Erawan National Park, Thailand
Thailand’s Erawan National Park is named for the highest of the waterfalls within its boundary, which is said to resemble the mythical three-headed elephant, Erawan. Cascading down from there, the water passes through six more falls – none of which are named after imaginary animals.
Erawan National Park is about an hour’s drive from Kanchanaburi, a town to the west of Bangkok on the way to the Myanmar border. The highlight of the park – and the reason most people visit – is the waterfalls. A track about two kilometres long takes you from the first one up to the seventh. It winds through the forest, crossing over bridges, and occasionally hiding playfully, forcing you to clamber over rocks.
Only the dedicated and foolhardy (guilty as charged!) bother to go all the way to the top. There are plenty of good reasons to stop along the way.
More than half of the seven waterfalls have beautiful calm and azure pools to swim in. There are also a few pleasant areas to rest for a picnic – but not after the second waterfall because the authorities won’t let you take your food past there. They’re worried about rubbish in the national park. “No food!”
Thankfully I had no food with me. But I did have to pay a deposit to take a water bottle up (refundable on proof you’ve brought it back down with you).
In case you have no plans to visit Erawan National Park soon, or in case you don’t want to abandon your food, I thought I would share some photos of the trip up the track.
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Turtle, like the name suggests, likes to take things slowly. Luckily that's one of the best ways to see the world - and that's exactly what he's doing at the moment.
This is the website of travel writer, Michael Turtle. After working in broadcast journalism for a decade in Australia, Michael left Sydney to travel the world indefinitely and write about the places, people and experiences he discovers. This isn't a diary - these are real stories from the world.
16 Responses
Last November, I have been in Thailand and missed visiting Erawan National Park, Thanks for pointing it out. Next time I make sure to visit it.
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It’s a nice place to visit if you’re in the region – but not necessarily worth a special trip just to see it.
The place looks stunning! I wonder if that is a catfish or other species of fish?
I’m not sure what kind of fish it is. Although they like the taste of dead feet skin, if that helps
Thailand is like a second home, and moving there is comfortable, and relaxing. It’s something I want to do; create an expat nest and explore the regions around me. National park look so pretty in photos!
It would be a perfect place to spend some time. As you, say relaxing. And there’s so much to see and do, you would never get bored!
Very pretty! I love waterfalls. I also like that you have to pay a deposit to take a water bottle in with you. I hope that it cuts down on the amount of liter people leave!
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It’s a really clever idea to reduce the litter, isn’t it? I’m surprised more places don’t do something like that. It’s not even just about getting your money back – it makes you think more about the issue too.
I’m loving your posts on Thailand. Can’t wait to be heading back to SE Asia in just a month from now with Audrey.
Awesome! Hopefully our paths will cross somewhere along the way. I’m not sure where I’m heading next but make sure you let me know where you end up!
The swimming pools look amazing! Just what you need after a bit of trekking…
TammyOnTheMove recently posted..My husband is a lucky man
And the water was such a perfect temperature! (Even though, admittedly, I only stuck my feet in because I was running short of time to have a proper swim…)
Would be well worth visiting Kanchanaburi, the Death Railway, and the War Cemetery as well.
BlogDaz recently posted..Thailand’s Four Faced Deity
Yes, definitely! You can check out my posts about the Death Railway in the Thailand section.
I think I would be more than happy to abandon food to hike up and see these. That is really neat about the water bottle deposit. Seems like a good way to encourage responsible sightseeing without keeping people from having water.
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Yeah, it’s a great idea, isn’t it? I would love to see more places bring in a rule like that. I get so frustrated at trash in national parks!