We were up early in Kanchanaburi to head to Erawan Falls. Erawan Falls is somewhere I have always wanted to visit, with its impressive waterfall levels being on most tour itineraries for Thailand and lists of natural wonders. I have always heard people link Kanchanaburi and Erawan Falls together and whilst we did visit from the town I didn’t realise how far away from it it was. A lot of people do tours from Bangkok that link the two up or stay closer to the park itself in the state of Kanchanaburi not the town. To get to the park we rented a scooter from a nearby shop (200B for the day) and grabbed some breakfast croissants and drinks from 7/11 before we set off on the 1 hour journey to get to Erawan national park (you can also get a bus from Kanchanaburi that goes to/from the park but then you are limited by the time it goes/ you want to leave).
The road to get to the park was in good condition and the scenery was lovely but with no other stops it felt like a very long journey on the scooter before we got there. On the way we passed quite a lot of other accommodation options that are further up the river or on lakes as well as a lot of raft restaurants that get pulled along on the water. We also passed through other national park areas and nature reserves where there are several elephant sanctuaries. A lot of the road had yellow warning signs for elephants which is fun although we didn’t actually see any.
Once we made it to Erawan national park we paid 300B each national park fee each and 20B for parking before then continuing to follow google maps for another 10 minutes to the parking area/ entrance specifically for the falls. Around the entrance there was the bus stop, parking and several local cafes/ restaurants. From the entrance it was a lovely 10-15 minute walk through the forest to get to the lowest level. Erawan falls is still a main attraction for Thais (who don’t pay anywhere near as much for entrance) but often it is families who mainly stay at the lower levels. The falls themselves are made up of 7 levels, some that you are able to swim in but only if you rent and pay for a life jacket on level 1- they are supervised on each level. Similarly if you want to come for a picnic this is only allowed at levels 1 and 2, the rest you cannot take food/drinks up there as they are trying to keep the park clean.
We rented 1 life jacket between us (20 B for 2 hours) and had to leave an ID for it. We decided to tackle all the levels of the falls first and then swim on the way back down when we had earned it! All the levels are equally beautiful in different ways and the whole place was just stunning. The levels are made up of turquoise blue water with lots of different pools and small or large waterfalls and surrounded by jungle. The walk up the first few levels is relatively easy and then the trip from 3-4 involved a lot of upwards steps. The last few levels are also quite spread out so it takes quite of bit of uphil walking/ stairs to get all the way to the top. It was more hardwork than I was anticipating and due to it being very jungy it was also super muggy. This meant by the time we got to the top we were a sweaty mess and were ready to hit the pools. The top pool was a little underwhelming but the ‘I am the Conqueror sign’ made it totally worth it. You probably could dip a lititle bit there but there were tones of mozzies so we decided to choose a different swimming place.
From the top we meandered back down, level 6 you can’t swim as it is just a viewing waterfall so we decided to head to number 5. It worked out well having only one jacket as it meant only one of us went in at a time whilst the other watched the stuff. There aren't lots of places to sit or leave things at the pools so try not to take lots unless you are going to have a group where someone can watch things. I opted to hop in first and the water was so cool and refreshing. Level 5 had a couple of reasonably deep pools and was surrounded by small waterfall shelves. The fish would come and nibble your feet which was fun too. When we had finished at 5 we headed on the long route back to level 4. This pool is probably one of the most famous for tourists as some of the rocks are perfect for sliding in the water. It was quite busy though and we didn’t want to injure ourselves with an hour journey back so opted to head down the steps to the lower levels.
We ended up swimming in level 3 which is a wide pool at the end of the track and has an impressively tall waterfall. Dave even climbed up under it to have a nice seat. We also took a dip in level 2. This is the largest and busiest of the pools. It has a lot of space around it for people to sit and you can have food/drinks at this level. The waterfall heading the pool is not as tall as level three but much wider. There were also some areas where the big fish would nibble at your feet if you fancied it. Just as we had both finished in level 2 we saw the rain start splashing on the water. We quickly packed things away and joined everyone else under the nearest shelter. Although we were wet ourselves we had cameras and things that we didn’t want to get wet! After 10 minutes- the perfect opportunity to eat some snacks we headed back to the first level. We decided we didn’t need to swim here and gave back the lifejacket. By this point we were more knackered than we had imagined we would be and also starving.
On leaving the park we thought we would check the restaurants surrounding the parking areas for food, expecting them to be very expensive. They were actually very reasonably priced places, serving the thais and doing traditional thai food. We chose one at the far end from the park where the guy was friendly and ordered some basic thai dishes for 60B each. Thankfully we had decided to have food first as the rain started pouring again whilst we were inside. Full of spicy food we left the park for the long journey back. The rain held off for the majority of the journey with us onlly having to stop to put rain jackets on for about 10 minutes. We broke the return journey up by stopping for drinks at a 7/11.
On the way back we also stopped to look around some temple ruins that we had seen on the way. These look very similar to those in ayuttha and it was a nice little pit stop. We also grabbed some more snacks from the Big C along the way before we returned the scooter after a long but great day exploring. We had a very quiet evening after that, just going out and finding dinner at a wonton mee bbq pork stand (50B) before getting some rest. We were going to be up early the next morning to get the train to Bangkok!
We were highly impressed with Erawan waterfalls and it did not disappoint in anyway. The place is magical even with it being busy. The entrance is expensive for Thai prices but worth it. You could easily spend the whole day there. The trail is well kept but you are surrounded by beautiful nature and it is hard enough to feel like you have had a workout before you enjoy yourself! The only annonying thing is the fact that you have to get a life jacket and that they only rent them at the bottom level. If you are going to visit, unless you need to do it on a budget lik us then I would suggest staying closer to the park, then you can take advantage of paying the national park fee to drive around and see other sites like the cave included in the park ticket and the dam view. With such a long drive back we didn’t feel like we had time or energy to drive further and then make the drive back even longer. Similarly if you stay outside of Kanchanaburi itself you will likely have a lot nicer accommodation/ scenery.
See you in the next one in Bangkok!
Thanks
Alex
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