Thee Lor Su is Thailand’s largest waterfall, and yet until 1985 it was only known to local Karen hill tribes. In 1985 the Thai Army started using helicopters to patrol the border between Thailand and Myanmar and that is how they discovered the falls.
But first I had to get there…..
My initial thoughts were to fly to Mae Sot and then arrange transport to Umphang District. In the end this proved too costly so I decided to drive from Bangkok, which proved a very wise decision.
The first day was spent to modern highways with an overnight stop at Kamphaeng Phet. I had visited Kamphaeng Phet before, but the historical park is always impressive. I also found La Riva Boutique Hotel, a small resort which had a pool and a sauna – perfect for the end of a day on the road. The journey was actually quite easy and that first day I covered 424 km with a couple of stops along the way. When it comes to driving a car I could justifiably be called Captain Slow, as I am happy listening to audio books on the type of road. The journey took six hours.
After an early start the journey from Kamphaeng Phet to Tak was uneventful and easy driving. But the driving soon changed as I left Tak behind me and climbed up to the Lam Sang and Taksin Maharat National Parks. Fantastic scenery and a wide, smooth weeping road through the mountains which was a pleasure to drive.
Next it was the so called “Death Highway”, one of Thailand’s most interesting roads. Route 1090 runs from Mae Sot to Umphang and within a 164km stretch there are 1,219 turns. Many of these are hairpin turns on steep gradients which make for a challenging drive. The road was dubbed the “Death Highway” because of the guerilla fighting that was going on there in the 1980s. The Communist Party of Thailand, Burmese Separatists and and to this day there is still a sprawling refugee cam at the roadside. The road retains its name today because of the number of fatalities each year. This was easy to be lieve given the speed at which convoys of trucks charged at me in the middle of the road.
It could have been interesting to linger and visit some of the other waterfalls along the way, but I had a boat to catch to take me to the deepest jungle I had even seen.
After a night in a cabin on the river and a breakfast of Khaotom (rice soup) with salted eggs, pickles and meat of some sort, it was time to start the river journey.
The two and a half hours on the river were spectacular as the paddlers took the dinghy through lush jungle which was teeming with wildlife, and negotiated the rapids with the skill of those who paddle these rivers every day of the year. The rubber dinghy was a bit cramped though, or my legs were at the end of the river journey. I felt as if I had been squatting in the lotus position for two and a half hours.
The river down which I was travelling is the Khwae Yai, which flows from Tak Province and into Kanchanaburi Province where it feeds the Sirindhorn Reservoir. From there it flows into Kanchanaburi, the site of the infamous Bridge on the River Khwae (Kwai in the movie).
The movie “Apocalypse Now” was filmed in the Philippines, but this river really reminded me of scenes from that move as we went deeper and deeper into the jungle in search of our goal.
The falls are in a Wildlife Sanctuary so visitors are not allowed to travel into the forest without a guide. This is no bad thing because the road through the jungle was a dirt track and there was evidence of recent flooding and landslides all around. With no mobile phone signals I would not have liked to have been up there on my own !
The final leg of the journey was a 2km hike on a well made path which eventually led to the Thee Lor Su Waterfall.
So I had reached my destination by road, by boat and on foot. But that was not quite the end of the adventure.
The next morning was another early start and a ride up to the top of a mountain to watch the sunrise. With an enterprising couple serving freshly brewed coffee from a makeshift coffee shop in the back of their pickup truck.
And after another drive along the Death Highway and over the mountains I was back in the pool and sauna in Kamphaeng Phet by about 3pm.
The journey covered about 1,450 km in all and was a wonderful experience. Looking forward to the next one !
