Erawan National Park, Kanchanaburi Province
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We at thailandecoportal.com have just returned from a magnificent trip to Kanchanaburi province! The area just has an immense amount of nature to be explored. Our first trip last year took us to Thong Pha Phoom National Park closer toward the Myanmar boarder and we loved it! We loved it so much we decided to come back to a slightly different location which is probably one of Thailand’s most visited national Parks, Erawan National Park.
Founded in 1975 Erawan National Park is one of the best maintained National Parks Thailandecoportal.com has visited. It is open all year and a mere 70 scenic kilometers drive from the hustle and bustle of Kanchanburi town. A brief word of warning, beware to watch out for wild elephants along the way as they are known to stumble across the road and if you are on a bike or maybe even in a car or bus, the Elephant is still definatly going to win!! 
The National Park itself has ample parking and eating opportunities around the car park, fantastic BBQ chicken, somtam (papaya salad) fresh fruits and other local Thai treats are available for those of you that arrive a little peckish. The restrooms are easily accessible and of a good standard and on arrival you are likely to be met by many local Thai tourists picnicking in the back of their pickup trucks in the car park and generally lazing the day away!
Open all year round and covering 550 square kilometers, there are a staggering of absolutely stunning waterfalls and some great interpretive trails.
Of these trails is the Khao Hin Lan Pee (roughly translated as: The Mountain of the million year old stone) trail. This trail heads past 7 different levels of waterfall before you reach the top and have to head back down. You can only take food as far as level 2 where there are picnic tables and chairs. Please be aware that you have to “check in” all bottles and pay a 20 THB per bottle fee which is returned when you return the bottle to the headquarters for recycling on leaving the park. This is a great idea and the only place we at thailandecoiporal.com have seen this, the staff are all very environmentally conscientious, this is important for such a beautiful area and one that is so frequently used. 
We highly recommend you head up to level 7, which can take some time (up to 3 hours for any person of normal health there and back) as if you only stay at the bottom 2 levels you are guaranteed to be sharing the area with many other local tourists as it can get quite busy early on. Great fun but if you want to see the parks true beauty it definatly has to be from the top! The trail can get steep and we were very pleased not to have to continue any further when we reached the top. A moment of joy was had when we realized that we were the only ones to have made it that far, only then can the true mystery of this place take hold. If you don’t want to trek all the way to the top, no worries, it is still great to swim in the waters of the second level and this is probably one of the most beautiful waterfalls of the whole area.
This area also holds quite a few interesting caves but they are not that easily accessible without private transportation (ask at the headquarters how and if this is possible on the day or on your arrival).
Thailandecoportal.com's recommendation for visiting Erawan National Park is to arrive in the morning from Kanchanaburi and arrange your accommodation at the visitor center which is open 24 hours a day and has heaps of options for overnight stays. This ranges from camping in tents to air conditioned rooms with kitchens for those of you into cooking! It is best to book on arrival before checking out the park or if possible in advance, otherwise you will have to just pick up what rooms are left, if any (rooms can get quite busy so we recommend securing your accommodation as soon as possible). After sorting out your accommodation for the night, head up to the 2nd level which is around a 20 minute walk (or 40 minutes if you like taking pictures like us!!)and have a packed lunch at the waterfall. After relaxing and generally taking in the atmosphere head on up to the 7th level (again this will take you around 3 hours to get there and back!). Along the way there are many places to stop and relax, cool down with a swim or take pictures of the surrounding birds, butterflies and plants. When you reach the top, dip your feet in to cool off and let the fish nibble at your toes (they are only small!)before heading back down via the interpretive trail. This leads away from level 4 back to the headquarters bypassing the other waterfalls (which you will have seen on the way up). Hunt for some food from one of the many food vendors at the headquarters and carpark to refuel and settle in for a night under the stars or from the front of your room. Heaven. 
The following day we recommend to head back to level 2 before 8 am and the crowds. With some luck, you will be the first ones at the pool and can have this absolutely beautiful waterfall all to yourself for a few moments before the first of the day tourists arrive. Mid morning check out and make for Kanchanburi town or if you are not ready to head back to the town just yet spend the afternoon visiting the many different caves surrounding the Lam Khlong Ngu lake. There is also plenty of accommodation around here and we definitely recommend this. The price of accommodation varies with the level and our favorite is around the lake on one of the many floating rafthouses. Prices start from 1500 THB including meals and some water based activities. Other food, snacks and drinks are available too although you will have to pay extra for these. There are also many other activities available from, swimming, tubing, bamboo rafting or just relaxing! ask at the reception of the place you are planning to stay and we are sure they can arrange something for you.
If you follow this plan you are sure to have a great time like us. Take your time, talk to the people, share in their laughter and experience their nature. It wasn’t the first and won’t be the last of our trips to Kanchanburi, one of the great nature locations of Thailand. Enjoy!
