Waterfalls

Having safely made it through Death Highway, we checked into a resort in Umphang. Clean enough cabins and really excellent food, which was just as well because Umphang does not seem to offer much in the way of restaurants.

Fish soup and toast for an early breakfast and off in a truck to launch an inflatable into the river.

The next three hours were spent floating down the Mae Klong river, and it was a very enjoyable way of spending the morning; although a stop for coffee would have been appreciated.

Back in the truck, and a very bumpy 15 kilometres which seemed to take for ever, especially as I had declined the offer to sit in the cab and instead sat in the back section; hanging on while my still-fragile back was being banged against various steel bars. I made sure I sat in the front on the return journey.

Finally, we were there; ’there’ being a car park. Then it was camera gear on back and a walk through the jungle and then at last we arrived at the Tee Lor Su waterfall.

There are a lot of waterfalls in Thailand. Head into the countryside and you are guaranteed to see a sign to a “nam tok” at some point. Most are little more than an exaggerated splash; pleasant enough but not impressive. Tee Lor Su is the real deal. You hear it before you see it, and the first you see of it are flashes of white through the tops of the trees. This thing is big, the biggest in Thailand, and wide, and loud.

Photos do not do it justice and, like many large natural objects, do not give the impression of how big it actually is. I took some multi-exposures at different settings and plan to try some HDR at some point; but these are some unprocessed offerings for now:

Also didn’t help that it was midday by the time we arrived so the light was bad; will have to go back again one day.

It was warm and I was sweating and a butterfly decided I tasted good and took residence on my finger for a while. Rather hard to adjust a camera and shoot it with only one hand available.

Then it was 25 kilometres back down the bumpy track, followed by a short road trip before being dropped off back at the resort. Knackering, but a fine way to spend a day.

On the following day we headed back down death highway and stopped at a couple of exaggerated splashes where she who must be obeyed did some tree hugging.

And to balance the watery theme, we stopped off and admired a field of Daoruang flowers:

Comments 🔗

2009-11-10 | Amara at Blue Lagoon says

Beautiful Spike - thanks for sharing this. Wind Pattaya NE starting to build again, may be good for windsurfing on the weekend, though perhaps not enough for kite boarding. Would LOVE to take the Paddle-boards down that river. Perhaps the next SUP adventure?

To see our other SUP adventures - http://www.isup.asia/index.php/sup-adventures#

2009-11-10 | MSB says

Great trip report and awesome photos.

I have never made it up to Umphang despite driving to just about every other corner of Thailand. I will see if the mrs is up for a road trip next month. But i would drive myself- spending hours in the back of that dirty pick up would not be my idea of fun.

2009-11-10 | Spike says

Thanks.

Just to clarify, the back of the dirty pick-up bit was only for the final run to the waterfall. The long ride to Umphang was in the front of my father-in-law’s comparatively clean truck.

2009-11-10 | Martyn says

That is one hell of a beautiful waterfall, I thought the seven tier Erawan Waterfall in Kanchanaburi was awesome but this probably beats it.

I also like the photo second from the bottom, the one of the bee vomiting into the flower. Very nice.

2009-11-10 | Jock says

Pretty amazing … did you land that contract with the Tourism Board Of Thailand yet ???