Thailand Part 6 (Um Phang, Phitsanulok and Phu Kradeung)

We had been told by a woman to come for the minibus at 8.30am the next day.  I had seen that there was a bus to Mae Sot at around 8.15am.  I was wrong.  The price on the wall said for 125 baht, but the woman charged us 157 baht for Mae Sot and I thought we had been done.  It turns out that the minivan arrives at around 9am, but I would double check this as it varies and you really need the first one to hit your connections.  Also the price of 157 baht is the price from Phitsanulok to Mae Sot, but you have to pay the full price to guarantee yourself a seat.  Annoying.  So we got to the bus station at around 7.50am and had to wait for more than an hour.  The ride to Mae Sot is quite pretty, winding its way through the mountains.  Mae Sot itself is effectively Myanmar.  Everything was the same.  Most of the people are Burmese, the food is even the same.  Could not find any blue mountain though sadly.  It was interesting for Jessica and made her feel like she didn't want to visit Myanmar.  Its a typical border town and we had to do lots of walking to find the truck to Umphang.  Its where Lonely Planet says it is, but its confusing as if you walk down the main road, LP says its on a crossroads when in fact its only a right turn.  The trucks don't run to the timetable so you want to get here as early as possible to get a truck.  We got one at 2pm and there was an almighty scrum to get on the truck.  They even had to pull the truck away from the melee.  LP talks about the road between Mae Sot and Umphang being a death highway.  That's not really true.  Its not really dangerous at all.  Its just a fairly safe, paved, winding road through some beautiful mountain scenery.  There is one bend before the middle that is not properly covered, but that's it.  The trucks are fairly packed in, but if you push hard you can get a seat.  Unlike locals, you probably won't have to sit on the roof.  There were a lot of people on the truck.  This road was nothing compared to the scariest road I have taken a bus on.  The road to Kuelap in Peru.  Fuck me that's awful.  The width of a bus and no more, its a dirt track with no barriers.  Halfway there is the refugee village, which is impressively constructed up on the hill.  We arrived after dark, but did the worst of the road in the light.  With all the stops and pick ups, including rearranging the passengers, it took 5 hours and we arrived around 7pm.  It was like descending into another road, with loads of these weird hybrid tractor/trailers.  The truck dropped us off at Trekker Hill, which from reading other blogs was probably a good thing.  We paid 300 baht for three of us to share a two bed place.  Quite nice as it was up on its own raised wooden platform and despite being open we had mosquito nets.  There is no hot water, however, as the pipe was broken.  There is supposed to be some.  The old guy wanted us to take a 3 day tour including elephant trekking for 4000 baht.  We didn't want the elephant trekking so asked how much it was without that and he said it was the same as the truck would have to collect us.  As there is not much information I will elaborate on the tour option.  Day one is rafting to the waterfall and see it.  Day two is trekking around and then staying in a Karen village.  Day three is to observe the village and then elephant trek back.  We wanted just Days one and two and apparently that's around 2,000 but he wanted 4,000. The three days should be 3,000.  Go and see the German guys in the foreign restaurant in the centre of town if you want the longer options (should be easy to find).  In the end we asked him how much it would be for one day with rafting and the waterfall.  He said 1,000 baht but you pay for the park entrance (200 baht) and food (we ate noodles for around 20 baht at the park).  This seemed fine to us and there were three of us.  They say its rushed, but its enough time.  You start at 8am and are back around 4pm.  I would even say its the best option as trekking is difficult as you would need to stay at the park and hire a guide for 500 baht a day (not verified).  You can't take your own transport up to the park unless you have a 4WD and having done the trail by truck and almost getting stuck, I don't think a car would have enough clearance.  A motorbike could do it, but apparently you can't take them up.  We met a Dutch guy who had gone to the waterfall and back for 1500 baht for the two of them.  We were quoted 1850 for the truck and its why we decided to do the rafting as well for only 400 baht each more.  After the negotiation we found the German place and Cannelle had schnitzels.  There were no other tourists in town, but there were two big groups of NGO workers as they had a holiday in Thailand.  Cannelle went to the toilet and came back screaming as a monkey had leapt at her in the dark.  It turns out it was the pet of the German owners.

We got up and had breakfast before heading for the rafting.  It was super chilled here, because the hotel owner's kids joined us on the raft.  We had three guides with us and it turns out we won't actually be rafting. We thought it would be some white water rafting, but its actually 2-3 hours down a beautiful river, surrounded by cliffs and waterfalls.  It bears a passing resemblance to Avatar and has an other worldly feel.  It was cool to kick back and chill and enjoy the scenery.  I like a balance with my rafting between sport and scenery, but the two times we have rafted in Thailand have been one extreme or the other.  You will see lots of cliffs and overhangs dripping with streams and waterfalls, including a waterfall with a permanent rainbow through its centre.  Halfway they drop you off at a hot spring, which is just a muddy channel.  The water is nice and warm, but if you step into it the mud comes up to your knee.  Its not for everyone.  I liked it, Cannelle was ok with it and Jessica did not like it.  The second half of the rafting is less scenic, but still pleasant.  At one point the seven year old hyper son of our hotel owner fell in the river.  Luckily they managed to fish him out again.  We got picked up by our host and taken up to the waterfall on an hour long drive up a rough, dusty, scenic trail.  We had been told the day before that a public bus goes to the waterfall.  That's total bullshit, so I wouldn't try it unless you want a 70km round trip walk for the rest of the way.  We finally arrived at the top and grabbed some noodles.  Its where we met the old Dutch guy, who told us the waterfall was beautiful but that he had seen a better one in Vietnam.  Finally a traveller who told me something I didn't already know.  Only took 6 weeks.  He may be right as well, but only because it seems to have a clearer line of sight.  We walked the trail to the waterfall.  Its quite a nice trail to Thi Lo Su Waterfall, which reminded me a little bit of Plitvice.  The waterfall itself is spectacular and worth the trip.  The setting is beautiful with seemingly hundreds of cascades crashing down from multiple places.  The only problem is the jungle scenery itself.  It obscures a lot of the waterfall and you can't really get a full impression.  It would probably help if the viewing platform was on the other side of the river.  There are also lots of annoying insects at the falls.  We took the truck back down the dusty road and we all looked like we had aged with our dust grayed hair and dust all over our clothes.  Fun trip though.  In the evening we got lost at the internet cafes as we got confused as to where each other was.  They had had a delivery of mushrooms at the German place so we all had schnitzels with mushroom sauce.  Highly recommended.  This is a super cool place to visit and completely without tourists.  Well foreign ones.  There are a lot of Thai tourists.  We have been spending a lot of time in Thai places this last week.  Back in the room, a giant grasshopper (I mean giant) crashed into our room and got stuck there for the night before escaping in the morning.  Jessica reckons that in Thailand all the insects are the same as home, but 2 or 3 times bigger.

We grabbed the morning truck at 7.30am back to Mae Sot.  Cannelle was less scared of the route the second time.  We had an old guy who was hugging Jessica halfway, while a woman slept on her shoulder.  Halfway through the ride the old man grabbed and stroked my knee.  Still not really sure what he was doing there.  Two people were vomiting on the ride.  It is a little motion sickness inducing and that's more likely to get you than a crash.  We grabbed a cheap lunch and ended up taking the last minibus to Phitsanulok which was at around 1.30pm I think.  Be careful.  There is nothing after that, so make sure you take the first truck if you want to get out of Umphang and back East.  These trucks will hang around for ages waiting for passengers.  We were all tired and when we arrived in town Cannelle found us a local hotel just outside the bus station.  I would recommend the place as its 200 for a single and 250 for a double with hot water and cable tv.  Just ehad to the main road, go left and its about 50-100m on the left hand side.  We had a KFC for dinner and headed to the river, where they had a little festival with fireworks.  Phitsanulok was a nice little city around the river.  I can see why tour groups use it as a base.  Its nicer than Sukhotai and Kamphaeng Phet.  We went to the riverside massage place, but it was derelict and shut.  Cannelle and I had a mini fight and I went back to the hotel.  Jessica and her went for a drink.  I was a little worried about her being out in the city, but Thailand is super safe and they made it back fine.

In the morning we grabbed a bus towards Khon Kaen to see the famed green route.  Its nice and pleasant scenery, but you really should do it by motorbike if you want to see anything.  By bus its just ok.  We swithced buses at Champhae.  The bus station was confused when we asked for tickets to there as they assumed we wanted Chiang Mai.  We were really continuing our off route wanders.  We grabbed a bus to Phu Kradeung and they dropped us off at a shitty junction on a highway.  This was Phu Kradeung?  Ok they were fucking with us.  Here is some useful information for the town.  Firstly that's not the main bus station and that's why no locals get off.  They tried to hustle us into taking a truck privately to the park for 200 baht.  I went for a walk, so they offered 150 baht and tried to get Cannelle and Jessica to leave without me.  I walked left.  Nothing.  I headed right and they told me to come back.  Why?  Because on the other side of the road is the damn town.  There is internet and restaurants etc.  Fuckers.  There is no point heading to the park in the evening as there is almost fuck all there and certainly no internet and only tents or expensive bungalows.  I persuaded the others to come to town and while I was looking round an English teacher found Cannelle and Jessica and offered to take us to her friend's guesthouse.  This is the better option.  Its about 1-2 km towards the park on the right hand side.  Here you can have a fan room for 300 and air con for 400, but we negotiated down to 350 for the aircon rooms.  Its a nice place and they will look after your big bags for you, so you don't have to pay for the porters.  They also got us a tuk tuk at 6.45am for 80 baht straight to the park.  Its a no brainer for me.  Especially now that the porters charge 30 baht per kilo to carry your stuff up.  We grabbed some food at the cool night market in town, used the internet and repacked our bags to leave most of the stuff in the big one.  The people were really nice here as the English teacher had taken us one by one to the hotel by motorbike for free, continuing our run of hitchhiking without hitchhiking.

We got the tuk tuk in the morning to the park.  You pay 400 baht entrance and 225 for a three person tent.  You pay at the bottom.  At the top its 30 baht for a sleeping bag (necessary just), 30 baht for a mat (the floor is not too bumpy but get one if you are sensitive.  Cannelle and I were fine without one, but Jessica did not sleep well). You can also pay for a pillow etc, but we just got the sleeping bag.  Its a long climb to the top and I was feeling sick.  Not a good start.  Everything gets steadily more expensive as you climb up so get all the water you need at the bottom.  A 14 baht water in a 7/11 becomes 50 baht at the summit for example.  The walk is really nice as you climb through various different ecosystems.  Its tough though.  Especially the first 800m and the last 1km.  It took us 2.5 hours not the 3-4 LP reckons, but we have always been fast.  We blitzed the Thai hikers, but I think they normally take all day to do it.  We saw a crab that was super defensive and a large multicoloured millipede that scared the porters, so I assume it was poisonous.  At the top its another 3.5 km to the visitor centre.  We saw a lot of deer at the visitor centre as they are fed there.  We took the 5.5km waterfall trail.  Its quite scenic, with the first half overlooking the valley and the second half in the trees and down by the water.  The waterfalls themselves are nothing special, but its nice. The scenery is very reminiscent of home, so not too exotic for us, but good for anyone who's a little homesick and wants some trees other than jungle.  It warns you that after 3pm it is dangerous to enter this trail as the wild elephants patrolled the area.  We saw plenty of evidence of elephants (footprints, tusk marks, shit) but never any elephants, but be warned about the time limit.  Cannelle was scared all the way round that we would bump into some.  After the waterfall, we hiked to the pond and then to the cliffs and back around.  All in all we did around 25-30 km including the 1 km climb up.  Good work.  My legs ache a little today.  The food at the top is super shitty and very expensive, but you can't have everything.  Bring some stuff with you.  In the evening we ate more shit food and Jessica got whacked by one of the deer's antlers as he wanted some of our food and came in really close.  I am not sure if he was hitting her on purpose or accident.  We were in bed by 6pm as there is nothing to do up there, but it was worth the trip and a good bit of exercise.  The night was quite good for sleep.

In the morning we were up at 6.30am as we passed on seeing the sunrise.  On the way down we took 1.5 hours and saw some monkeys playing on the rocks up above me.  Second time for wild monkeys on this trip.  Still no elephants though.  We were by far the quickest people down the mountain.  The park HQ phoned for a truck for us and luckily it wasn't from the annoying bitches at the crossroads.  It cost us 100 baht to the 7/11 including a stop off to grab our bags from the hotel so don't pay anything more than 100 as that was called by the park.  We waited outside the 7/11 (the real bus stop) and grabbed a bus to Khon Kaen at only 9.30am.  It was 94 baht and not 75 like LP suggested.  I wanted to argue the toss but was outvoted.  On to Khon Kaen, where I am writing now and there were only 4 nights left before Laos.  I was enjoying being off the tourist trail.  We had not seen another tourist (we had seen expats) since Sukhotai.