Welcome to the Thong Pha Phum district in Kanchanaburi province. I had researched this region when I was planning this trip, but didn’t include it on my original itinerary because I didn’t have time. I had to cut something. But with the extra days I acquired thanks to all the flooding at the beginning of this trip, I decided to put Kanchanaburi back on the menu and spend a few days exploring this remote part of Thailand. Off we go!

Kanchanaburi city isn’t that far from Bangkok, but the main part that I want to explore is way out in the extreme western part of Thailand. I decided to stay in the small village of Tha Kha-nun. On my way there from Ayutthaya, I first broke up the drive with a visit to Erawan Waterfalls in Erawan National Park. It’s easily visited as a day trip from Bangkok and this is usually as far west as tourists go.

Erawan Falls, wow, there’s a reason why this place is so popular. It’s absolutely beautiful! The falls are divided into seven levels, but I want to know how they determine what a level is. As I was hiking my way to the top I noticed there were about five or six levels between each level. It seemed like a hundred waterfalls. Either way it was incredible!

In the pics I labeled which falls had an official level. The others don’t get a number. And the higher up I went the more impressive the falls got.

There were a lot of butterflies too. This guy below was not afraid at all. After I took this picture he landed on my shoe and stayed there for quite a long time.

I think level six was the biggest one. I had to walk out on a long footbridge over a bunch of smaller cascades to get to a viewing platform just to see it all.

Erawan Falls was named after Erawan, a three headed elephant from Hindu mythology. They thought level seven resembled him. I don’t see it, but the place needed a name. I almost didn’t get to see level seven at all. When I was only a couple hundred feet from the finish line I ran into a ranger who was hiking down and not letting anyone past him. It was closing time. I had to do some begging, but he let me run up to get a look.

Also at the top was this helpful little sign that gave me a horrifying flashback. Haha! The hike was only about about two and half miles round trip. Now it’s time to drive the rest of the way to my home for the next few nights.

Tha Kha-nun is at the south end of Vajiralongkorn Reservoir which is roughly surrounded by Khao Laem National Park. I drove along the whole length of that reservoir north all the way to the Myanmar border looking for Nop Phiboon Waterfall. I think I found the waterfall. At least I could hear it and see little glimpses of it through the thick jungle, but I couldn’t figure out how to get a closer view of it. There’s nothing out here resembling any sort of a trail or even any signage and since it’s so far remote, I decided not to go blindly fumbling through the jungle. Instead, I drove way back south to about the halfway point of the reservoir to see some of the sights in Khao Laem National Park. First was this pretty viewpoint. This wasn’t the best view of the reservoir, but the astounding views from the highway were totally inaccessible. The twisty turny highway is infuriatingly devoid of anything resembling turnouts or a shoulder.

One of the supposedly most accessible sites in Khao Laem National Park is Ka Teng Cheng Waterfall. I started hiking the two and a half mile trail, but after just a couple hundred feet I was knee deep in jungle weeds, blocked by a bamboo forest mudslide, and covered in sticky spiderwebs. Gross! If only I had a machete. They apparently do not maintain this trail at all and I am now zero for two. Maybe this is why I didn’t include any of this on my original itinerary. Hmmm! A bit further south, though, was Kroeng Krawia Waterfall, which salvaged the day. Yay!

Kroeng Krawia Waterfall was kind of a magical little place. It wasn’t exactly a waterfall, more like a huge area filled with cascading water in several different directions, but it was really beautiful. It wasn’t really a hike either since it was right on the side of the road. I didn’t really mind though at this point. I was still picking bits of spiderweb off of me from Ka Teng Cheng.

I didn’t know about this next waterfall before. I just happened to see it on a big map of the national park back at the viewpoint. Dai Chong Thong Water​fall turned out to be the winner of the day though. Like most of the waterfalls in Kanchanaburi, there were a few waterfalls before the waterfall.

There was a lot, I mean a LOT of elephant poop all over the trail. As much as I love hefalumps, I hope I don’t run into a wild one out here while I’m on foot. I didn’t. I’m relieved and bummed at the same time. Anyway, I finally reached the top of Dai Chong Thong, walked down some steps of doom, and Bam! What a gigantic, beautiful waterfall! There was even a bridge that extended out over the river for amazing views. How thoughtful!

The day did not turn out anything like I thought it would, but in the end it turned out alright. I spent quite a bit of time on that bridge enjoying the falls before climbing back up.

The next morning I headed due west up Route 3272. My plan was to go until the end of the road at another part of the Myanmar border, seeing some sites along the way.

This road was also infuriatingly devoid of pullouts or a shoulder. There was only one viewpoint along the way. That will have to do. The rest will just stay in my memory. In the first pic below, that’s the Vajiralongkorn Reservoir way off in the distance.

A little further up was Jokkradin Waterfall. This is considered part of Thong Pha Phum National Park, but I’m not sure where the boundaries are. Whatever, the waterfall was formed by the mining that used to take place up here. They created this break in the rocks and the water said, “Thank you very much!”

At the top of the mountains and the end of the road is the quaint little village of Pilok and a viewpoint that straddles the Thailand/Myanmar border. There were a bunch of military bunkers, fencing, and a nice friendship monument at the top. The dual flagpoles could use some help though. Myanmar’s flag was pretty sad all wrapped around the pole and Thailand apparently didn’t even bother to put theirs up at all.

This is also a case of the pictures being better than the real thing. I left there thinking that the views weren’t all that stupendous, but the pics came out pretty amazing.

On the drive back down Route 3272, frustrated with the lack of opportunities to stop and take pictures, I resorted to holding the camera out the window and randomly snapping a few while I drove. I managed to get a couple, but they don’t do the place any real justice. This is a really beautiful part of Thailand.

On the way to the next site I saw a sign for the Vajiralongkorn Dam. So I turned left very rapidly and was able to drive up to the top of the dam for a different sort of view of the reservoir. There were lots of ‘beware of monkey’ signs, but I only saw one mama monkey with her little one. It was a nice little detour.

South from the dam I paid a quick visit to another national park, Sai Yok National Park. The main event here are the twin waterfalls that drop into the Kwai Noi River, Sai Yok Yai and Sai Yok Lek.

I came here expecting to only get this side view, but I was pleasantly surprised to see the suspension bridge, in the pic below. I walked across and to the right for a great view of Sai Yok Yai. All those house boats on the river are hotel rooms and a couple of restaurants, if you decide to stay here a few days.

If you’re walking across the bridge and take a left instead of a right, you end up at the viewpoint of the other waterfall, Sai Yok Lek. The two waterfalls are only about a quarter of a mile apart. This place is crazy beautiful!

The next day on my way out of Kanchanaburi to the next stop, I broke up my drive with a quick stop at Muang Sing Historical Park. This was considered the westernmost Khmer outpost.

There’s some remnants of other structures, but basically it’s just these two temples. Temple two is in the pics above and temple one is below. Muang Sing, the Lion City, was built in the 12th or 13th century. They found a prehistoric burial site here, though, so it’s probably been occupied for a lot longer.

Like I said, Muang Sing was just a quick stop. It was a good opportunity to stretch my legs a bit at almost the halfway point between Tha Kha-nun and my next stop, which will be revealed to you, dear readers, later…