Wichai's Jungle Homestay is located in the South of Thailand in a peaceful rural area. It is a quiet and unique place off the beaten track. If you are looking for a place to calm down, to have a good rest out of touristic routs, to enjoy some creative work if you are an artist, musician or writer, our homestay is for you. The natural environment can stimulate creativity and gives you the space to come close to yourself.
This place is good for a long stay, if you are not a party-goer. As it is right now, you have the perfect atmosphere and locations to practice yoga, meditation, and physical exercise (like slacklining or volleyball), or simply chill out. Furthermore, the jungle surrounds a beautiful lagoon, giving you the opportunity to kayak or just simply admire the amazing view. As an option you can make a day trip from here to:
.Tham Khamin cave, 12 km
.Sand Dunes Na San, 14km
.Na San city, 15km
.Dat Fa Waterfall at Tai Rom Yen Natural Park, 19 km
.Hot Springs like Tha Sathon, Pa Nong Thung Thong Nature reserve, or .Khao Plu Hot Spring, within 20km distance
.Nam Rad Forest Headquarters blue hole, 62km
.Thamma Park, 64km
.Khao Sok National Park, 80km
.Kanom beach, 80km
Surat Thani is the biggest city nearby, 34 km, and from there you can get to some of the most popular islands in Thailand like Koh Samui, Koh Phangan and Koh Tao that offer some of the best beaches in the country.
Our daughter Earn is a professional massage therapist, you can get relaxing Thai massage or different kinds of Spa massage from her for 200 Thai baht per hour.
We provide two types of accommodation, either in tents, you can either bring yours or rent one from us, and rooms, one of them is in a mud house. We have electricity in rooms, toilets, showers and kitchen. In each room and tent we provide a mattress, pillows, blanket, mosquito net and fan. You can use bicycles for 50B a day to ride around and see a simple life of local farmers, all roads are flat and almost no traffic. There is a small shop nearby homestay where you can buy some necessaries, beer, snacks, rice, noodles, etc. By bicycle you can go to the town 4 km away, there are many shops and a market where you can buy other foods. Use our kitchen for cooking, we provide different kitchen utensils.
Please, visit our PHOTO GALLERY to get some idea of what to expect here.
The prices are:
.to park your camper van – 100B night for each
.bring your own tent, camping equipment – 100B night for each
.room with double bed, maximum 2 people (includes mattress, pillow, bedsheets, mosquito net) – 350B night
.rent our tent (includes mattress, pillow, bedsheets) – 200B night for each
We can negotiate discounts for longer stays like monthly stay, weekly stay and even early stay.
We also have another homestay in Ban Na, not far from Wichai Jungle Homestay, 8km. It is called Banroipeehomestay and it is a centenary typical Thai wooden house with 3 rooms able to rent. Each room is set at a price of 400B night. The rooms include mattress, pillow, blanket, mosquito net, and fan. Ban Na train station is just a few meters away, so the homestay is easily accessible by train, and also by minivan as the minivan station is 2km away.
If you got interested, you can book from us directly.
The story of Wichai's Jungle Homestay begins 60 years ago when a state-owned company mined tin here. As a result many forests were cut down, roads were laid. As the works of tin mining were finished, the land was transferred to the ownership of the local villagers. Wichai's father bought a piece of land from the locals, and then handed it over to Wichai with brothers. Wichai chose a piece of land the most unsuitable for farming - it had a big pond and all the land was covered with sand left over from the extraction of tin.
Our idea was to begin reforestation of the land and try to return it to its original state. Many seeds and plants have survived afret the tin mining, but only the strongest plants resistant to sandy soil have fully grown. Year after year, plants produce nutritious humus and gradually new plants are able to take root. Slowly the wasteland turned into jungles. Thus, homestay surrounded by plantations of oil palms and rubber trees, became a unique example of the natural characteristic of the area.
Since we worked together as teachers (Wichai was an art teacher, Naiyana, his wife, - a teacher of biology), we began to organize nature classrooms for our students called "Forest lovers youth club", "Art club" for art students and boy and girl scout camps. The aim of these camps was to teach students to love nature, the only way we could achieve this was to show them the nature and bring them closer to it.
When we retired, we built a small house here to spend more time in the nature and to invite our friends. One of our friends from USA, Grego Robin, advised us to expand the space for guests, so that travelers from other countries could get the opportunity to relax in this peaceful atmosphere as well. He also advised us to invite volunteers to help in the construction. Thus in March 2017 the project of creating the homestay was started. Since that time we've done a lot of work with the energy of our volunteers.
If you want to join the volunteer team and help us with manual work, do not hesitate to contact us directly or apply via websites www.helpx.net or www.worldpackers.com.
As a volunteer you will not stay at Wichai’s Jungle Homestay, but at Banroipeehomestay at my house in Ban Na that is 8km away and easier to access than Wichai’s Jungle Homestay.
As a volunteer you will get free accommodation in a tent. In each tent we provide a mattress, pillow, and blanket. You can also use the shared kitchen, so you can buy and cook your own food here. You can use our bicycles for free to go to markets in town. We work 3 hours a day from 9:00 AM till 12:00 AM, 5 days a week (Monday-Friday). On weekend you can stay here or make your trip to one of the several attractions nearby. Our suggestions are:
.Sand Dunes Na San, 10km
.Tham Khamin (Khamin cave), 12 km
.Some Hot Springs like Tha Sathon, Pa Nong Thung Thong Nature reserve, or Khao Plu Hot Spring, within 15km distance
.Na San city, 15km
.Dat Fa Waterfall at Tai Rom Yen Natural Park, 19 km
. Surat Thani city, 40km and from here go to islands like Koh Samui, Koh Phangan, and Koh Tao
.Nam Rad Forest Headquarters blue hole, 50km
.Thamma Park, 52km
.Khao Sok National Park, 80km
.Kanom beach, 90km
You can reach the nearest places by bicycle, or even combine bicycle and train for farther destinations like Kathun Lake or Khuan Ta Roen Khao Soon.
The nearest place where you can rent a motorbike is Surat Thani town.
Please bring gloves and torch if possible.
Minimum stay is two weeks. Even if you don't have special skill but you can learn fast and bring your heart and hands for help you are more welcome.
