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4-day road trip to Petchabun


CampariO

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Day 1: Si Thep historical park
 

The park is located in the south of Petchabun province and was our first destination. On the way there, just before the provincial border, we saw a large, white Buddha from the street. So, we left the main road and visited Wat Tham Phrathat Khao Prang.

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There are stairs to the right leading up to another building.....

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...which has a few more steps.

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After reaching the top, we were rewarded with a nice view.

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The building didn't contain much, just a few small statues.

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On the way down we encounterd a frog and a centipe but we didn't stay long to see who ate whom.

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Meanwhile at the parking lot a monkey was having lunch.

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Then we went to Si Thep Park. At the entrance we were asked if we were vaccinated. Girlfriend is still waiting for Moderna and I only got the first shot. After consulting with his supervisor, the guard allowed as to enter anyway. We only saw about 8 other visitors on the 2700 Rai site, so the risk of infection was probably not that great. 🙃

Entry was 170 Bt including car, Farang of course had to pay more than Khun Thai.

First a small exhibition hall:

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Then we took a ride around the park in this bus:

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First stop at an excavation site where a few skeletons and pots could be seen:IMG_6676.JPG

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The bus continued to the main attraction, comprising of 3 temple buildings.

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It then started to rain, and since there wasn't much else to see, we drove to Petchabun City with a short stop at Khao Klang Nok - another large pile of stones just around the corner - and checked into our hotel.

The SR Residence Hotel was 1000 Bt including breakfast and had a beautiful view.

The pool was a bit cloudy and unfortunately there was nothing sensible to drink in the large bar, thanks to the Corona regulations. The food was pretty good though.

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Day 2: Khao Kho National Park

There are plenty of sights in this national park. The mountain itself is about 1140 m high and it gets quite fresh up there, but we didn't need a jacket.

There are also a few sights in the city, but apart from the Phetbura Buddhist Park, we focused more on the surrounding area.

In the Buddhist Park there was a large pond that was well filled with fish. For a few baht there was also fish feed from the machine. Otherwise only a few smaller figures in the water and on the island.

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The turtles took care of the dead fish.

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Edited by CampariO
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Past a colorful collection of houses ...

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.... and a few flower beds (also often referred to as a "farm" and besieged by selfie-addicted women) ....

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....and to our first destination of the national park: Bang Rachan Islet.

Had expected more, there were pictures of boats on the Internet. Maybe we weren't in the right place.

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The Sri Dit waterfall was the 2nd item on the list, but it was closed. Time for lunch at this restaurant which had a great view: แทน รัก ทะเล หมอก - Restaurant & Coffee

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Phra Borom That Chedi Kanchanaphisek was just around the corner:

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Wat Witchamai Punyaram is also next door, but because of the onset of rain we preferred to continue. Wasn't anything special anyway.

Edited by CampariO
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The Khao Kho Sacrifice Memorial is just a few feet away, a quick shot and back in the car.

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One of the main viewpoints, Khao Kho Viewpoint (Sea of clouds). In the morning you can see the clouds below in the valley.

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The latest fashion:

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The G.B. Strawberry Farm is right next to the wind farm.IMG_6798.JPG

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Edited by CampariO
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Again the rain caught up with us, so on to a temple (not seen for a long time 😁 ).

Wat Phrathat Pha Sorn Kaew

 

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A beautiful and large temple complex that you have to enter without shoes. Because of the rain some tiles are slippery ...

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The mountain Phu Tubberk is almost in Loei. A road with many serpentines and a lot of drivers who cannot drive, especially in the fog.

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We are about to break through the cloud cover:

 

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On the top it was supposed to look like this (picture from the web):

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However, we had this view:

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At the top you can either spend the night in small huts ....

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...or rent/bring  a tent.

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With use of the toilet:

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The mercury showed 18°C.

Edited by CampariO
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Because of the bad weather we broke off our Khao Kho tour and stayed at the Worachat Boutique Hotel in Lom Sak. The hotel had the best reviews and was quite attractive compared to what was on offer in Lom Sak, but the town was dead. A few restaurants only open, mostly Shabu shabu. Went to Tesco and ate KFC and in the food court. We should have stayed at Khao Kho where there were plenty of restaurants to choose from.

 

Day 3:

In Lom Sak there is the Pho Khun Pha Muang Memorial as well as the Por Khun Pha Muang Memorial (yup, these are 2 different memorials, which are written almost the same), as well as a museum, but we did without it and we went on to part 3 of the trip:

Nam nao national park

A park in the east of Petchabun, borders Loei, Chaiyaphum and Khon Kaen. Not that much to see there and some of the attractions were closed, such as Sai Thong + Heo Sai waterfalls. There is a viewpoint for the sunrise and one for the sunset. Since we were too late or too early for both of them, we headed the two waterfalls, but found them closed.

A popular selfie point is this bridge in the south of the park:

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Wat Khok Mon is on the way to Nam Nao Canyon, where there are a couple of waterfalls. The GPS tried to send us in the wrong direction a few times, better pay attention to the signs.

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There were hardly any visitors. With the small roads that lead to the temple, you will not see any tour buses in the years to come. A staircase led down to the bottom of the canyon, but it was slippery and we didn't really want to climb everything up again. A sign warned that the path should only be managed with a guide.

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On to the next point: เลย ดั้น (I don't know what it's called in English, Ley dận or something like this). It was a long way plus a detour from the main road into the big nothing.

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Actually not worth the strain of the route.

We circled the entire national park, the route had a very beautiful view. The road itself would also be a great ride on a bike. About from where road 3029 branches off from 2216 to almost the Sila Cemetery Bureau of Monks. You almost drove on the ridge and had a great view to the left and right. Unfortunately I only took one photo as I didn't want to stop all the time.

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There is definitely much more to see in the Nam nao national park, but I only picked out the main sights. If I had known that so much was closed, I would have picked out some more sights.

So we had enough of driving around for the day and drove back to the hotel in Petchaburi.

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Day 4:

The next morning we started the return journey: a stopover in Lop Buri without an overnight stay, the sheer number of monkeys in the city center made us feel a bit uncomfortable.

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Just a snapshot from the car of the Phra Prang Sam Yot:

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Edited by CampariO
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A quick snack instead of a real lunch, always with one eye on the monkeys which most likely would try to steal it from us.

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There is definitely more to see in Lopburi, but the prospect of a good dinner in Pattaya made us return home.

We liked Petchabun very much, we will come back when the weather is better.

I hope you haven't gotten bored with the report

 

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Very good, entertaining and informative, thanks for taking the time to share it with us.

The GF's from Lom Sak in Petchabun but, so far in 14 years I've known her, I've managed to avoid visiting the family up there, lol.

Disappointing to see that they're not charging foreigners with Thai drivers licences the same as Thais, even when there are no customers around and they're presumably desperate. 

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