Pa Hin Ngam National Park

Pa Hin Ngam national park (อุทยานแห่งชาติป่าหินงาม) is a relative new park located in the southwest of Chaiyaphum Province. The park is most famous for the blossoming of the Siam Tulip (Curcuma alismatifolia, in Thai กระเจียว) at begin of the raining season in July.

As it is most convenient to walk around in the cool morning hours, we hired a minibus to bring us from Bangkok to the park overnight, and after arriving at a campground we had some hours of sleep as well. Just after sunrise the campground has become completely filled, so there was quite some queue at the pickups to bring the visitors uphill to the tulip fields. When we left the park around lunch time, it became clear it was a good idea to drive overnight, as for several kilometers it had cars queued who did not make it to the cap ground yet, and it of course also got quite hot already.

The Siam tulip fields are on the meadows near the cliff, fittingly named Sut Phan Din (สุดแผ่นดิน), end of land. The cliff, which also forms the watershed between the Chao Phraya river system and the Isan plateau which drains into the Mekong, offers a great view into the valley of the Sonthi river, an small tributary of the Pasak, which mouths into the Chao Phraya in Ayutthaya. The cliff is at an elevation of 846 m above sea level. The photo shows the view from the cliff to the hills of the next mountain chain of the other side of the Sonthi river. The forests partially covered in morning mist are protected as the Sap Langka wildlife sanctuary.

The meadows with the Siam Tulip are crisscrossed with elevated wooden walkways, so one can get easily in the middle of the beautiful flowers without having them trampled down by the thousands of visitors - almost exclusively Thai people. The Siam tulip actually is not a tulip, but is related with the ginger plant.

The second part of the park are the rock formations which gave the park its name - Pa Hin Ngam (ป่าหินงาม) means "forest of beautiful stones". The above mentioned pickups transfer visitors to there, but it is actually not really far so one can walk as well, unlike the way to the cliff it is mostly downhill. The limestone rocks are partially eroded by the millennia of tropical rain, forming this special karst landscape. Some of the rocks have really striking looks with a smaller base than top, and it quite fun to climb around in between them - provided one has good enough shoe and not just the standard flip-flops. As there is only very view trees shadow is rare in this area, so it gets hot quite easily. We were there in the morning hours when then sun was already quite strong, in the afternoon it will probably be unbearable hot.

If Pa Hin Ngam is already too much crowded, similar Siam tulip fields are found in the Sai Thong national park further north within the same mountain range, as recommended by this article in The Nation. Pa Hin Ngam is quite well-promoted, it has even been featured on some beautiful stamps.

One curious thing about the park is the fact that according to the park website at the Department of National Parks it was created in 1994 already, but this hasn't been officially announced in the Royal Gazette until June 2007, when it was published in Volume 124, Issue 26 ก, page 26. (which is however only written in Thai version of the above website).

Wat Rong Khun

After leaving Mae Sai it was already late afternoon, so we arrived at the extraordinary tempe Wat Rong Khun (วัดร่องขุ่น) just shortly before it was closed for the day. I had never heard anything about the Thai artist Chalermchai Kositpipat before, so when hurrying through the gallery next to the temple before it was closed at 5 PM I did not get much about his art either. But that is no wonder, as I still don't know much about Thai Buddhism nor the Thai art. Anyway, even for a ignorant farang the temple is very impressive, and it's no wonder it is becoming a tourist attraction of Chiang Rai now.

The temple is located on Thai highway 1, on the way from the city Chiang Rai towards the south, about 10 km from the city. Exit at the intersection with road 1208. The temple is just a few metres away from the intersection, quite impossible to miss the striking white ornate building if you have taken the right exit from the main highway.

When we visited the place in 2006, the temple already looked nearly finished, at least the whole front part was complete, and construction was limited to the sides and behind of the central room holding the Buddha image - unlike normal temples it is actually a huge Buddha painting with only small statue in front. But already when you enter the temple over the bridge, the corpses in the water under the bridge are something never seen in Buddhist temples. But I guess to fully get all the symbolism within the building one has to find a book explaining all about it, but there was nothing like that in English in the souvenir shop. Maybe after the temple will be finished this year it will have someone bother to write something for those who cannot read Thai.

While I was strolling around the place, I was suddenly called to pose for a family photo - somehow someone from family caught the artist himself, and apparently he didn't mind to pose with us. Pity I did not know his importance then, otherwise I would have tried to do a portrait photo for Wikipedia as well.

Chet Khot-Pong Kon Sao Nature Study Centre

The Chet Khot-Pong Kon Sao Nature Study Centre is a park in the east of Saraburi Province, not far from the Khao Yai national park. Though usually referred to as a "Forest Park", it is not under the supervision of the National Park Division like the other forest parks. The park was created in 2000 by the agriculture minister Pongpol Adireksarn.

The park is easy to reach, just follow the sign from Highway 2 (westwards) and turn to the left, and after about 20 km you reach a small reservoir. Turn to the left, and then the entrance is to the left shortly - directly before you arrive the boy scout camp. After the checkpoint it's another few kilometers steep uphill until you reach the visitor center. Next to the visitors center are several beautiful huts for rent, including fridge and oven - but bring a towel with you, at least when we stayed there it did not have any provided.

We only stayed there for one night, so there was not much time to hike into the forests, and to make it worse we came in the height of the dry season, so the waterfall was reduced to not much more than the water in a standard shower. And when I reached one of the waterfalls it was already near sunset, and the light was too low to do any good photos. Only in the scaled down version one does not notice it being very blurred due to the longer exposure. A second trail I took in the morning did not lead me far, but an interesting sight were the remains of a house already overgrown by the jungle again. Only the concrete foundations were still visible.

I want to come to this park again for sure, then staying at least one day to have the chance to see not just one, but all the tiers that brook forms in the valley, and also see and photograph them in their full beauty.

At least the garden and camp ground at the reservoir next to the huts gave me opportunity to take some scenic photographs, but I prefer to scenery created by nature itself.

Another report on the park I found at thailandtraveltours.com.