Itinerary today : BKK-Khao Yai, Yellow Submarine Coffee Tank, Saraburi sunflower field, Lookkai KhaoYai (Lunch) Palio village, Midwinter Green (Dinner)
Accommodation for the day : Hotel Together
We were staying in Khao Yai for 4D3N, prior to that, i did my research and book a driver that could bring us around. Many might book through Klook but i found their rate to be pretty expensive for two. Even though i read up that you can drive around Khao Yai, which was our initial plan too but if you are not very familiar with the routes, i would suggest you book a driver and get him to drive you around is safer and comfortable. The last thing you want is to start quarreling with your friends or your partner. Especially if there is a traffic jam, the driver will know the shortcut which you might not be familiar getting around. Self drive is definitely cheaper but it increase the risk of wasting your time if you ended up getting lost.
For us, i booked through 'Jerry Khao Yai' If you are interested, you may click on this link HERE, which is their facebook page.
Their facebook page have their contact number so you can simply add and whatsapp the coordinator the places that you intending to travel and they will quote you directly.
Please note their english standard is pretty limited, so if you ask them to suggest places to visit, you might face some difficulties, for us we have a small hiccup because i checked google map the time taken from point A to B, but when i communicate to the coordinator, he told me it's too far need to rearrange even though the google map say otherwise.
Due to one of our accommodation being quite far away from most attractions so the price quoted was 500 baht more. Our quote was 12500 THB.
Do check the right season to visit because places like Saraburi sunflower field or Jim Thompson have is not open all year round.
This is my itinerary for the 4D3N Khao Yai Trip.
1 Jan 19 – Klub Hotel Pickup –Saraburi Sunflower Field – Lunch @ Lan+ Lee+ Lar restaurant – The Bloom – Yellow Submarine Coffee Tank café – Mid-Winter Green – Check in hotel ( Hotel together)
2 Jan 19 – Primo Piazza – Palio Village – Pete’s Maze – Lunch @ Lookkai Khao Yai-Jim Thompson Farm – Thames Valley – Hotel check in (My Ozone Khao Yai)
Dinner -Thai Food @ Kua Kampan
3 Jan 19 – Khao Yai National Park – Chocolate Factory and restaurant – Lunch @ The birder’s lodge café + grill – Hotel check in ( Botanica Khao Yai) – Scenical World – Pak Chong Night Market
4 Jan 19 – Check out from hotel - Mew Café – travel back to Bangkok hotel (Lemontea hotel)
Even though this is the agreed itinerary, however it doesn't mean you must follow strictly, our actual itinerary slightly varies and sometimes you can get the driver to stop if you saw other attractions.
Our driver reached early, when we check out, his car was parked outside the hotel carpark lot.
Since it's a new day, the traffic was smooth it took us only two hours from Bangkok to reach our first attraction in Khao Yai.
Just when we was reaching, i receive multiple whatsapp call from a number, and texts from Klub hotel. Apparently the housekeeping staff was cleaning our check out room and found Jeremy wallet. The manager even took a photo of the item for me to verify. I was shocked when they told me they found in the safe, because i remember flipping few time the safe box mat inside but i didn't see the wallet. We usually do check the entire room before we checked out.
Thus when i was clarifying with Jeremy, he was playing the blaming game when he say ' i told you to check just now what' Making me kinda pissed because this wallet belongs to him, even though i have checked once, however if he check one more time again, we probably wouldn't need someone to inform us that wallet has been found in our room right. Plus this is his own goddam wallet, he don't even realise it's missing. tsk.
Eventually i told the manager that we are in Khao Yai and will be coming back on 4th Jan so we will drop by the hotel by then to collect the item and he assured us that he will help us keep the item in the meantime. Phew. It contains $500 cash in that wallet so we was very thankful that the hotel staff informed us, in the first place we didn't even know it went missing, and we probably won't noticed because the cash was meant to be spare cash as we ensure enough thai baht to last us the whole day.
Knowing that we didn't lose the wallet was a relief, so we continued our itinerary for the day.
First stop being : Yellow Submarine Coffee Tank!
If you are doing your research, you will find that Yellow submarine coffee tank has been promoted as one of the places to visit in your Khao Yai trip. Personally i am interested in this cafe because of the property designs, the designer has integrated with the natural surroundings to provide its visitors a peaceful coffee fix with it's minimal design. After travelling for 2 hours from bkk to Khao Yai, it was the right time as we took a break at this cafe, you can spot many customers taking instagram photos before ordering a cup of coffee or even their dessert offerings. The temperature was 18 degree celsius, so it was very cooling despite the sun.
Yellow Submarine Coffee tank does not open daily, so do check out their facebook page to check their opening hours to avoid disappointment!
Our next stop, Saraburi sunflower field, my friends was telling me the other time they visited Khao Yai but didn't manage to see the sunflower bloom, reason being, they choose the wrong season to visit!
We paid for the entrance fee before we enter the sunflower field. It's a beautiful sight surrounded by sunflowers. There were not much tourists, most of them are locals and they were very good in photo-taking, i even saw some girls taking the light reflectors, wearing pretty dresses just to take a shot in this sunflower field.
The 'take my hands and pose.' Hahaha
Loving my hair that i went to the salon to fix before travelling! The color blends nicely with the view. Haha
After lunch, we were on our way to Palio village when we saw plenty of strawberry farms so the driver ask if we want to take a look so we did, but there were nothing much. The strawberries for sale were not very appealing based on the color.
It was a brief stop before we went to visit Palio Village! They have not taken down its xmas decor yet. If you love taking instagram worthy photo, this will be a good place to consider. However for guys if you are not a fan of photo-taking, you might not particularly like this place.
Getting Jeremy to help me take some photos, this is where he started to master his skills of photo-taking. Haha
It was time for our dinner! So we went to Midwinter Green!
The outdoor seating area was still empty when we first arrived, so we get to choose the seats that is nearer to the live band stage as they usually have live band singing in the evening.
It was very beautiful.
My date for the dinner.
Pizza and beer! Hahahaha
After our dinner, our driver dropped us at our accommodation for the night.
Khao yai has many hotels and i couldn't decide which hotel to stay, and since we have driver bringing us throughout the trip so i book a different hotel everyday.
Took this the next morning because it was dark by the time we arrived.
A simple chic cosy front desk to check in.
Our room for the night!
This pretty much summarise our first day in Khao Yai, stay tuned for day 2!
Till then.
