Wandergliding: Phenomenal Phraya Nakhon Cave

February 13^th, 2025

Light winds were predicted for today, so no kitesurfing. Knowing that, I had rented a scooter yesterday so I would be ready for an early star. I had seen online a cave that definitely looked like it was worth checking out, called Phraya Nakhon. The pictures I saw were amazing, I had to check it out.

It took about half an hour to ride to the entrance, with nice scenery along the way, some of it along the coastline.

On my scooter ride to the cave.

Some beautiful landscapes.

An inlet with some fishing boats.

Foreigners are charged 200 baht ($8-9) for an entrance ticket while locals pay 40 baht. You have an option to take a boat around a promontory, to save some walking. I heard that a round trip on the boat was 400 baht but I didn’t even confirm that as I wanted to hike. The trail climbed up to the point of the small peninsula, and then back down again and it only took me 15 minutes to get to Laem Sala Beach, where the boats drop the tourists off.

Starting my hike to the other beach.

The trail...sometimes I found it easier to walk on the concrete divider than the rock path.

The view on my way up over the promontory,

Gorgeous.

Coming down from the 15 minute walk over the promontory, I liked seeing this sign: "Your health is still strong".

After a brief walk through a forest by the water, the trail started up a hillside. It was relatively steep, mainly with rock steps, but it was not as strenuous or long as the hike I did in Nong Khiaw a few weeks ago. The path then leveled off and descended into the first of two caves, more like caverns. It had only taken me 35 minutes to walk there from the entrance, a lot faster than the lady at the entrance claimed it should take to another tourist..

Here we go!

The first chamber was impressive, probably 150 feet down from the surface with a large hole at the top, allowing some trees to grow in the middle of the cavern.

It was impressive right off the bat.

It might be hard to discern in this photo, but the lighter coloured area in the middle of the photo is the entrance to the first cave, before the one with the temple.

This is a "frozen waterfall". The calcium deposits from water dripping over many years caused it to look like a waterfall frozen in time.

These trees probably receive an hour or two of direct sunlight a day...but they make a go of it.

Wow...and this isnt' even the best bit.

But the second cavern…WOW! It was massive, also open at the top. There’s a little temple called the Kuha Karuhas Pavilion near the entrance. I had read online that it was best to be there around 10:30-11 in the morning, to watch the rays of the sun light up the structure, and I was right on time.

The main cavern. Look at the scale of it...see the human at the bottom right?

There were about 20 other tourists, and no one was speaking. The place felt like you were in a church…it was quite peaceful.

I almost felt like I was in an Indiana Jones movie!

This photo is tough to see the scale of what we're looking at...but find the woman! (it's like Where's Waldo?)

The hole to the surface must be at least 300 feet up.

After wandering around the cordoned off temple, I walked over to the far side of the cave and climbed up a small mound of dirt. It was the perfect place to take in the illumination of the shrine.

Now try and find the temple. I read online that to truly appreciate the size of the cavern, you had to head to a small mound to the left of the temple...and yeah, it was an interesting perspective.

The temple getting lit up in the sunlight in the lower right of the photo.

I lucked out with this photo, as I propped my phone up against my backpack on a rock, put on the timer, and actually got this on the first attempt.

Twenty minutes later, I ambled around the perimeter of the cave, took more photos, and then started my walk back. By this time there were many more visitors, and the serene atmosphere was gone as many of them were talking.

The tallest tree was probably at least 80 feet high...pretty impressive. It would be cool to be in this cave when it was raining.

If you can see the little white string in the middle, this was a strand dangling down from a tree from the top of the rim of the cave. Unfortunately it was just a foot or so higher than I could grab onto it...otherwise I would have gone hand over hand to get out of the cave! ;)