Pa Hin Ngam and Khaoyai national park ( 21 - 22 June 2014 )

Travel date: 21-22 June 2014

Location: Chaiyaphoom province and Khaoyai national park

4 a.m. has actually been the point of time when we decide to leave Bangkok. There are a lot of benefits to it; no traffic, less hot, time to see the sunrise and arrive at the destination by morning.

First of all, I would to give a big thanks to Nhong for driving us all the way to Chaiyaphoom. Unfortunately, I had a late night on Friday so I slept the whole way to Chaiyaphoom. Thanks again for that! Our main purpose of this trip was to see Dokkrajiew field. In English, Dokkrajiew is called Siam tulip.

Despite its name, it is not related to the tulip, but to the various ginger species such as turmeric. Siam tulip is native to northern Thailand and Cambodia. If you ask me if we are impressed with the festival, I would not say so. I can’t say for certain. This is maybe because we didn’t get to see as many flowers as we expected and there were too many people at the festival. It is surely a tourist trap for us Thais. A good thing about looking at a Brightside in every situation is so we know we will not go back. The whole 5-hour drive wasn’t completely worthless. We had our breakfast at a local restaurant on the way to the national park where the tulips are. Opposite the restaurant, there was an area where they sell different types of fruits. As for me, seeing durian stores along the way had made me want to eat the fruit. I crossed over to get the fruits and while waiting for a shop keeper to hand me the fruits. From faraway, I saw a field of yellow flowers. I didn’t know what it was until the shop keeper had told me that it was called Kantawan, or Jerusalem artichoke in English. The plant has medicinal properties such as lowering blood pressure, aiding digestive congestion and etc. The lady said to us that the flower itself is the medicinal part.

As I mentioned, 5-hour drive isn’t worthless because of this beautiful field of Jerusalem artichoke. The view was definitely captured and we did our own fashion shoot at the field.  Pa hin Ngan national park is where these wild tulips bloom. Additional information to that, the siam tulips only bloom in rainy season. At the national park, there are also a few other spots like a cliff where regions collide; northeast, central and north of Thailand.

We had our way along this manmade path to look for dense area of siam tulips but we couldn’t find anyway. It was about 1 hour walk so I see it as an exercise actually so I wouldn’t feel bad about not seeing much of the flowers.

After visiting the festival, I and nhong were thinking of a place to go and spend the night. We ended up at Khaoyai national park ,where we also went camping in May 2014. I strongly suggest this national park for those who reside in Bangkok and those who want to a little weekend getaway. It is not far from Bangkok at all and it has a massive area of green. Imagine forests where you can see wild deers everywhere. Occasionally, you may get to see elephants. We rented a tent and spend the night there. It was a rainy night as for the rainy season. Rainbow was displayed just outside the tent.  There are a few other spots in the park to visit like this waterfall where we went to, called Haw Su Wat. For some people, rainy season is the worst time to travel. For me and Nhong, we think it is the best time to actually have a holiday! 

Pictures below;

แก่นตะวัน or Jerusalem Artichoke.

แก่นตะวัน or Jerusalem Artichoke.

เห็ดน้ำผึ้ง

ทุ่งดอกกระเจียว or Siam Tulip in Pa Hin Ngam national park.

White Siam Tulip in Pa Hin Ngam national park.

Siam Tulip in Pa Hin Ngam national park.

หิน FIFA in Pa Hin Ngam national park.

Grasshopper at Khaoyai national park.

A rainbow outside the tent in Khaoyai national park.

Thong Pa Phum / Pi lok Village / Sangklaburi

A weekend escape to Am Phur Thong Pa Phum / Pi lok Village / Am Phur Sangklaburi (Thai-Burmese border)

Travel date: 14- 15 June 2014

Location: Western Thailand, Kanchanaburi

Day 1: Am Phur Thong Pa Phum

Am Phur Thong Pa Phum is a part of Kanchanaburi province. The province has its fame for mountains, hills, a long history of the death railway. As mentioned, this province is located close to Thai-Burmese border. I and Nhong started our journey at 4 am from Bangkok. It took us roughly 4 hours to Thong Pa Phum. We stopped by at the main market in Thong Pa Phum for brunch. The market has two sides; one is a very peaceful river and another side is a main road that goes towards Pi lok village and Vajiralonkorn dam. We made our way to the river for some photo opportunity. The river sits within mountains. The scenery is beyond perfect. Nobody was there except us two. Colour of the water was green. There is a small beach, a deposit of soil from upstream. The river bed is laid with mainly brown medium-sized rocks. It is just perfect for a walk. The stream isn't too strong to walk through. We basically forgot that we were hungry then because of the view. 

Brunch was Ka nom jean. It is fundamentally curry with rice noodles. I had my good-old green curry and Burmese treat. We call it Kanom Tang Take (ขนมถังแตก). I am not sure how it is made or what is made of. Surely it was delicious. We have a similar type of treat in Bangkok but it is slightly different. The one we had is more Burmese style. The market offers a lot of goods such as fresh vegetables, fresh fish, wild honey as well as fruits. We bought a big fish and released it into the river as a part of merit making.

After brunch, we made our way to the resort. Surprisingly, I don't recall the name. Well, the resort sits beside Vajiralongkorn dam. We had a perfect view of green grassland along the dam. Not long after checking in, we went straight to a village called Pi Lok. It is an old mining village up in the mountains. This place is my favourite. In fact, the whole trip was again my favourites. I suppose I have a lot of favourites LoL. The village is fairly small but it has the best spot up in the mountain called ด่านช้างศึก. Up there, you are on the same level on the clouds. You can see the clouds moving and revolving around you. It was so foggy and just majestic. There is a word to describe but I am not the best in doing so. Pictures could describe it by themselves.We spent hours on the mountain, walking around, taking pictures, jumping around, being extremely and annoying happy. The road up to this village is actually a nightmare. With our city car, it took us a lot longer than it should be to get there. It was worth the trip though. 

We got back to the resort around 7 pm. Went to the main market in Thong Pa phum for dinner then straight back to bed, rainy night.

Day 2: Am Phur Sangklaburi

This district is also located in Kanchanaburi province. A drive from the resort is a lot different than the drive to Pilok Village. The road is more smooth but it is still steep. Towards the destination, there is a junction where we could take to the Mong-Khmer village or to 3 pagodas. We went to the 3 pagodos, which eventually took us to the Thai-Burmese border. With no hesitation, we had our papers submitted; this includes the car license papers and the ID cad. We crossed the border to Burma. We first went to a market to window shop and then temples to make merits. We spent a few hours in Burma, had cup of jasmine tea before heading back to Thailand. We made a few stops along the way down to Thong Pa Thum to stretch. A friend of mine recommended a place called Bamboo hut for dinner. It is a restaurant by waterfalls. It was really really really nice. After dinner, we reached home by 11 pm. Just perfect timing to sleep and go back to work on the next day.

Pictures below;

 

Kwai Noi, the river by the Thong Pa Phum Market.

วัดท่าขนุน

ด่านช้างศึก on Pi Lok Village.

ด่านช้างศึก

A restaurant in Pi Lok.

View from ด่านช้างศึก

ด่านช้างศึก

A view from an old mining site / Pi Lok.

The 3 pagodas at the Thai-Burmese border.

A temple in Burma.

A road in Burma.

Sangklaburi

Am phur Suanpheung + Am phur Bo Nam Pu Ron (Thai-Burma border)

A day trip to Am phur Suanpheung + Am phur Bo Nam Pu Ron (Thai-Burma border)

Travel date: 8 June 2014

Location: Western Thailand

Bangkok has a lot to offer. Though for a person who was born and has been living in Bangkok, I am kind of fed up with the life in this big city. According to Wikipedia, Wanderlust is a strong desire for or impulse to wander or travel and explore the world. In this case, wanderlust includes even just a day trip outside Bangkok. Purposes? to breath fresh air, exercise your legs in natural treadmills and swimming in natural ponds.

Big thanks to my travel buddy, Nhong for this spontaneous escape. We leave the big smoke by 8:30 am so that we could get to Suanpheung before midday for lunch. Suanpheung is an amphur, in English means district. It is a part of Ratchaburi province, a few hours from Bangkok. A few websites such as chillpainai and paiduaykan suggest a day trip to Suanpheung with some places to visit. I and Nhong decided to do that itinerary. A day trip Sunpheung by Chillpainai

The first place we wanted to go was La Toscana resort. The resort was built to resemble a town in Italy. Unfortunately, we got lost along the way and didn’t make it to that. We also wanted to visit Alcapa hills farm. We skipped that bit and drove further towards Thai-Burma border. Deep down, we wanted to cross the border expected to see a fresh market with cheap avocardo grown in Burma. Funny enough, there was no market and yeah we didn’t get to cross the border. 

We had lunch at a local restaurant near the border and spoke to a Thai lady who works for a cultural exchange program center about crossing the border. The border is opening its door to tourists to travel to Burma by land. However, we would need a car with a Burmese license plate to get through. For Thai nationals, we can apply for a border pass, which allows us to stay in Burma for a tourism purpose maximum of 7 days. The lady showed us pictures of her trip to Burma via land. She described the country and the way of living as 30 years behind Thailand. It basically means the country is just opening up and everything feels like Thailand 30 years ago. We agreed to exchange numbers and she said she would give us a call when she goes over the border again + we can go along with her. This will be a good opportunity for us to do so. Fingers crossed for that.

A long trip didn’t disappoint us though; we made our way through a farm and found perfect scenery. Another place we stopped by was a temple up in the hills. It is called Watthum pu wha.“วัดถ้ำพุหว้า”A link to Watthum Pu Wha. The temple is set in a limestone cave. It must have recently been renovated because it was so clean and well-maintained. It is the place for medication. Further up the hills, There is another Chinese temple being builted. We decided to have a look & what we found was really disappointing. There was a warehouse full of large logs. Later discovered, the logs are there to be engraved with Chinese gods’ images. The temple is surely built for a commercial purpose. I don’t suggest anyone to go there. The name isn’t mentioned here. From the location, it should be easy to locate where it is.

We started driving back about 6 pm towards Nakornpathom for dinner. Nhong used to go to Nakornpathom quite often so she knows her way around. We ended up having dinner at a food street near a main temple. The food was fantastic. The street has variety of food, made-to-order meals, suki yaki, smoothies, desert and so..on. You can find  pretty much all types of dinner here with local price. The trip was a success. Sometimes I realized it is not about the destination but it is more about the companion as well as the drive. As goes the saying; “ there is a beauty in everything.”

Pictures below;

Wat Thum Phu Wa.

The logs are prepared for goddess images engravings.

A spectacular view before the rain.