Photography Thailand Forum

[Marc Schultz]

Atop a mountain in Chaiyapoom Province (342 kilometers from Bangkok) in the months of June/July there is a national park where these unique flowers know in Thai as “Krachiao” flowers bloom. The area is actually a national park called Pa Hin Ngam National Park.

I had gone up there early in the morning right at sunrise only to find the park completely covered in fog. Luckily I had a warm jacket with me. Amazing that anywhere in Thailand would require a warm jacket during the summer months. And the feel of the whole place was completely mystical!

It is definitely worth a trip for photography. Just wish I knew the name of those flowers in English?

[Konthai]

Nice!
You make me miss Phu Kradung National Park.

[boazbangkok]

veeeeery nice :)
you got it just before the elves and faries came...

[Josh White]

Looks like a great place for a getaway, I've been looking for a good mountainous area thats nice and cold. Sick of the heat and humidity here in BKK. Sunrise in Khao Yai N.P. was the first time I'd needed long sleeves in Thailand. Nice place to go too, many nice waterfalls.

Josh White

[Marc Schultz]

I just returned to Pa Hin Ngam National Park yesterday where the "Krachiao” flowers are in full bloom right now. This time I spent a bit more time driving around the area and I discovered it is a beautiful mountainous region that grows lots of corn and raises cows in the hills. In many ways it looks a lot like Chiang Rai. There are also a lot of farmers planting rice a long the way to take picture of as well as a waterfalls at another national park about 75 kilometers away.

[Marc Schultz]

Attached is another shot of the photo below that I had shot in July of 2001. The shot attached here, shot yesterday shows the trees have not changed much, although there weren't a lot of the Krachiao flowers blooming in that area of the hill this time. The shot probably also looks a bit different because the first shot was taken with one of the first generation DSLR cameras from Canon and the shot yesterday was taken with a much more recent DSLR camera.

[ChangFai]

Marc
The TAT translate these flowers as a Siam Tulip .

http://www.tourismthailand.org/activitiescalendar/detail.aspx?group=monthly&id=138

[Marc Schultz]

Thank you ChangFai. That is interesting information.

[Renato]

Simply  beautiful in all respect, great shots Marc considering you went there again to show the difference. The recent photo is just spectacular with the Siam tulips blanketing the ground. I noticed the rocks have changed their formation too.

[Chris Savery]

Hi Marc,

My girlfriend says in that area they have these strange land "leeches" that can jump on you and suck your blood...
Sounds bizzarre to me but I wondered if you came across anything like that or heard about them?

Absolutely wonderful photos there (and on your website too!). Will have to plan a trip up there sometime but it sounds like maybe flowering is finished for this year since the rain wasn't that abundant.

Thanks for posting!

Chris :)

[Marc Schultz]

Thanks Chris and welcome to the Forum. Luckily no encounters with leeches! Just the usual flood of mosquitoes at night when staying upcountry.

This year was actually too much rain the park rangers said. The bloom was good, but it flooded the flowers and most of them died earlier than usual.

It is still a wonderful place to visit even without flowers I would say. Definitely worth a trip!

[David Salmanowitz]

Chris--Your girlfriend was accurate talking about the leeches. I remember 8 years ago attending a palm tree conference, where palm nuts like myself spent 2 weeks going around Thailand. In Khao Yai National Park, in the month of September with lots of rain, the leeches were falling out of the trees! One elderly man had the highest number, as he had to remove 17 of the suckers--I guess pun intended.    One thing that seemed to help a bit was rubbing tobacco around the socks, as this seemed to repel them--at least on the ankles. I do not think some of the smokers were happy giving up their cigarettes so we could get at the tobacco.

[Marc Schultz]

I think they may also put an anastetic on the skin so you can feel that the blood is being taken out of the body. Not sure.

[David Salmanowitz]

Marc--There probably is some sort of anesthetic that the leeches apply, as one does not seem to notice them until they are filling up.    I know for sure that they possess some sort of anti-coagulant.