Cave Diving in Khao Sok National Park</h5> <ul> <li class="side"><a href="khao-sok-cave-diving.html">About Khao Sok: Background & Diving Conditions</a></li> <li class="side"><a href="cave-dive-khao-sok.html">Cave Diving Trip Schedule & Logistics</a></li> <li class="side"><a href="cave-diving-khao-sok.html">Khao Sok Dive Sites</a></li> </ul> <h5>Other Thailand Cave Diving Sites</h5> <ul> <li class="side"><a href="cave-diving-kanchaburi.html">Cave Diving in Kanchanaburi</a></li> </ul> </div> <div id="ftr" align="center">Copyright (c) PJ Cave Diving 2010 | Koh Tao, Thailand, 84360</div> </div> </body> </html>