Author: OTRAdmin December 9, 2024

Camping season had arrived, that small window of great weather in Thailand when it isn’t hotter than the surface of Mercury or wetter than the Amazon rainforest, and overnight temperatures are conducive to sleeping in a tent, especially up north!

We decided to take advantage of it before smog season kicked in with a two-week camping trip in the mountains and national parks up the northwestern provinces along the border with Myanmar.

Kanchanaburi Province
To get a chunk of the driving out of the way on Friday, we headed to a small resort near the Blue Sapphire golf course about an hour north of Kanchanaburi for an uneventful stopover. Opposite the brand-new bungalows was another one of Thailand’s curiosos, a mockup of Stonehenge made out of vans and cars creatively called Carhenge.

Heading north the next morning, we found a quiet reservoir called Huay Kra Proi with a nice camping site right on the lake, which was empty on a Saturday mid-morning.  After setting up camp, it was time to check out the cave and waterfalls in the Chaloem Rattanakosin National Park, just a few kilometers away. A walk through a cave followed by a 3-kilometer jungle trek rewarded us with our first falls of the trip, which were pretty spectacular, even more so with us being the only ones there.

Back at camp, six kilometers of hiking later, the sunset over the lake and clear star-studded sky that evening was also spectacular.

Suphanburi Province

After breaking camp, we headed north for an hour to Lam Taphoen, which is a very popular camping spot around a picturesque lake. This place gets mobbed with Bangkok weekend warriors being around 3-hour drive from the big smoke, and there was an ongoing exodus of hi-so glampers with their foo-foo dogs and fancy SUVs as we arrived on Sunday afternoon.

We had another campsite to ourselves for the afternoon, so I spent it fishing and enjoying a cold one. The sunset that night was even more impressive than the previous night’s. Being a popular spot for Bangkokheads meant it was the most expensive campsite of the trip at 300 baht per head.

Next: Phu Toei National Park