We spent three days in Khao Sok. Here’s what you can expect.

A van collects you from your hotel in the morning. The drive to Khao Sok takes about four hours, but it’s broken up: fresh orange juice and coffee at a roadside stop, a couple of viewpoints, and, because we went in the rainy season, a small waterfall the locals call Mother-in-law Falls.

At Buathong Elephant Home we met Banana Leaf, a 17-year-old female: playful, gentle and very keen on bananas. We fed her, walked her down to the river and bathed her in the rain while she hosed us down with her trunk. No riding, no chains, no tricks.

Dozens of macaques, grabbing fruit straight from your hand and clambering over the temple steps, babies clinging to their mothers. It’s chaotic and very funny. One scratched Sam when he was too slow with the food; our guide, Lily, cleaned it up on the spot.

By mid-afternoon we reached our home for the night: wooden bungalows on stilts, set in a lawn under limestone cliffs. It was quiet apart from the jungle, and that’s what woke us up.

We set off in the late afternoon while there was still light, walking from station 1 to station 5 through some of Thailand’s oldest rainforest. Early on, spectacled langurs (white rings around their eyes, like glasses) leapt between the branches. Wild elephants live here too, though they’re rarely seen. The cicadas are so loud you’ll have to raise your voice.

At station 5, just before dusk, our guide cut fresh bamboo into pots, skewers and bowls, and we cooked dinner over the fire. We ate on bamboo plates, under a rainy sky, by firelight.

Then came the walk back in the dark. With one sweep of a flashlight, the guides found spiders on the leaves and tiny frogs we’d have stepped on.

Day two is about the water. From the pier near Ratchaprapha Dam, a longtail boat takes you across the lake: miles of green water, jungle clinging to limestone. On the way you pass the Three Brothers, three karst towers standing side by side and the most photographed spot on the lake.

Halfway through the boat ride we stopped at Pra Kai Petch Cave, carved over millions of years into stalactites, stalagmites and tall pillars. After that came a short hike through rainforest on an island in the middle of the lake, among huge old trees, thick undergrowth and small waterfalls trickling down the rock.

We didn’t film this one. After its lake morning, the 2-day trip stops at Rommanee Hot Spring, then has lunch before the drive back.

This is the night everyone asks us about. Wooden bungalows sit on rafts, linked together on the lake. The staff welcomed us and showed us around. We swam off the deck in warm water while big fish circled underneath.

On the last morning we stopped at a café above the jungle, where tea is boiled in bamboo kettles and poured into bamboo mugs. Then we boarded rafts made entirely of bamboo for a slow, calm float down the Khlong Sok River, between jungle and limestone peaks. It’s gentle, not white water. In the rainy season the river runs muddy brown.