Having visited the Khao Sam Roi Yot and Kui Buri national parks, we left our last night’s camping spot by Pran Buri Lake and started on a long drive to the Palau Waterfall.
If you want to reach the falls directly from Hua Hin, that’s a straightforward 75-km ride on a good paved road. But as we set about to reach there through the mountains of the hinterland, it was quite an adventure. It took us nearly half a day driving through a mesh of bumpy dirt roads, many of which were under repair, so that we have to compete for road space with numerous cement trucks, until we made it to Palau Village.
Before heading to the waterfall, we had a cup of coffee in a nice cafe by a pond dubbed as Elephant Drinking Ground. We patiently waited for some drinking elephants to show up, but apparently, they weren’t that very thirst on that day.
On our way to the falls, we also stopped for lunch at a cute little restaurant named Chai Khao, located right at the beginning of the road to Palau Waterfall. The food was delicious and inexpensive, and the owners were exceptionally friendly and good-humored. Nobody visiting Palau should omit to pay a visit to their lovely place. It was they who let us know that, exactly as we already suspected, the waterfall was at the time closed for visitors due to the Coronavirus lockdown. It was a great pity. We considered a trespassing attempt but, partly owing to the strong rain that poured incessantly, we decided to just give it up.
We rode the bike and got on the main road straight down to Hua Hin. The nightfall met us in Ban Nong Phlap village. We stopped there to get some supplies and headed to the shore of Huai Mai Tai Lake situated nearby to spend the night. We pitched the tent on a nice grassy spot near the shore and hit the hay right away.
After being aroused by the noise of some rushing vehicles early in the morning, the quiet was soon reinstated. We spent a few idle hours by the lakeshore, took some pictures, read a bit, and got on our way back to Hua Hin.
