Hua Hin - Phraya Nakhon Cave

About 60 km south of Hin is Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park, the park with 300 mountaintops. From Hua Hin a lot of trips are organized, often with lunches, visits to a pineapple plantation, caves, etcetera. Because we didn't have our own car, we decided to join such a tour. We were supposed to be picked up at our hotel, and make the trip, together with some other people, in a mini-bus. We were picked-up, but the driver told us the mini-bus was overloaded, if we wanted to go with a jeep and a private driver and guide. Nice, but it took awhile before the guide was found. He proposed to skip the pineapple plantation, nothing to see there for us, we agreed. So we went directly to a cave, which appeared to be closed, to another cave, closed as well. Then to the cave we should have visited, Tham Phraya Nakhon. To get there fast, you had to take a boat, and the guide was afraid we wouldn't be able to get a boat with such a few number of people, he was right.

So we started walking, a nice walk along the beach, not really that far from the place the boats hit the beach. And from there on climbing, even if you came by boat, you still had to climbe, at least half an hour, over a steep and rocky trail. It was worth it. The cave has two chambers, each one with the roof collapsed. In the second, biggest chamber is a sala, a resting place, build for King Chulalongkorn. Plants and trees are growing in that chamber, beautiful. And then down, back to the beach, which is more difficult than getting up. Climbing is the only way to reach the cave. Halfway down we met another group of weary, sweaty visitors, who asked if their bus was waiting near the cave. Unfortunately not.

The other half of the day, after lunch, the driver and the guide, who appeared to be very friendly and helpfull, took us to some nice, remote temples and at last to the hill behind Hua Hin. The trip didn't work out as planned, but we had a very nice day.