Thailand May 14 / 15: Hiking in Namtok Chet Sao Noi National Park / Wat Pha Sorn Kaew (Monastery)

We've hit the part of the trip that feels like a bit of a whirlwind as we are only in various sites for 1 or 2 nights at a time. As I sat down to write this post, it took me a minute to remember which hotel we were at this morning.

Okay, so backing up a few days. After arriving in Khao Yai, I made what is now becoming an annual mistake of assuming we were hiking in Khao Yai National Park (made the same mistake last year). The entrance to KYNP was/is very far away from our hotel, the Raintree Residence, and it didn't make sense to drive hours (after driving a lot of hours) to the park entrance only to turn around and drive right back in the opposite direction. That said, KYNP is a very large area, and our hotel provided views of the land that would be encompassed by the park designation. 

My co-instructor Han and me. Khao Yai in the background.

And we still got to visit a national park! Just...a different one, and much closer to our hotel. Also, side note--for the second year in a row, I managed to not take any pictures of the Raintree Residence, which is a super bummer because it's a very, very cool hotel with some neat features on the property, such as an Archimedes Screw, a tandem bike that powers a water wheel, etc. 

Students hanging out in one of the reading nooks at the Raintree. Photo credit: Isabel Crofts

Anyway, moving on. We spent the morning at Namtok Chet Sao Noi National Park, a small(ish) park featuring a 7-tiered waterfall on the Muak Lek River. Interestingly enough, while most foreign tourists tend to visit Khao Yai NP because it's bigger and more well-known, NCSN National Park seems to be much more popular with the local Thais and is basically located in the same area. Our group did a mile-ish hike around the waterfalls before stopping to swim for an hour. Apparently one of our students heard (or saw?) a pit viper fall out of a tree and chase a lizard. That sounds *rad* and I wish that I would have seen it!

[insert "Chasing Waterfalls" joke here]

Lots of banyan trees and roots on either side of the river

A little bit about the park:

From what I could gather from interpretive signs, In 1953, after the Ministry of Agriculture ordered the Royal Forest Department (equivalent to our USFS) to restore the area. The King saw this area as one with great potential for the Thai people to use recreationally (the park sign was translated to "to cause people to picnic"). In 1979, there was a pretty hefty reforestation effort to restore the surrounding forest. It received its National Park designation in 2016. 

While students were swimming, I opted out of the rock scrambling because of my recently-repaired ACL and took another lap on the trail. I'm glad I did because I got to see the park at what seemed like full capacity near the main entrance. Hundreds of local Thai families swimming, having picnics--it was very cool. It was crowded, but not in a "hiking the Delicate Arch trail on a Saturday in May" sort of way.

We spent the rest of the afternoon getting to max and relax back at the Raintree and I'm confident that in addition to swimming and socializing, students spent some of their free time responding to our journal prompts :)

Today, we left Khao Yai to travel to Petchabun Province, where we ate lunch at Pino Latte restaurant and visited Wat Pha Sorn Kaew (Monastery). 

Lunch at Pino Latte. Photo credit: Noi B. Vera

Wat Pha Sorn Kaew is a relatively new monastery; construction was completed around 2004 and it received its formal designation as a Buddhist temple in 2010. It is really, REALLY hard to find information about this Wat online. We've asked students to do a little Sherlocking to explore questions that they had specific interest in. For example, here are a few of mine:

1) What is the significance of the 5 Buddha?

They represent the 5 Buddha that went down to earth (source). The tallest statue is approximate 7 stories tall.

"The majestic Five Buddha Shrine Hall was designed by Master Amnart Opaso (Wat Pha Sorn Khaew’s founder) as a dedication to the traditional five Buddhas who visited the Earth and as a merit for King Bhumibol Adulyadej on his 85th birthday." (source)

2) What is the design style of this Wat?

Students touring the grounds and admiring the 5 million mosaic pieces

"A mix of Catalan modernism and Indochinese Buddhist architecture."  (source). There are more than 5 million mosaic tiles within the walls, floors, and ceiling of the Wat.

3) The main prayer hall has a large reclining Buddha (a similar pose to the Buddha in Wat Pho). What's the significance of the reclining pose? 

(Note: I didn't take a picture of the large reclining Buddha in the main prayer hall, but this image contains a Buddha in a similar pose)

"The posture of the reclining Buddha is referring to the pose of a sleeping or reclining lion presenting entry into complete spiritual enlightenment through the ending of all worldly desires. (source)

Okay, I'll keep my questions to a minimum because I would hate to deprive our students of the opportunity to conduct further research :) :) :)

After leaving the Wat, we checked in at the Imperial Phukeaw Hill Resort, which was/is still one of my favorite places that we stay on this trip. It's like...if the Shire were in Asia and on a steep-ass hill.

Imperial Phukeaw Hill Resort

Students had free-time the rest of the day. Some of us took a short (but uphill) hike to Phukeaw Peak, which has a little park on the top of it that is like...kind of eagle-themed maybe? Or bird-themed? Either way, it's a lovely little park and gives great views of Petchabun province. 

I've been trying to branch out with my pun attempts on this trip

Westminster should consider a similar set of photo wings on our campus...

We had dinner at the hotel's restaurant and enjoyed the dulcet sounds of an evening rainstorm.

Tomorrow, we'll drive to Sukhothai for another quick layover before making our way up to Chiang Mai.

Shoutouts:

-Alysha--thanks for reading! Thai pancakes when we get back.

-Kamiya's grandmother, I know your grandchild isn't on the trip this year, but it would absolutely make my day to find out that you still read this blog on occasion :)

-(Besides Kjarsten), the person that I miss most is Kathryn J. and wish you were here!