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Started only weeks before the tsunami hit the region, Khaolak Orchid Garden and Khaolak Butterfly Farm have by now evolved to be one of the major tourist highlights of Khao Lak. More than 30 interested tourists visit this location daily and leave with new experiences and impressive photos to their hotels. Khaolak Orchid Garden and Khaolak Butterfly Farm have become a "must see, must visit" sightseeing spot for anyone interested in nature during their stay in Khao Lak.
Located opposite the PTT petrol station in Khuk Khak and surrounded by pineapple plantations and lush green forest-covered mountains, you will find Khaolak Orchid Garden and Butterfly Farm. For a small entrance fee, you will find yourself in an exciting botanical garden, showing more than 300 different Thai orchid species, which normally live a secret life high above the ground in the upper canopy of the rain forests.
Khaolak Orchid Garden is a private owned and financed project dedicated to the protection, preservation and propagation of Thailand's indigenous orchid species.
Orchid Garden Khaolak is a combination of an orchid farm and an exhibition, that shows all stages of nursing orchids, from the minuscule orchid seeds to the flowering orchid plant. The exhibition with coloured photographs and explanations in different languages helps the visitors to understand the complicated life cycle of the orchid family.
Discover the mystery of the orchids, the biggest family in the vegetable kingdom and learn why you cannot buy orchid seeds to grow them. Besides some orchid hybrids with their large and long-lasting flowers, Orchid Garden Khaolak concentrates on the native orchids of Thailand and their reproduction. We do not sell orchid plants, as you are not allowed to bring them into another country.
The loss of habitat by legal and illegal deforestation and man-made fires is the greatest threat to wild orchids and will lead to the extinction of many species in the future. Theft of orchids from poorly managed and insufficient guarded national parks to supply street-side vendors and the international orchid trade is another threat. For some rare species orchid gardens might be the only rescue from extinction.
Therefore, Orchid Garden Khaolak runs a Species Survival Plan by growing, propagating and promoting some of Thailand's indigenous orchids to maintain genetic variation and avoid removal of species from the wild. When the threats in the national parks of Thailand are gone, which might take decades, the orchids would be transferred back to the forests again.
Visit Orchid Garden Khaolak to see the colourful flowers of various orchid hybrids, that have been cross-breeded for easier cultivation or admire the small flowers of the native orchids that are found on trees in the upper canopy of the rain forest, where the humidity is high all year round.
Butterly Farm Khaolak is a landscaped tropical garden showing living butterflies from all over Thailand. The exhibition with photos explains the complicated life cycle from the egg to the imago, and at our hatching area you can see some of the bizarre caterpillars eating the leaves of the different food plants.
Orchid
Garden Khaolak and Butterfy Farm Khaolak are located between the kilometre stones 64 and 65, opposite the PTT petrol station in Khuk Khak, on the eastern side of the street. For advanced navigators, our GPS location is at 8.693200, 98.257100
We have decided for a piece of land amidst the nature in a quiet setting. Therefore, we are 250 m distant from the mainroad. You are welcome to drive your car, motorbike or ride your bicycle towards our entrance, or park it at the PTT petrol station and take a leisurely walk along the pineapple plantation to our Orchid Garden and Butterfly Farm.
Orchid Garden Khaolak is open daily from 09:00 to 17:00 from November to April. Entrance fee is 100 Baht per person.
Butterfly Farm Khaolak is open daily from 09:00 to 17:00 from November to April. Entrance fee is 150 Baht per person.
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