Thi Lo Su Waterfall -- skip it and go to this one instead

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My girlfriend Naitt was almost crying when we arrived at Thi Lo Su Waterfall. Last time she went there, it had taken two days of rafting and trekking, and was like discovering a new secret place with just four frineds. This time, there were hundreds of tourists. But the next waterfalls were awesome.

Heading in to Thi Lo Su

From our awesome hillside bungalow, we headed towards Mae Sot and took the turnoff towards Thi Lo Su on the "road of 1,000 bends". Apparently someone counted them one time, and there were around 1,219 in total. It's a pretty nice drive, if you are used to driving in mountains. But Bangkokers simply aren't. The only bends in Bangkok are the few off the expressways. I took over most of the driving because with so many Sunday drivers on the road, it was pretty perilous driving -- even on this well marked, liberally signposted paved road.

The scenery was pretty good -- nothing special compared to Nepal, but a nice change for Thailand -- hills and mountains covered with jungle.

Four hours of driving over the mountains was relatively tiring even for me. But for the local tourists from Bankok, who have a prediliction for tailgating, it must have been exhausting. Two great things about the road were that there were no tour buses -- they had been banned because of a rash of accidents and dozens of fatalities -- and the road was three lane up many of the steep sections, allowing for overtaking trucks in first gear.

We had to dump the car when we arrived at the National Park Centre because only 4x4s were allowed for the last 30km of unpaved road. So I forked out the 330 baht entrance fee (300 for me the foreigner, and 30 baht for Naitt, the local) as well as another 600 to sit in the back of a pickup for 2 hours.

We were lucky at the ranger station, because one of the rangers had a friend who knew about the Karen village that we were planning to stay at in the evening. Otherwise we would have been stuck for accommodation.

After a two hour ride in the dusty pickup, and having passed about 100 vehicles going the opposite way, we finally arrived at the campsite at Thi Lo Su. Man. There must have been over 100 4x4s and 150 tents there. The place was packed. We met the ranger's friend who knew Ko Tha, the nearby Karen village. He agreed to take us to the village after we went and looked at Thi Lo Su.

Thi Lo Su

As I mentioned, there were hundreds of local tourists camped at the camp ground, and with one solitary tourist attraction there, it was pretty obvious where they were all headed. Apparently Thi Lo Su had been gazetted by the Department of Tourism as an Amazing Thailand Tourist Trap. Or perhaps it was a tourist attraction for the locals.

And these aren't people who go to difficult places. One of the girls in the pickup commented that this was the most difficult journey she'd ever been on. Heck, she hadn't even set foot on the ground!

The trip in wasn't the trackless jungle it was last time Naitt was here. It was a 6 foot wide concrete path with a few stairs here and there. You could do it with crutches.

The 1.4km concrete walk was pleasant enough, especially as it was already mid afternoon and most of the tourists were alreadying heading back to camp. The slow walk took half an hour to a viewing platform with around 30 tourists on it taking photos. I elbowed my way into position to take on as well.

It was a nice enough waterfall. Small pools at the bottom, and 4 falls with enough water going over them to make them look good. I was underwhelmed, while poor Naitt had tears welling up in her eyes. Serves her right for going there again I guess.

We climbed up what was now a very well worn track to the bottom of the second level, which now had signs warning against swimming. The logic was stated as, "if one person swims, everyone will swim, and it will spoil the view." I think the reality was more like, "If one person swims, then some idiots who can't swim will jump into the water, drown, and flow off the waterfall." I think the stated reason was probably more elegant.

Naitt insisted on walking across the top of the third level to sit on the rocks facing the second level waterfall. Fortunately, these are limestone sedimentary rocks, so aren't at all slippery. She still managed to get stuck half way and had to be rescued from certain death by one of the more daring tourists who had crossed over previously (there were about 20 on the other side).

We didn't spend much time at the waterfall, because we couldn't swim there, it wasn't particularly spectacular in the afternoon sun, and we had to find a place to eat and sleep. This was particularly important, because the road out had already been closed, and we had no food or shelter.

So, we meandered down the concrete path with a dozen other afternoon "adventurers" and met up with our ride to

Phanom

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Photos

The road in
It looks peaceful enough, but there were hundreds of city drivers in their 4x4s excited about being off a paved road

Thi Ro Su Waterfall
Very nice waterfall, there's no doubt about it. Which is why I was sharing this viewing platform with 30 other people -- at the end of the day. Peak hour would be god-awful.

Naitt walks across the third level
Braving the 50 foot fall, Naitt makes her way across the top of the waterfall. It's not as dangerous as it looks, because it's sedimentary rock, which isn't slippery.

The third level of Thi Ro Su
After taking

The headman and me
I enjoyed having a drink of the local firewater with the headman and a couple of his labourers.

Our guide
He was a wonderful kid, with just two faults -- he didn't understand a word of Thai, and didn't understand why this big white guy took so long to shimmy down logs and jump over waterfalls.