Ubon Ratchathani - Soi Sawan

My first visit to Soi Sawan Waterfall was when it was its most impressive and one could play around in the many small ponds. However, I somehow lost my digital memories, so the photos in this blog are from a visit during the dry season. Almost no water falls in this waterfall, but the view over the valley is still impressive.

Since I this month will blog a lot about Ubon's nature, let me provide a few translations or explanations.


Soi Sawan is so named because the two streams falling separately in the rainy season resemble two strands of a necklace that merge to one stream at the bottom.


Pha Taem means cliff painting, which given the prehistoric paintings found at the cliff is self-explanatory.


Saeng Chan waterfall is called moonlight because when the water flow is strong, the falling water looks moonlight. Less inspired people call the same waterfall "Ruu", which simply means hole. The reason is obvious as the stream falls eight meters after passing through a two meter wide hole in a rock.


Sam Pan Bok means 3,000 holes in Isan language, not in Laotian as the Laotian word for hole actually is the same as the Thai word.


Huay Bok means stream (with) holes in Isan language. Interestingly, huay also means stream in Laotian, but people that claim Isan language and Laotian language are the same are ignorant.