The next stop of this trip was supposed to be Mae Sot and Um Phang way out west in remote Tak Province to see the tallest waterfall in Thailand. Unfortunately, the road going to the waterfall is inaccessible due to flooding and mud slides. And even if the road was clear it wouldn’t matter because the waterfall is overflowing so much that it completely destroyed its viewing platform and the nearby campground. So the government of Thailand closed off the whole area and I guess no waterfall for me. Instead, I rented another car and made my way to my next next stop, Kamphaeng Phet. On the way I stopped to climb Khao No Peak.

As you can see in the pics above it involved about a million steps of doom. The pic on the left is only a fraction of the steps I climbed until reaching the ladders, seen on the right. That’s just the first ladder. They continued up and up and up into the stratosphere. When I reached the top of Khao No drenched with sweat I found this really cool Buddha footprint monument. A really unique and cool find in my opinion.

The view up top was pretty tremendous too. There was a lot of thunder and that storm was moving in fast, though, so I didn’t linger too long, but what a awesome way to break up the drive!

The steep and scary climb up those ladders is definitely best appreciated by viewing them on the way down. They seemed sturdy, at least I was hoping they were.

Back down on earth I spent some time watching all the local monkeys playing, grooming, and hanging out around the trailhead.

There were hundreds of them everywhere and all over the road. That’s my rental car down at the end. From here, and now very very sweaty, I continued on my way to Kamphaeng Phet.

Kamphaeng Phet was a city at the same time as Sukhothai and Si Satchanalai, from the last post, beginning in the 13th to 14th centuries. It changed hands a few times between the Sukhothai kingdom and the Ayutthaya kingdom to the southeast, which I’ll be visiting in a couple of weeks. It’s main purpose in both cases was to act as a buffer and a defensive city against the frequently marauding Burmese to the west.

The central part of the city now sits right on the edge of the modern Kamphaeng Phet. They call this section the walled city because it’s surrounded by… any guesses?… a wall. It was thought to be the royal palace area, but they’re not sure. It’s a pretty small area, but it packs a punch, especially Wat Phra Kaew.

After walking around the walled city for a bit I spent the rest of the day zipping around the big part of the historical park on the rented motorbike from my hotel. I usually do a good job of keeping track of which temple is which, but I did a horrible job of it in Kamphaeng Phet. I at least got the two important ones labeled right, though I don’t know why those two are more important than the others, but whatever. I love finding the structures that still have some of the original walls up, like the one below.

Kamphaeng Phet also seemed to have a lot more ghostly Buddhas and Bodhisattvas than the other parks. This part of the park was further out of town and I mostly had the whole place to myself, aside from the occasional grounds keeper and a LOT of stray dogs.

I was so grateful to have a motorbike for this because it really is bloody hot here, even with all the shade. That wind on you while cruising to the next ruin is heaven.

Wat Phra Si Iriyabot below is one of the “important” temples. It supposedly had Buddha’s on all four sides in four different poses, but the standing Buddha in the front is the only one that is recognizable.

This ghostly Buddha below was probably my favorite. There’s something haunting and yet peaceful about them.

The other “important” temple was Wat Chang Rop. It’s surrounded on all four sides by elephants. Elephants were thought of as the most appropriate animal to uphold Buddhism for all, hence their place at the foundations of so many of these temples. Unfortunately, these at Wat Chang Rop weren’t in terribly good shape, but it’s still an impressive sight.

All the historical ruins in this part of the country are Unesco listed, but they really don’t get enough attention. Maybe that’s ultimately a good thing, but it’s really surprising to me that more people don’t visit these sites. Even in the high season these places are largely overlooked.

Since this place isn’t visited often and it’s the low season, there’s nothing out here in the way of a restaurant or anything. I found one lonely, teeny tiny little snack bar by Wat Chang Rop and that was it. All I’ve had today is a bag of awful chips and a coke which the half asleep old lady behind the counter obviously watered down. Ha! Oh well, at least it was cold. Time for a huge dinner back in town.

My final day in Kamphaeng Phet was a bit slower, but still fun. First, I went and checked out the Kamphaeng Phet National Museum. It was a surprisingly well put together museum. I could tell it doesn’t get many visitors, though, because they seemed so taken aback when I walked in they didn’t know what to do, but once the surprise wore off they were overjoyed. They even asked me to pose for a couple of pictures, I guess to prove that they do actually get visitors… occasionally… sometimes.

I’ve noticed this before here and in previous countries I’ve visited, I’ve just never mentioned it before. The Buddhas in the wild are almost always headless. If you want to see the heads you have to go to the museum. Just what is it with Buddha heads?

After the museum I took a drive to nearby Klong Lan National Park to see the magnificent waterfall there. If I can’t see Thailands tallest waterfall way up in Tak Province, I guess this will have to do for now. It was definitely worth the drive.

It was just a short walk to get to the waterfall so I decided to take the trail up to the higher viewpoint since I had plenty of time. And I found where all the mosquitoes in Thailand have been hiding. Holy Crap! I very rapidly put on the bug repellant and continued up the steep trail. Every time I stopped to take a breather I got swarmed, so I just kept climbing, breathing is overrated anyway. When I reached the viewpoint I wasted no time. I took a couple of lightening quick pics while doing the “get away skeeter” dance and then bounced back down the hill to safety. Miraculously, I only counted two new bites after all that. Maybe the bug repellant was working better than I thought it was. Hmmm

My time in Kamphaeng Phet has been short, but productive. I think I got here just in time because it started raining, like in a biblical God is angry kind of way, on my last night here. Going out to get dinner was quite a wet and wild adventure. Tomorrow, I have a very long drive ahead of me. Let’s hope the rain’s not too bad in the morning. To be continued…