On Mondays and Thursdays at 12:00, a shared van stops at your hotel, whether it is near Khao Sok or near Cheowlan. Your guide for the afternoon is local and speaks English.

Lunch is southern Thai, spread on banana leaves within sight of the river.

Afterwards you sit on a bamboo raft while a raftsman poles it along the river that runs through the village. If you packed for a swim, the water is yours.

Then comes the forest: about two hours on foot in Tor Tao. Its name comes from a giant turtle believed to live in it; few visitors ever catch sight of it. Along the trail your guide stops at the herbs local households still gather and explains how each goes into food or medicine, and partway through you step inside a cave.

The van then drives up to the sunset viewpoint above Ratchaprapha Dam. The families who built the village below moved up from the valley floor before the dam was completed in 1987 and the valley became a lake.

The van reaches your hotel again at about 18:30.