Defining change
- Published: 11/02/2010 at 12:00 AM
- Newspaper section: Horizons
Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary is a delightful scattering of colours in the cool season.
Red leaves of maple trees carpeting entire mountain sides, valleys and forest floor this time of the year pull in thousands of visitors to Phu Kradung National Park in Loei. However, there is another place nearby _ Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary _ that offers easier access and a more spectacular profusion of maples and flowers of virtually every shade imaginable.
Loei is 558 kilometres northeast of Bangkok, and the sanctuary with its thick cover of red rhododendrons, wild flowers and orchids is vibrant with colours in the cool season.
Phu Luang was the start of our exploratory tour of attractions located off Highway 203, which connects the districts of Phu Rua and Dan Sai, marked by several stops interspersed with treks along nature trails.
Actually in Phu Rua district you see decorative plants and flowers sold in pots by local vendors along the highway all time of the year. In fact the length of the road as it cuts through the district looks like a long flower belt. You can buy the flowers at half the price they are sold in Bangkok.
Off Highway 203 is a local road leading to Phu Rua National Park that has tourist bungalows as well as an area where visitors can pitch tents. The road is in good condition and the park is also a popular picnic spot for locals. One road sign pointing to the park is conspicuous by its prominent thermometer, as if needing to tell visitors to Phu Rua that here they can enjoy cool breeze all year round.
West of the park on the road to Dan Sai sits one of the district's popular landmarks, Phra That Si Song Rak, a pagoda built in the Ayutthaya period as mark of goodwill between the rulers of Ayutthaya and Lan Xang, now part of Laos. Not far from the temple is the Phi Ta Khon Museum at Phonchai Temple where you can learn the origins of the province's annual Phi Ta Khon ghost mask festival held in the month of June or July and how the masks and dresses used in the festival are made.
Driving back to Loei town, if you have spare time, check out the scenery at Huay Krathing reservoir, vast and noted for its quiet ambience, where locals like to go to relax and enjoy fishing.
Loei is a mountain province with an area of 11,424 square kilometres, and blessed with several other attractions worth a visit. But for now let's just enjoy the cool season.
Loei town is 558km northeast of Bangkok and Dan Sai is 82km from the provincial capital. The closest airport is Khon Kaen; from there you can get a direct bus to Loei.
- Buses to Phu Rua are available in Loei town. For more information about Phu Rua National Park, visit the website http://www.dnp.go.th/parkreserve or call 042-807-624/5.
- Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary: call 042-841-566 for details.
- For accommodation and maps, visit the Tourism Authority of Thailand's website at http://www.tourismthailand.org or call its Loei office at 042-812-812 and 042-811-405.
Children generally find the Phi Ta Khon festival scary, but here at the Phi Ta Khon Museum at Wat Phonchai they seem to have a great time touching the ghost masks on display. Opening in 2004, the museum was built to disseminate visitors information about the festival—including the making of ghost masks and its history using graphics and photos—held in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, in June or July, every year.
Surrounded by giant plumeria trees and 32 metres tall, Phra That Si Song Rak was built during 1560-1563 to mark the goodwill between Kings Maha Chakkraphat of Ayutthaya and Chai Chetthathirath of Lan Xang (now part of Laos). Erected on a hill by the Man River, the white chedi was the accepted demarcation line between the two kingdoms. Visitors coming to pray at the pagoda not only offer flowers and incense sticks but also pyramid-shaped ‘ton phueng’, made from banana trunk and adorned with wax flowers, used when paying respect to the deceased and seeking their blessings. Like chedis elsewhere, women are barred from its inner sanctum, as are red dresses and flowers, the colour seen as symbolic with blood and violence.
These cold-climate flowers and plants mean Phu Rua is endowed with fertile soil. Local farmers have been growing begonia, red and white Christmas trees, roses, ‘dao ruang’, ‘bua sawan’ and other varieties for a decade now, and selling them at very affordable prices. A bag of begonia or ‘dao ruang’ costs five baht, white and red Christmas trees 10 and 25 baht respectively, and the prices are negotiable if buying in lots. Also, the flowers occasionally find their way to shops in Bangkok and Nonthaburi. Colourful flowers lining both sides of Highway 203 make it one of the most scenic in Thailand.
These cute knitted hats are unique to Loei. Shops are set both sides of Highway 201 at Pha Nok Khao where available is ‘songthaew’ service to Phu Kradung National Park. Handknitted by a group of housewives, each costs about 100 baht and bear cute designs such the face of a rabbit or panda. Apart from keeping cold away, they also make memorable souvenir items.
Only the eastern part of Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary is open to tourists. Clean accommodation and trekking guides are available but visitors need to inform in advance. Also rich in flora, even a short trek will bring you face to face with exotic flowers and plants including lichens, moss and ferns as the weather is cool most of the year. The highest point in the sanctuary, home to 210 species of birds and wildlife, is 1,500 metres above sea level. The best time for a visit is October to May when flowers are in full boom and nature enthusiasts arrive in hordes.
Straddling 120.84 square kilometres Phu Rua National Park, like Phu Kradung and Phu Luang Wildlife Sanctuary, is a famous mountain destination in Loei. Its summit rises to an altitude of 1,350 metres but you need not walk all the way, because there is ‘songthaew’ service from the park office to the top—a distance of 800 metres. The fare is 10 baht per person. Visitors like to pose for pictures at the park signpost. The best place to watch sunset is Ya Hai cliff or Suan Hin Pa Lee, while sunrise is best admired from Da Cho and Loan Noi cliff.
Phu Rua can be the coldest place in Thailand, the mercury sometimes dropping below zero in winter. But those extremes aside, it is certainly one place in Thailand that stays cool all year round, as this roadside thermometer would testify. Motorists often stop by the thermometer for a photo shoot, just as they would do when face to face with these roadside trees in the park designed to convey the message of a white Christmas.
These rows of huts without windows off Highway 203 are not tourists lodges but shitake farms growing edible mushroom called ‘hed hom’ in Thai. Suthon, one of the owners, right, poses with the produce, ripe and ready for harvest. It pays her well: a kilogramme of shitake costs 160 baht and she sells about 5kg daily. The farm near the KM 42 marker is seven kilometres from Phu Rua town.
This scenic Huay Nam Man reservoir at Ban Huay Krathing sits about 11kilometres from Loei town on the way to Phu Rua district. There is a sign on the road guiding motorists to the entrance to the reservoir. For accommodation, there is a choice of bungalows as well as raft houses that go for 300 baht a night. Rafting service is also available, a three-hour cruise on the reservoir costing 500 baht, excluding food and drinks.
About the author
- Writer: Karnjana Karnjanatawe
- Position: Reporter
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