Around Our Place

Around Our Place

Chanthaburi is not much of a touristy place (which means no one speaks English), so there’s not much else to see apart from fruit plantations as far as you can look, and a few overpriced National Parks and waterfalls. The ocean is 70 km away and polluted (sometimes with hospital waste) on most days.

In sight of our farm (in the distance at the horizon) is the Khao Soi Dao Waterfall (น้ำตกเขาสอยดาว)​ 30​ km from here.

There is Khao Kitchakut National Park (อุทยานแห่งชาติเขาคิชฌกูฏ)​ which​ has a “Buddha footprint” – although it is questionable if the Buddha ever walked as far as Thailand and if he was heavy enough to leave a print in stone – and is therefore a famous site of pilgrimage.

 

All that being said, there are wild places in the jungle around here that are well worth a trip – if you have the necessary experience.

Most impressive is the Khao Soi Dao Tai Mountain Range (highest peak 1670m) that we see in full beauty from our farm. There are no trails, wild elephants, lots of leeches, and it’s easy to get lost even for moderately experienced freehikers. The jungle is amazing though, with large old-growth Dipterocarps, monkeys, a staggering abundance of colorful birds, a waterfall – and this way you don’t have to pay an entrance fee.

View from the Khao Plong peak (1377m) of the Khao Soi Dao Tai massif.

Large buttress roots of a jungle giant.

 

 

The immediate surroundings

Right behind our garden in the Nature Reserve, maybe an hour and a half away, there is one of the largest trees we’ve ever seen. The path leads through dense bamboo thicket, but we’re in the process of making a trail.

Easily the largest tree we’ve ever seen.

 

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