It came to the third straight weekend that I traveled outside of Bangkok. This time, we came to Chaiyaphum province, which is located about 300 km Northeast of Bangkok. There is something not the be missed in this province, especially during the Thailand's rainy season from June to August, which is the annual Dok Krachiao Blooming Festival.
We planned our trip to Pa Hin Ngam National Park, which the famous Dok Krachiao Blooming Festival was held. The annually held festival attracted a lot of Thais to visit this chilling place, which lies on a plateau about 185 meters above sea level. As the road trip would take approximately 5 hours, we started our journey early in the morning, at 4 a.m. Visiting this place might be inconvenient for the tourists with public transport, as the location of the national park is quite remote. It would be easier for the tourists to sign up day tour from the travel agency in Bangkok, or get local friends to drive here.
As we arrived at the Pa Hin Ngam National Park, despite the gloomy weather, the crowd were already there. Let's take a group shot before the hiking trip!
Have you ever seen something cute like this? The mobile ATM! I was wondering were there no ATM theft cases in Thailand?
The Dok Krachiao (Siamese Tulip) welcomed us at the main entrance, with the big poster of the King of Thailand as the backdrop.
There were some fees collected for entry, which I forgot how much back then. Based on my recent research, it seems like nowadays foreign tourists will be charged for 200THB to enter. After crossing the ticket checkpoint, we would need to take a truck which dropped us somewhere higher altitude, and the hiking began after that.
Tourists may choose to visit the tulip field first (350 meter to the left) or to visit the cliff area (50 meter to the right). The hiking process would take a full circle and back to the starting point to get on the truck back to the entrance.
The weather was still gloomy when we started our hike but this never stopped us from hiking.
We first arrived at the Pha Hum Hod, which means the Testicle Shrinking Cliff in the Northeastern dialect. The idea was you would basically shrink your manhood when you were on top of the thin slab of rock on top of the cliff. This was the summit of Phang Hoei mountain range, 864 meters above sea level. Many people actually queued to be photographed on this rock, so did I!
What a spectacular view from the Pha Hum Hod with the sea of clouds!
Next we proceeded with the Thung Dok Krachiao, which we anticipated the field of the Dok Krachiao (Siamese Tulip).
The rainy season came slightly earlier than the past years, and some of the tulips had already faded during the time of our visit.
There were 2 types of Dok Krachiao which we could find here, the white color and the pink color.
The wild grown Dok Krachiao within the field
Next, we went to another attraction which gave the name for the national park. The highlights here were the strange rock formation, with different outlooks.
The chicken rock
This was a funny looking rock, with the best description to it. Mor Hum Tang was the name, and the meaning was the small rock of erected penis! What a funny name!
The radar rock
The most famous rock at this area, the FIFA trophy looking rock!
After the Pa Hin Ngam National park, we moved on the another attraction in the area, the Phu Laenkha National Park. The main highlight here was the Stonehenge of Thailand, which we could see large rocks scattered in formation, resembling the Stonehenge in England.
There were names for each of the rocks here
One final shot of the day which marked the end of this exciting trip!
The trip was really an eye opener to me, which we would be able to witness the creation of the mother nature to those rocks, as well as the wild grown Siamese tulips. I was grateful to be here during the right season to get the opportunity to visit this gorgeous place in Thailand. Wonderful!
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