Massage please

Don't enlarge this picture!

About 10 km south of Suk Samran, on Thailands Highway 4 between Ranong and Takua Pa, just north of a bridge, an attentive passer-by will see a wearied and worried signboard, pointing inland, inwards to Suan Mai waterfall, part of Sri Phang Nga National Park, home to many new and unknown waterfalls.
The small road first passes some kampong houses, crosses a bridge and slowly climbs up through rubber and palm oil plantations, interspersed with some durian orchards, ripe for the picking.
The road deteriorates, then improves. After deteriorating again, one needs to continue going straight in a sharp left hand corner. The road gets steep and enters a protected environment with what was once a parking area before a steep hairpin to an office with some tired looking government staff.

After stepping out of the car, one hears the rushing stream. Following a wide track and then a smaller track along a waterpipe, the 10 minute ‘trek’ ends at the foot of a nice 20 m high waterfall, Suan Mai.

Beneath the fall is a great pool to cool off and swim up for a natural back massage. Another nice find.

The surroundings are still very natural and pristine, despite the relative accessibility of these falls from the highway.


Interesting background knowledge is the website of the Andaman coast community tourism. It highlights some lesser well known waterfalls near Kuraburi. Other than this mention there is not much other information on the internet, it's very far away from anything remotely touristic, but as said a great find.

Chambok revisited

Chambok has been visited in the past, see this posting. Not much has changed since, which if paying $3 you would think that some improvement had occurred in 4 years! But not.

Yesterday's visit with friends was a delight. Heavy overnight rain had replenished the surroundings and the water was crashing down. Some new signboards are up encouraging everyone to help in keeping the spot clean, though trash hadn't been collected in quite some time.

In Chambok itself the Romantic Waterfall Cafe (and mini guesthouse) has opened business run by the charming Puoh. Expect not too much, drinks are beer, wine, cokes and coffee. He did put in lot's of effort in his hastily arranged fried rice.

Alt programme

While heading out for the Candi Sukuh temple complex in Central Java (see photo above), my eye caught hold of a signpost announcing Jumog waterfall. After a quick discussion with that day’s guide and we were pulling up into the small car-park precariously located on the edge of the ravine.

It being early morning, life still had to kick in, but at least the ticket officer was open. We paid the fee (3,000 INR apparently community run), made a U-turn and walked down the steep stairway leading into the ravine until we reached the valley floor.

Here there was a kiddies water park normally river fed, but now (still?) empty. Across the river the well-cemented paths continued. Everything was still in the process of getting cleaned, though it was very apparent that almost all cleaning work had taken place, the area being nearly spotless. Past some stalls still in the process of opening up, one comes to the cliff face where the approximately 30m high waterfall thunders down. Swimming possibilities are available under the waterfall as well as further downstream. even a kiddies pool is available.
Air Terjun Jumog made a great impression, one of the better managed sites in Southeast Asia.


As said we continued on to the top of the ridge to the Candi Sukuh temple (entrance fee 10,000 INRs, nearly a $US) and then walked two hours along fields and through cloves plantations to another waterfall, named Grojogan Sewu.

All are best accessed through Tawangmangu, a town reknown for it’s cool climate as it sits between the Lawu and Kukusan mountains. Tawangmangu sits on the road from Solo to Magetan and can be best accessed from Solo.

Visiting the 15th century Candi Sukuh temple is certainly worthwhile; it’s not so big, nor overrun (as say Bororbodur). A Hindu-Buddist temple, it seems to include various animism elements. Further away (nearly 10 km from Candi Sukuh) is the Candi Celo temple from the same era.

Outstanding

Chambok in Kampong Speu province is slowly becoming one of Cambodia's more well known waterfall destinations. The uniqueness lies not in the waterfall itself , but in the way the waterfall and surrounding forest is being managed by the community itself. Mlup Baitong, a national NGO trying to protect forests and the environment has been working for years with the local population to get up clear systems for management and the project is known as Chambok Community Based Eco-Tourism project.

One way it stands out from other waterfalls in Southeast Asia is that the entrance is nearly an hour's walk from the waterfall, visitors meant to walk or cycle to the falls. Entrance fees are paid and assist the community both in improvements and development projects. Additional services are guiding and home-stay.

From the national highway four (towards Sihanoukville) one takes the turn to Kirirom National Park in the non-descript village Treng Trayeung (approx. 2 hours from Phnom Penh. Ten kms down this bumpy tarsealed road and just before the national park entrance, an unpaved road veers off to the right. Again 10 kms further takes you to Chambok. A parking place and ticket office (entrance fee $3) are all apparent.

The walk to the falls is nice. The falls itself drop 15-20m over a cliff. Unfortunately there is no pool underneath, the falls hitting the rocks below. Further down stream there are a few smaller but deeper pools, good enough for a dip.

A warning, do not visit on national holidays as the place can become packed and noisy.

More info on Kirirom National Park in particular is to found here.

Visited 2007. An update from December 2010.