A Long Weekend at the Hidden Jungle of Sangkhlaburi

For a reason beyond any reason my girlfriend and I ended up a few days in Bangkok and for good time's sake we had 'dinner' in a small soi off Sukhumvit together with a friend of mine and his girlfriend. The food was good and the Seang Som was flowing smoothly. So it was the right time and the right opportunity to make plans for a long weekend. As my friend had gone to Sangkhlaburi for a 1-day job a goal for our trip was easily found. My girlfriend and I would come on Thursday to Bangkok and the next morning very early we would leave for Sangkhlaburi. Why so early? Well first of all it is almost 400km west of Bangkok, along the Burmese border, and secondly that Friday would be a national holiday, so the hotels could be fully booked as all Thailand would take a long weekend.

So at 7 o'clock in the morning we left Bangkok in the direction of Kanchanaburi. The streets were already full and it took us more than 2 hours to really leave Bangkok. By that time we were all hungry for breakfast and just at that moment we saw a sign for a good restaurant. It was a little bit off the road, but it was worth it! Great Som Tam for the girls and BBQ chicken for the boys! So after this little detour we continued our journey to Kanchanaburi and continued in the direction of the famous 3 pagodas pass, which is about 15km from Sangkhlaburi. Starting from Kanchanaburi the landscape transforms from the flat central Thailand into the mountains of north-west Thailand. About 40-km after Kanchanaburi we passed Sai Yok Noi & Sai Yok Yai Nam Tok and the famous Hell Fire Pass. The road is getting more and more twisted between the mountains and then, a complete surprise, we are on top of a hill overlooking the beginning of the huge lake of Sangkhlaburi that is actually called Khao Laem Lake. It's a reservoir with a hydro-electric power generating station in the Mae Nam Songkaria. The lake was created in 1978 and the old village of Sangkhlaburi is now underwater. Only the old temple of the former Sangkhlaburi can still be seen a little bit emerging above the water. The new village is located on the west side along the banks of the lake. We were lucky to arrive not too late and could just find a nice place to stay (Forget Me Not House) as all the other hotels were fully booked already. We had a nice bungalow with two bedrooms (both with private bathroom) and a veranda for our self to eat & drink in the evening.

The famous wooden Mon Bridge

In the afternoon we made a boat trip from our hotel first to the wooden "Mon" bridge that connects the village of Sangkhlaburi at one side of the lake with the Mon village at the other side of the lake. It's supposed to be the longest wooden bridge in Thailand. By this time it started to become evening and we saw the sun going down behind the Mon village and the Wat Wang Wiwekaram that we would visit the next day. The boat brought us to the temple of the former Sangkhlaburi that is now deep under the water. Only the old temple is still rising above the water, and with low water you can even sail into it with your boat, as our very friendly boatman (from our hotel) did for us. On the way back we had a beautiful view over the lake with the golden colors of the sunset.
The boat brought us to a floating restaurant near the bridge where we had a great diner of local fish from the lake, and of course a bottle of Seang Som. The next day we woke up early and after we had breakfast again at the floating restaurant near the bridge we were picked up again by our boatman to make a fishing trip somewhere deep inside the lake, almost near the Burmese border. We passed some mountains and valleys and finally at a very quiet place we stopped to fish. The fishing was not spectacular but the scenery was breathtaking. Here you can still hear birds everywhere around you and you are passing many small Karen and Mon villages. You know, the kind of villages where touring cars full with tourists can not come, and I hope it stays that way! At lunch time we went back to our hotel (without any fish of course) and we had lunch at the 'Burmese Inn', a guesthouse with a good restaurant and small bungalows in a garden overlooking the Mon bridge.

Sightseeing around town

In the afternoon we decided to have a look at the 3 pagodas pass, the border town with Burma. Here, just before the border, is a big market where they sell all kind of handicrafts from Burma. It's mostly wooden furniture and it's very cheap. As all of us had never been in Burma we made plans to visit Burma the next day on our way back to Bangkok. The girls bought a lot of souvenirs for our friends and families and I made plans to come back here with an open pickup truck to buy some furniture. I love the wooden things! It was getting late and we still wanted to visit the Mon village and the Wat Wang Wiwekaram, so we headed back to town. The Wat Wang Wiwekaram consists mainly out of a huge golden pagoda, but not one like many others all over Thailand. It is in the design of the Pha Phutta Khaya temple in India. The abbot of this temple is a widely and highly respected person throughout Thailand. Of course we made merit here for a safe return.

A few hours in Burma

The next day we woke up early again and before we would finally drive back to Bangkok we would first visit Burma. So we drove back again to the 3-pagodas pass and we went to the border check-point. Here you actually do not get a visa for Burma, you are just allowed to stay in Burma during the day time. You have to leave your passport at the Thai immigration (together with 2 passport-photo's) and you have to pay to Burmese immigration 10us$ pp for foreigners. Thai can enter free of charge. And here you can enter Burma with your own car. Of course you have to fill in a lot of forms and that all costs some time, but all the immigration officers are very friendly. It also has to be said, you do NOT get a new entry-stamp when entering Thailand again. So you can NOT use this entry point as visa-run. Walking at the market at the Thai side we had seen a nice temple on a mountain and we decided to try to visit this temple. So off we went into Burma.
Personally I think that boycotting the Burmese people because of their government is a second burden on the Burmese people, and I think that contact in any way is the only way to get things changed in the long run. First you drive through the main street of the Burmese side of the border town where you can see all the wood factories. We left this small village quickly and drove in the direction of our goal, the temple on the mountain. It took us a while to find the road to the mountain but finally we did manage to drive all the way up to the small pagoda on top of it. The pagoda itself is not so impressive, but the tour to it and the view is! There were some monks from Thailand also visiting the pagoda and I presume that we are now in the photo-album of a proud Thai monk.
We drove back to the small Burmese village at the border and we spent some Thai baht in a local 'restaurant' to support the local economy. So after a refreshing drink & a small snack we made our journey back to Thailand to continue our tour all the way back to Bangkok where we had a dinner appointment at Tawang Deang. And of course that would again be a great evening with good friends, food, a lot of beer, and most of all a wonderful show with great music.

A perfect ending for a perfect long weekend.

Chang Noi