Many trucks carrying sugar cane from northern Thailand

5 March 2013….The rain is coming down harder and harder, the wipers can’t keep up with the torrents of water hitting the windscreen and the steep winding road has disintegrated to almost a four wheel drive track as it finds its way up this shrouded mountain.  I put the car in its lowest gear, squint my eyes and hope for the best.  If only I had my co-driver next to me for encouragement and advice.  But no, she is in Sydney and here I am 600 km north of Bangkok in a remote national park trying to find out where the communists used to hide out.  As you do.

This is what happens when Julie leaves me in Bangkok to face the rigours of business and bachelor life while she smoothes out the final touches of Anna’s wedding and lives the good life in Sydney.  I am left home alone, as it were, and making a poor couch potato as I do, I head out to the unknown on my lonely weekends.

An amazing little mountain retreat with attached bungalows masquerading as train carraiges

A few weeks ago I scoured the maps of Thailand and its 100 national parks, choosing a day trip to the nearest one we hadn’t visited.  National parks in Thailand are very good value, well maintained, good attractions, food and camping, walking trails, the inevitable waterfalls, all the essentials.   On that particular idle Sunday I chose Chaloen Phrakiat Thai Prachan National Park, a mouthful to say but only a couple hours’ drive to the west just past Ratchaburi.  

The chefs for my lunch in the national park were happy to show off their facilities and smile

This National Park has apparently a scenic waterfall with 11 levels that flows all year round.  But the trick, as I found out on arrival, is that it is a 20 km walk or four wheel drive track to get there.  My Toyota Wish was not up to the challenge but I had a great khao phad gai (chicken fried rice) from a makeshift kitchen under a tarpaulin at the local hot springs while the kids splashed alternatively between the hot natural springs and the cold flowing creek. 

On a more recent weekend, with nothing more to do than explore the northern hinterlands of Thailand, I read of a national park near the Laos border which harboured the fledgling Communist Party of Thailand (CPT) in the late 60’s and 70’s.  Being a sucker for history, national parks and a drive in the countryside I loaded the car and took off. 

After an hour or two of driving north I realised I never actually added up the number of kilometres needed to get to this forgotten historical site.  At the first petrol stop I did the sums – over 500 kms if I didn’t get distracted by other sites of interest.  Which means we’re in for two days of some serious driving. 

The monument to thousands of fallen Thai soldiers at Khao Kho

The highly revered Buddha in Phitsanulok

But driving in Thailand is generally quite good.  As I say, they have some of the best roads and worst drivers in the world.  If you can avoid the drivers and stay on the roads then you’ll be good.  Which led me eventually to Khao Kho which is an obscure mountain top past the town of Phetchabun where the government has placed a memorial to all the Thai soldiers who died fighting the communists years ago.  The monument and the view from the top of this hard to reach mountain was worth the drive.

Self portrait of me hanging out with my mates in Phitsanulok

Prayer candles at a temple in Phitsanulok

As the story goes, in the 1960’s the Chinese government funded a number of start-up communist groups in nearby Asian countries.  Given the political and military turmoil of Thailand this was a fertile ground for them.  A group was formed in these lawless remote mountains, funded and armed by the Chinese, and they built a formidable post against the luckless Thai military. 

A military outpost near Khao Kho

From 1968 to 1982 the CPT held their ground and at one stage grew to over 4,000 soldiers, many of them students who ran from Bangkok after the bloody student riots in 1976 which saw government troops kill many protesting young people.  A town sprang up with schools, training facilities, barracks and a hospital.  But eventually, inevitably, the Thai military got their measure and after more undocumented bloodshed the CPT was finally over-run and the group was disbanded.  The government turned the area into a national park which was justified by its beautiful surroundings and probably gave them a good cover to make sure nothing started up there again.  Still to this day I’ve never seen so many military trappings in a national park.  Sort of adds to the atmosphere.

The old communist school grounds and buildings - a remote and beautiful setting

Unfortunately the weather on this mountain top was dreadful and after battling through the aforementioned rain storm up a scary steep and winding mountain track I found the key site for exploring the remnants of this communist outpost. I was over 1,000 metres high and the air was coolish, mainly driven by the huge rain.  Unfortunately to see the main sites involved a one hour trek through the bush and with pouring rain, thunder and lightning above me and the trail better equipped for white water rafting I abandoned ship, so to speak, and headed back home.

Another sign of the global village

This part of northern Thailand is often forgotten by the visitors because there are so many options for mountains, beach, history, culture and shopping in Thailand.  And fair enough because even with an avid appetite for exploration this area near Phitsanulok barely made my list.  But I’d love to come back some day because in addition to exploring the history of this particular park there are a number of world class national parks near at hand, all with dozens of gushing waterfalls if you pick the right season, and the natural beauty leaves you breathless.  You can’t see everything but you can try.

A local woman from the Hmong hill tribe selling strawberries on the side of the road

Over these two days I drove an amazing 1,100 kms over a vast array of roads and scenery.  And on the long drive home through the fertile fields of this area which mainly specialised in corn, sugar cane, tamarinds, mangoes, rubber trees, and the ubiquitous rice fields I saw again why Thailand prospers as a strong agriculture producer and how ultimately, despite big and brash Bangkok, this is a rural society living off and prospering from its rich soils and hardworking farmers. 

There are always helpful road signs on the long drive

And I also now confirm that you can drive past water buffalo idly grazing in old rice paddies while singing loudly to Bob Seger on the CD.  At that moment I was glad I didn’t have my co-driver with me.