Destination on the rise - Khao Yai

Recently I have heard Khao Yai being mention quite a few times when my friends talking about short travel gateways. So I decided to give it a try to visit and check what Khao Yai can offer. I am especially more interested at Khao Yai when I found out that Khao Yai national park is UNESCO HERITAGE SITES.

Khao Yai is located 3 hours ride from Bangkok by car. There are no public transportation within the city including taxi which make it difficult to explore yourself with public transport. There are only day tour from Bangkok (no multiday group tour). However one day is not sufficient to explore Khao Yai fully so I decided to rent private car including the driver like most of other tourist do. I am booking it from Klook tour with price of 270 SGD per car for 2D1N. This tour is customized according to your itinerary with maximum of 12 hours of driving per day (fuel and toll charge inclusive) and start with pick up and drop off at Bangkok hotel. Meals, accommodation and entrance fee is not inclusive though. https://www.klook.com/activity/3738-khao-yai-custom-tour-from-bangkok/

Overall Itinerary

Day 1

hotel pick up from Bangkok (2.5 hours drive from Bangkok to Khao Yai)

Primo Piazza (Spanish theme cottage with barn to feed animals)

Palio Village (Italian theme shop, cafe and restaurant)

lunch at MK steamboat @ Palio Village

PB Valley Winery

The Bloom (flower field)

Chocolate Factory (restaurant and cafe)

Midwinter Green (British fort theme restaurant)

Stay at Pino hotel

Day 2

Pete Maze (maze garden)

Heo Narok Waterfall

Pa Deo Die Cliff (closed)

Lunch at Khao Yai Visitor Centre

Haew Suwat waterfall

Sunset at Bat cave

Go back to Bangkok (2.5 hours drive)

After a smooth ride of 2.5 hour journey from Bangkok, I can feel the contrasting scenery change from concrete blocks to greenery. Khao Yai is like resort type city within the mountain area where local Thai people spend weekend holiday with their family. The weather is cool and refreshing and there are a lot of farm and garden everywhere.

The first destination is Primo Piazza, Spanish village where you can feed animal. Entrance fee is 200THB for adult including animal feed. There are many cafe and ice cream shop inside. It is a really charming place to take instagrammable photos.

There are garden with lots of flowers also. Of course it is complete with props to take unique and unforgettable photos.

But the highlight is the animals inside the barn. There are merinos, donkeys and alpacas. They are so happy and hungry when I feed them. There are even one merino outside the fence and roaming around.

Aww.... so cute....at the same time you can touch and feel the skin.. thick and super soft.. I like it that the animals looks healthy and approachable. I feel safe to touch and feed them. Also it is my first time see alpaca which is not available in the zoo i visited.

After that we went to PALIO shopping village. There are many shops selling souvenir, handmade items, art craft, clothes and antique. There are some restaurans also. It is Tuscan village style complete with the angel statue, clock tower and hanging pot.