Songpreak Rafting Adventure

White Water Fun in Thailand

By LIOPPublished 4 years ago • 4 min read

White Water Rafting at Songpreak, Phang Nga, Thailand / Photo Credit: Yaman Mutart

While visiting Phuket one of the great attractions you can try if you are a thrill seeker is white river rafting on the Songpreak (Song Preak) river. You can go either for rafting alone are as part of a package where you try various activities including elephant riding, ATV tours and a zip line thats not much compared to Hanuman but is still a zip line.

We chose to go on the Elephant ride over the ATV. I am from farm country in Canada and Irina is from the same in Russia so we have both had ample time to drive around wide open spaces on 4 wheeled vehicles.

The drive up from Patong was a couple hours and the drive back was a little longer being later in the day. We booked a tour through our hotel so transportation was included. About an hour and a half into the trip we stopped for a break at a place called the Monkey Cave and Temple. It is a large cave with some Buddha statues and stairs and is full of monkeys. Below is a video of the experience and I will be publishing a full review with the location and info. for anyone wanting to check it out.

When we arrived at the rafting site we had some options. Included in our package was the first few km. This is a rather calm part of the river. For an additional 500 baht each we were able to go an additional 4km and for another 500 baht we were able to add another 4km. The farther down the river you get, the more exciting the water. I will tell you right now, if you plan on going, go the whole river. It is worth the extra baht. The rest of the tour is a bit bland in comparison.

*A Photo My Friend Irina and I Taken by Our Ship Mates*

You start off in a boat with a group of travelers, which is a great way to meet new people. We met a lovely couple from France on our trip who were kind enough to take our photo.

Because its rafting its a bit hard to explain how the trip is on the water. Below is a 2 part FPV video I made of the whole rafting trip. I edited out the points where we stopped for 5 to 10 minutes for the guides to rest. The guides do all the work and paddle, you basically sit in the raft and hang tight as they traverse the river.

As you can see from the videos above the trip gets more exciting near the end. I think if you were to come in rainy season you would find the adventure even more thrilling as the Songpreak river fills much higher and moves much faster.

The guides were excellent and the trip was well worth the money. Even during the dry season, the river moves at a good pace and there is quite a bit of thrill involved. I would recommend this for anyone able to handle the bumps and bouncing and that does not mind getting very wet. Ear plugs would be advisable because it is quite easy to get water in your ears as you bounce and splash around. This is not an activity I would bring a child under the age of 14 on.

*The ATV Garage at Songpreak Tours / Photo Credit: Yaman Mutart*

Following the rafting we were treated to a small lunch. In hindsight I would recommend bringing snacks as the portion sizes were rather small and the concession stand only sells items like ice cream and chips. Once we completed that we engaged on a small zip line.

*The Zip Line at Song Preak Tours / Photo Credit: Yaman Mutart*

When we completed the zip line the group of travelers was separated into 2. 1 group for the ATV and one group to ride the elephants. I will be publishing a more in depth review of the elephant experience but below is a short video showing what riding on the front of the animal is like.

After we completed our activities the 2 groups were merged back together and we were treated to a bit of a nature walk up to a waterfall that fed into the river.

*A Small Stream Flows Over Rocks at Songpreak / Photo Credit: Yaman Mutart*

This nature walk was really enjoyable. At the end was a small pond that was full of fish that we could swim in. The current from the waterfall was quite a challenge to swim against but it was great to get out of the heat and we had fun seeing who could make it out to the waterfall first.