Nan: Family excursion to Doi Phu Kha National Park
The continuation of this 5th day which took us towards Doi Phu Kha National Park, northeast of the city of Nan.
On the road to the national park.
Drying peppers in front of village houses.
From a certain point the road becomes more winding.
And there the landscape becomes completely different.
Somewhere on top of a mountain between 2 valleys.
As soon as it is outside the park it is deforested... (and again I am almost sure that we have seen certain parts supposed to be included in the park and yet cleared)
Further on, a village is perched in the middle of a ridge.
Breeding ponds (but breeding what?)
On the way to Ton Tong Waterfall near Toey Kew Hen village.
Too bad the heat made the landscape relatively foggy.
The waterfall is visible among the trees but due to lack of time we will not go further to see as much as possible elsewhere.
Now it's time to go back up...
It looks a bit abandoned.
The banana flower.
The road leading to the village.
The valley on the other side is just as bare…
The consequences were not long in coming, here a landslide occurred after heavy rain on the road we had just taken.
Arriving at what we thought was the "entrance to the park", a discussion ensued with the guard where he asked me if I intended to sleep here, answering no, etc. It ended up that after telling us the typical foreign rate (generally 200 baht per person) I ended up getting 300 baht including the car to enter after showing my Thai license. Unfortunately, if he asked if we were sleeping here, it's because there is a camp and the amount requested actually corresponds a priori to a tax for sleeping in a national park (which is often the case here in Thailand) but not at the entrance to the park in which we were already driving in fact... But it's the name of the headquarters (indicated Doi Phu Kha Headquarter) which is misleading, in the end I can't say if we are supposed to pay anything if we just come for a walk in the area, because yes there is a walking circuit to do, which is also poorly indicated because it is only when we are about to leave that we will see it on the side of the road just a few meters below the parking lot. The complete walk is a 3 hour tour, we will just walk 1 hour (30 minutes of climbing before turning around)
A sign tells us that the coniferous forest where we are is in fact artificial since it was planted 30 years ago on the orders of the royal family when the area was very bare.
After checking it turned out that he was in fact dead...
In the middle of nowhere.
We're back on the road.
With his bare hands, he carries his tree trunk towards the village below, peacefully.
Villages are built on the mountainside.
In search of the famous Chompoo Phu Kha trees that give their name to the park, we take random paths...
This doesn't take us to the trees in question, but it's not really a waste of time either!
Water tanks.
The path seems to lead to only one house…
A woman rebuilds her bundle of wood.
This one dries its fruits.
We finally found the location of the famous trees, knowing that they were not in bloom it lost all interest... fortunately the little tour is not so long to do (although obviously uphill...)
Acid rain?? Kalashnikov? No, more likely insects or disease but it does its job!
Ok motivating that.
The view is ultimately less impressive than the landscape we had just seen previously.
We are in the heart of the forest at Chompoo Phu Kha.
