Thon Pha Phum and Khao Laem National Park

Over the weekend of October 8-10, I took a trip with my friend Jack up into the far northwest part of Thailand, almost in Myanmar. Our goal was to go camping in Thon Pha Phum National park, but as i've learned in Thailand, sometimes plans don't work out and you just have to go with the flow. It always works out and is an adventure anyways.
So, we woke up early friday morning at around 6 a.m to take the 7 hour bus ride to Thon Pha Phum, a small one road town surrounded by mountains. The town really was incredible- because of its close locality to Myanmar, you could see a mix in the Thai and Burmese cultures that existed in the town. Most people actually spoke Burmese who lived in the area. There were shops selling hiking gear, fishing poles, camping equipment, and just about everything you needed to go out and survive in the jungle for weeks at a time. We were probably the only foreigners within 100 miles- the town was way off the beaten track. As a result, the people in the town were extremely friendly and wanted to help us in any way they could. For example, after eating lunch, we were walking around trying to find where the bus was that took us to the national park. The first person we asked could not speak any English, and although we tried to explain what we wanted in Thai, it was unsucceful. The lady walked down the entire road with us asking everyone if they could speak any english until we were finally introduced to this older man selling machetes and fishing gear on the road. Rather than trying to explain the directions to use, he hopped up out of his seat and walked with us all the way to the station.
When we got there, they announced that the last bus to the national park had already left. The man that was with us explained that there was another national park, about 2 hours further north along a lake, and the bus was leaving soon. So, quickly we changed our plans and headed off in the bus for Khao Laem National Park. The park was beautiful- the lake was surrounded by limestone cliffs and the sunset over the lake really was something. We set up camp and were making a small fire when a few Thai's walked over and invited us to come and hang out by their camp. We spent the night around a campfire with 8 other Thai students from a University in Thailand. It was great to hang out with Thai students, get a chance to exchange stories and see the differences and simalarities of living on opposite sides of the world.
I'll never forget the stars that night. I had never seen so many before.

The next morning we got up early and headed into the National Park to hike up to a waterfall. This was my first time really in the true jungle, and it was crazy how dense it was. We hiked for about an 2 hours up to the waterfall, passing by huge spiderwebs, monkey's swinging in the trees, and the sounds of the jungle echoing between the bamboo. I got a huge leech on my foot for the first time which was not very fun- I had no idea that they make you bleed so much. But, all healed and okay now.

After the hike, we decided to take the bus back to Kanchanaburi which was on our way home to Bangkok. I had never gotten the chance to go kayaking down the river, and Jack and I decided we'd spend the night in Kanchaburi and then get up early for a full day of kayaking. We got dropped off the following day about 10 miles up from the Bridge over the River Kwai, and spent the day paddling down the river. There was nobody on the river at all except for us and a few small fishing boats. The first 5 miles of the trip was far up in the forest and the only people we saw were local fisherman with bamboo poles sitting on the edge of the river trying to catch dinner. As we approached the main town of Kanchanburi, gorgeous houses and expensive hotels lined the riverside. We headed back to Bangkok sunday night after a great weekend trip of camping and kayaking. Here's some photos..

Thon Pha Phum

sunset at our camping site

Thai friends we met

hike through the jungle

Bamboo fishing

relaxing

I'm off  tonight for a 10-day journey to the southern islands and beaches in the south. I'll write and show some pictures once I get back to Bangkok. Talk to you soon!