Petchabun - Thung Salaeng Luang National Park (2)

Let me repeat: The national park's headquarters is located at km. 80 on Highway No. 12. But cars are not allowed access to Thung Saleng Luang’s main savannah from the park headquarters. Cars have to enter the park at Nong Mae Na, i.e., from Khao Kho.

I repeat this because when checking both a couple of GPS as well as asking a few locals (or maybe not?) in Khao Kho, I was told to go to Highway 12. In other words, if I had not already visited this national park, I would not have found the correct entrance.

This visit was during the hot and dry season while my first visit was during the "cold" season:


http://tinamue.blogspot.com/2010/01/thung-salaeng-luang-national-park.html

It makes quite a difference. This time, the grass on the savannah was not as high (not as impressive) and park rangers had started several controlled fires in order to not risk that a bush fire ravages the park.

All in all, the dry season is not an interesting time to visit. Next time, I will try to make it during the rainy season as the tracks leading through the park then (hopefully) will be muddy, challenging and fun to drive.

Petchabun - Khao Kho (2)

 I earlier wrote about Khao Kho 

http://tinamue.blogspot.com/2011/02/petchabun-khao-kho.html 

This time, I visited during the week instead of during a long weekend. What a huge difference that made. There are many small family-run resorts in the Khao Kho area and there are many under construction or expansion. The main customers are Bangkokians coming up for a weekend. 

So, during weekdays, many of the resorts close down their facilities, e. g., it can be difficult to find a restaurant for a lunch meal and many restaurants shut down at 8 PM. Instead of taking that as a nuisance, I took it as an opportunity to go to bed early so that I could get up and see the sun rise over Khao Kho.

I again stopped by at the Route 12 rest area where the number of shops has increased slightly and where an old school bus has been brought in to give some American flavor.

Petchabun - Si Thep Historical Park (2)

I went back to Si Thep, but actually there isn't much new to add to my previous blog

http://tinamue.blogspot.com/2011/02/petchabun-si-thep-historical-park.html 

Si Thep is a nice destination for picnics and to learn a bit about how the tentacles of the Angkor kingdom spread across the region. What is interesting is that the ruins now are surrounded by a lot of sugar cane fields.
During the harvest season, the small roads leading to the few mills in the region are clogged. And around the mills, trucks (big and small) occupy huge parking lots where they wait for their turn to offload the sugar cane. To a casual observer, it definitely looks like a lot of time is wasted as the trucks wait for hours on end.

Saraburi - Muak Lek

Muak Lek district surprises many visitors with its own version of country and western culture. Dairy farming has been associated with the rolling hills of Muak Lek since Dutch and Danish aid agencies back in the 1960s started lending a hand with the establishment of a Thai dairy industry.

In the forested hills, an easy two hour drive from the center of Bangkok, one finds several resorts and a perfect setting for a weekend retreat even if one doesn't want to play cowboy or dairy farmer. The local river also has a small waterfall that is a very popular picnic destination.