Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Khao Phanom Bencha National Park

We decided not to waste a cloudy day on complaining about the weather, and instead we chose to visit a rainforest of Khao Phanom Bencha National Park, located about 50 kilometers from Ao Nang.

In the park we first set out for a viewpoint, which was promised by several signs to be within short 750 meters. Thai meter must be different from the European, as we were climbing for almost one hour before we finally we managed to get to the top. And as soon as we got there, it started raining...


You might be surprised to hear that we didn't mind the rain, just the opposite, we thought it was quite appropriate to experience rain in a rainforest. However, we weren't too happy about going down the narrow, not well-maintained, overgrown path that the rain was quickly turning into a mud slide. Luckily, without any injuries and just a few bum slides, we made it safely back to the starting point of the hike.

The rain and the mud discouraged us from taking any further "adventure" trails and for our next hike we decided to follow a well-maintained path with concreted steps to the nearby waterfall, Huai To. The waterfall has 11 cascades, many of which are 70-80 meters in height. It was fun to see it, but not as much fun as bum sliding the first trail we took :)