The Kaeng Krachan area can be reached from HH in about an hour, head north through Cha-am and hang a left at Ta-Yang, just follow the signs to the dam. The town itself is a dusty collection of small shops and street side restaurants, all of the resorts are down small country streets on the left.
It is actually quite difficult to find anything unless you can read Thai. The whole area seems geared towards weekend Bangkokians, it was completely dead during the week.
We were the only ones in our riverside resort ...
The only sounds came from the babbling brook and an occasional angle grinder ...
Took a drive over the dam just before sunset ...
And here is the backend ...
Hard to imagine all that water is held back by a pile of dirt and pebbles ...
Wrenched out of bed at some ungodly hour, bundled into a 4WD in pitch darkness, and hurtled towards a national park where I'm deprived of an inflated entrance fee. (It was 04.50 am and I couldn't be arsed to tell them that I actually pay tax here too.)
This place should be called Jurassic Park, our driver did well to avoid the mounds of Triceratops crap as we motored for what seemed like hours through thickening jungle on tracks that make central African roads look like the M25.
Ascending up into the hills we expected the odd Velociraptor to dart across the track but wildlife must have been on holiday on this particular morning, you definitely need to be on foot for these things.
The destination was a number of lookouts where you can view the famous sea fog or "talay mork" (ทะเลหมอก) in Thai. Twitchers and ramblers were in abundance, the big attraction for the Bangkok Thais was obviously being able to freeze their cojones off at high elevation ...
At about a kilometer above sea level you could look down on things as the day started to lighten ...
The cacophony of the jungle waking up was pretty impressive, whooping toucans, rodents, gibbons and other such arboreal life gave the whole scene a weirdly surreal ambiance ... couldn't see any of the buggers though.
Wildlife watchers, film crews and photo buffs were not impressed by the noise made by the buksi clan that were, by this time, growing hungry ...
A rare glimpse of a pair of yellow banded squawkers bathing in a river ...
Some of the smaller things that stumbled in front of the camera lens ...
So now the important stuff ...
Accommodation was very 'Thai style' in that nearly all resorts there cater for groups - the rooms are designed for 6-8 people and the cheapest one is about a grand a night. Since we had the entire place to ourselves we lived with it, the staff were very attentive ... when he was awake. The website for the place we stayed at is www.kaengresort.com
The food is damn good (scuse the pun), cheaper than Hua Hin, and there are plenty of lakeside restaurants serving excellent fish straight from the water. Nightlife is non-existent but the beer is cheap. We were the only customers in the restaurants so I'd definitely recommend heading up that way during the week if you want peace and quiet - according to the locals it gets mobbed at weekends.
If you want to actually get up close and personal with the wildlife you can camp in the park and venture out on foot. Sitting in a cold damp place for a few hours should reward you with a glimpse of something. At nearly 3,000 square kilometers Kaeng Krachan is the largest national park in Thailand and definitely something that anyone staying in Hua Hin should pop up the road and see (did I mention its quieter during the week?!)
