My friend and I had seen pictures of Loei and loved the look of this mountainous, not-so-touristy, northern Thai province. We impulsively booked flights while on a train elsewhere and up until the day before, didn’t do much research other than looking at photos on Instagram. Filled with confidence after my friend read a blog that assured us that Phu Kradueng was an easy stroll up the mountain (his Grandparents managed it no problem), we headed off one Saturday morning.
Arriving at the bottom of the mountain we discovered the best thing: a porter service for our bags! It costs 30 THB per kg to have someone carry your bag up to the campsite. A service definitely worth paying for. The guys who carry your bags up are crazy strong.
We happily set off for our hike, with (stupidly) small bottles of water. 20 minutes later we were considered quitting and heading back! The first km is hard going. It’s very steep and slippery with little shade. In fact, it turned out that the whole trail was a lot tougher and further than we had assumed (approx. 9km from the start to the campsite). The trail is only actually open from 7am to 2pm to ensure that people have the time to get to the top before the sun sets. It’s also best to start early in the morning when it’s cooler…we started at 1pm.
Anyway, we gave ourselves a pep talk at the first rest stop and pushed on. The first km was actually the toughest part and the rest was a lot easier. We were concerned about the last km as it looked very steep on the map but that was our favourite part. The air was much cooler and it was fun to scramble over large boulders. I even saw a real tarantula as it scurried back into it’s hidey-hole! (disclaimer: this was not my favourite part)
We were elated to have made it to the top.
…..only to then find out that we had to walk another 3km to the campsite….and that the incredible view point we wanted to watch sunset from was another 9km! It turns out that the top of the mountain is a massive plateau (area of about 60 km²). There are multiple trails to different viewpoints and waterfalls for which you can hire bicycles to reach. There are no cars or mopeds. The campsite itself was incredibly well organised. We quickly paid for a tent already set up, hired a mat, sleeping bag and pillow before heading to rent bicycles to get to a view point (with only 20 minutes till sunset!).
There are a few places to eat (Thai food, obviously) and if you’re lucky you might even have a guest to join you!
For sunrise, a ranger meets you at 5am and guides you to the edge of the mountain. It was windy and bloody freezing. Bring a jacket!
It took us a few hours to get down the mountain later in the morning and unfortunately we didn’t have time to make it to Chiang Khan, as had been our plan for the rest of the day. A trip for another time. However, we enjoyed driving around aimlessly for a while before stopping at a reservoir with an unusual dining option for lunch – floating on a raft.
If you’re interested in hiking, I would definitely recommend Phu Kradueng. It was a good level of challenge (for two people who are not regular gym attendees!) and we felt fantastic when we had got to the top of the mountain. I would recommend either getting there very early or staying in the campsite for 2 nights. We felt like there was a lot to explore on the plateau that we didn’t have time for. Over the two days we hiked, walked and biked about 24 km……which gave me an excuse not to go to the gym for the rest of the week!
MangoYim 