In 2010, I visited the mines at Pilok and briefly mentioned it in a blog.
Last year, I visited Pilok and Somsak Mining Homestay and blogged about it recently. Here is a YouTube link that gives an idea of the drive down into the valley.
Last year, before reaching Pilok, I stopped at Thong Pha Phum National Park to enjoy the views and to grab a cup of coffee before continuing. Just as we'd parked our cars, a big bird crash landed and started rummaging for food.
A National Park officer came out and explained this bird had become so accustomed to people that it no longer was "shy" or scared of people. We even managed to hand-feed the bird some grapes before venturing on.
The next stop before continuing to Somsak Mining (see previous blog) was Chokkadin (or Jokkadin) Waterfall.
The road leading down to the waterfall has some steep declines / inclines and (especially during the rainy season) some deep ruts. If your vehicle slides into the deep tracks - as happened for my friend's pick-up - then even 4WD cannot ensure that you can get yourself unstuck without help.
In our case, it required a lot of digging before the truck got out of trouble and back on the right track.
We then continued and reached a grassy swampy area from where we walked to the waterfall. Other off-road people are so lazy that they continue driving on the river bed to reach the foot of the waterfall. This shows little respect for nature and can anyway not be recommended during the rainy season where the water level can be too high for a vehicle without snorkel to handle.
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