almost chet kot (215km): 21-feb-2009

i've been bombing around the ban cha om, grok e-dok, khaeng khoi area over the last year or so and i always wanted to see the "famous" chet kot waterfall--famous in that it was once written up in the bangkok post. after re-reading the article and pouring over google earth i finally found a route there that didn't require going up to thap khwang district first (there are only a couple of small signs pointing the way on the main road and pretty much no signage once you get onto the smaller roads so it's kind of hard to figure out on the ground):


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as you can see from the map (and you know, the title of this posting) i didn't quite make it there. the paved road i was following turned into a dirt one quite a distance from the waterfall (with the additional fun of a couple of dog packs that tried to run me down just where the road turned to dirt). i got various advice about the length of the dirt bits from people around the area (all the way from less than 2km all the way up to "don't bother trying") so i left it at that.

along the way i stumbled on this awesome forest monastery (Wat Pa Sawang Boon) that i had noticed on google earth. turns out to be quite a place. i hadn't really planned on visiting it (other than "what the heck is that" when i saw it in google earth) but i stopped to talk to some folks near there (asking about the road condition) and these folks more or less insisted i visit the temple. glad i took their advice.

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