Um Phang for New Years

Um Phang was amazing! It has definitely been one of the highlights of my trip and a great place to start off 2012!

I am pretty sure that I found out about the place last time I was in Thailand because I stumbled across a pretty picture of the Thi Lor Su Waterfall. For some reason, it has been in my head that I needed to get here and it was everything I hoped for an more. This is not the first, second or even third time I have seen a picture and needed to actually see the destination in person. (Glacier, Alaska, OZ, Maroon Bells, Rae Lakes, cenotes, it's a long list!)

This waterfall is the largest in Thailand and 6th largest limestone waterfall in the world. And it's the prettiest one I have ever seen and been fortunate enough to swim in!


As you can see from the pics, the waterfall is amazing. That has nothing to do with my photography...Thi lor su will give you a perfect picture every time. The other plus to this trip is that the area had so many other things to do and see.

Thursday night I took the night bus up to Mae Sot arriving at 5am or something ridiculously early so I took a nap at the bus terminal till 7ish when the sun was up. I would have liked to have had more time in Mae Sot, but that will have to be on another trip. It was still a 5 hour bus ride south on the Death Highway to Um Phang. (It originally got the name Death Highway due to guerrilla activity, but the road has been dangerous enough to keep the nickname. The views are stunning)

At 8:30am we started heading south (in the Thai round about way by first stopping at 3 places in town, dropping some people off in the north, stopping to fill up with gas, and one last stop for the driver to get some fried chicken for breakfast)

The drive starts off pretty flat with farmland on both sides of the highway and after an hour you really start getting into the mountains. There were quite a few villages along the way and refugee camps. The views were amazing! I took the public transport - a sawngthaew and was able to hang off the back for most of the ride. Apparently women are not allowed to ride on top (I found out when I tried to get up there with some boys) The roof is really just for luggage anyway so I was happy holding on to the back (rather than crammed inside).

Crazy big jungle bug in town

When I arrived in town the driver dropped me 4 km from the actual downtown area. Some local guards (I'm not really sure who or what they were, but they were in uniform) flagged down a truck and sent me to town with the random dude driving it. Finally, almost 24 hours later I reached my destination!






Cute table outside my room at
the Umphang House

  After wandering around town for a bit and asking questions I finally settled at the Umphang House. A really cute place with great owners. However, if you are a light sleeper you may want to go somewhere else because there is a karaoke place next door and the locals of Um Phang love to sing (if you can call it that) into the wee hours of the morning. I went back after camping despite the karaoke. They had hot showers too!!!


When I arrived for the first time and checked in the owners and some of their friends were out at one of the tables having a few beers. They asked me to join them by putting a beer in my hand so we all hung out for a few hours. I signed up for a tour with them leaving the next day.

New Years Eve
At 5:30 am we got up to go to a hill to watch the sunrise. The day before when I was having beer at 3 in the afternoon it sounded like a much better idea. In the dark I chugged some coffee with lots of sugar and we took off. Of course it was totally worth it, but it was initially painful to get out of bed. The hill that we went to was crowded with local Thai tourists away for the holiday weekend. (No farangs other than Mike and I) The valley below us was filled with fog meandering around the hills as the sun slowly rose behind the distant mountains. It was a great way to start the day!

Then we headed back to the guesthouse for some breakfast, packing and our river trip down the Mae Klong River. The rainy season was a few months back so the water was fairly low and the two rapids we hit were only Class II. The section of river below the one we rafted is supposed to have 40 some rapids during the rainy season. I would love to come back for that.

It didn't matter that there weren't rapids, the scenery along the way was amazing- the vegetation, cool tree trunks, cliffs, several waterfalls, overhanging cliffy areas, there was a hot spring, and an iguana too. It felt really good to be on a river. (It made me miss the river and my boat. I'm still not sure if I can skip out on a North American summer!)

When the raft trip was over we took a bumpy car ride to Thi Lor Su campsite and waterfall. The campsite is about 1.5 km from the falls. After a quick lunch of fried rice we walked in and I was blown away. I have seen some nice waterfalls before, but this one topped them all. Not only is it massive but each section is stunning on its own. The picture I took at the begining that seems to capture most of it is actually only about half the waterfall. There is no way to get it all in one picture.

At the platform area (located at the base of the falls) you get the initial WOW but then the exploring begins. I tried to make it to every section of the falls and was able to swim in quite a few of them. It is winter over here so the water was really cold.


During the rainy season it is impossible to go past the platform because of the high volume of water. Again, I would love to come back and see it with more water, but playing around in the pools and getting to each section of the falls was what really made it sweet.

Mike and I spent the day exploring. It took hours to reach the different parts of the waterfall. When we arrived the sun wasn't in the best part of the sky for photos, but I took a million anyway.

That night our group had dinner and stayed up playing games. (The other 3 in our group knew a little English. Way more English than I know Thai. It worked) I know a few word games but they are pretty useless with the language barrier. After one night there playing games with them I have a lot of visual games/trivia that I'll be bringing back to the guiding world in the states.

Oh, the campsite also had a mailbox so I sent out a postcard to Amanda for her birthday. I picked up a few more and had them stamped, but all my regulars who receive postcards keep moving on me so I don't have your new addresses memorized. I'll get them in the mail soon!


The next morning we went back to the falls. It was the best way to start off the new year. And I was thinking of everyone back in the states counting counting down to midnight while I was hanging out there running around barefoot in the jungle and swimming in waterfalls. I was asleep through the new year midnight over here so I chose to celebrate east coast new years which happened to take place at noon here in Thailand =)

Mike and I hung out at the uppermost falls for a couple hours. Only a handful of people made it up this far. The video above is what it looked like.

After a full day at the falls we hitched back to town. The road in and out of Thi Lor Su is awful and bumpy. However, we did stop at a beautiful orange orchard and at a Wat on the way back. Hitchhiking is awesome!

The next day Mike headed back to Chang Mai and I got a motorbike to go exploring around the countryside. The area is beautiful and life is simple. I think the road to Um Phang was just paved in 2003. And Um Phang doesn't even have a 7-11! (There are 7-11's on every corner in Thailand and this is the first place I have been that has been 7-11 free!)

On my last morning, I went caving/spelunking before I had to leave town. It was called Ta Kho Bi and only a few km outside of town. One of the local kids gave me a tour. The ride out of Um Phang was just as beautiful as it was coming in. This time I stopped off at another national park before reaching Mae Sot.

Like most National Parks in Thailand, this one too had a waterfall. I was worried it wouldn't compare but it was sweet. (There are sooo many waterfalls here, but they are the best waterfalls ever!)

Then it was time to catch the night bus back to BKK. I arrived at 5am, went to my apartment which was soaked from the weekend flooding incident and then headed off to school.

This is where I was.