Thailand: Chiang Saen Day 4 -Tham Luang cave

Mountains on route to Tham Luang cave system on the Thai/ Myanmar border

.Unfortunately this road trip was running out of time and getting a little lost on day one didn’t really help us out, still we knew that when we pushed North to the Golden Triangle. But we had one last adventure in us before the long drive home to Chaing  Mai. Rising early we wanted to take in the Tham Luang cave system.

The Tourist truck, it takes you the last 2km to the cave entrance as the locals make you park and drive into the complex via this truck.

.This cave system made international headlines when 12 kids and their assistant coach became trapped on the 23rd June 2018 after entering to explore the cave as part of a birthday celebration.  Unbeknown to them, whilst inside the cave, earlier than expected torrential monsoonal rain in the surrounding mountains of nearby Laos caused partial flooding of the cave system which blocked their exit. The group were forced to retreat into the cave system about 4km because of rising floodwaters. They remained trapped for 9 days with little food or water until they were found on the 2nd July by specialist rescue divers. As part of the rescue effort one former Thai navy seal died whilst bringing supplies to the rescue effort and it’s reported another died due to complications from infections acquired during the rescue. 

Tham Luang cave, a large cave system world famous after a local soccer team with 13 boys plus their coach became trapped for 17 days and eventually rescued by 10000 local and international volunteers.

The rescue effort was so complex it took until the 10th July before the last boy was safely evacuated from the cave.  There’s a Netflix series and doco about the rescue that will give you more insight into the complexity of this mission. It’s estimated that about 10000 volunteers were utilised to finalise the rescue. In the end they needed an Australian Anaesthetist that specialised in cave diving to anesthetise the kids and their coach to ferry them out underwater with specialised breathing apparatus whilst anesthetised. It was nothing short of a miracle they all made it out alive and as a former Dive Instructor and Registered Nurse I recalled this rescue with fascination, hence why I was very interested to check the cave system.

Tham Luang cave, a large cave system, entrance. It’s got a makeshift display of some of the rescue equipment utilised during the rescue.

On arrival to the cave it was pretty apparent that the locals had made a tourist attraction of this infamous cave system and bless their ingenuity to milk the tourist dollar. We weren’t allowed to ride our bikes to the cave but had to catch a local red truck taxi (50 baht) to the entrance of Forest park then I was stung an entrance fee ( 100 Baht), which is pretty much standard for foreigners in Thailand. Locals of course aren’t charged so my offsider got a free pass much to her displeasure. (She doesn’t like the system either). But I get it and can’t really blame them, and rationalise it provides jobs for the locals. After a 2km ride we arrived at the cave entrance.

A large entrance allows a lot of natural light to filter into the cave entrance. its quite eerie in this picture you can see mist rising up from the bottom of the cave.

The entrance to the cave has a rather tacky display of SCUBA tanks, dive gear, kid’s bicycles and football jerseys. There’s an information sign there that depicts the rescue efforts but unfortunately, it’s all in Thai so it wasn’t much use to me. Walking into the cave,  surprisingly you are left to your own accord to wander around and clamber over rocks and check it out. In a couple of caves I’ve been in they usually utilise the locals as guides.

it’s rugged under foot so would of been a nightmare to bring out the anesthetised boys during the rescue.

The cave itself is quite well lit from the large entrance and there are a couple of trails that are lit by artificial lighting. Unfortunately, you can’t get a feel for the scale of the rescue because they’ve pretty much locked up the deeper depths of the cave - probably in fear of a repeat event. But you do get an understanding of the magnitude of the rescue effort on account of the difficult terrain one clambers over to get to the blocked off area. It’s pretty rough ground and one can imagine how treacherous it would have been with flowing water.

The trapped kids got to a little over 4km inside the cave system. Before find refuge in a large chamber.

Upon leaving the cave we went to check out the official tribute to the rescue effort. You’re instantly humbled by the large bronze statue of the Navy seal that perished in the rescue efforts. There are hundreds of pictures of the rescue inside the monument’s building. This helps you absorb and get a rough idea of the magnitude of the efforts, but the stories are also in Thai which is a bit of a disappointment.

Walking back down to greet our taxi driver for the ride back, he insists we must go and see the green ponds, which is on the other side of the mountain. Apparently it’s one of the natural springs which feeds into the cave system and compounded the flooding issue. What I didn’t know until later was that during the rescue attempt they pumped out over a billion litres of water from the cave in an effort to keep the water down  to a manageable level. Now that’s some serious pumping efforts.

a sombre reminder that the rescue effort didn’t go as planned with the tragic loss of Saman Kunan. A former Thai navy seal diver and volunteer of the rescue mission died who whilst ferrying supplies.

The Green ponds has a nice nature walk around it culminating in the end of the trail  requiring you to walk through a lot of local pop up curio stalls and naturally they are hawking their goods with vigor.  The taxi man was patiently waiting to give us a ride back to our waiting bikes.

Green ponds is a natural Spring that feeds into the cave and exacerbated the flooding in the cave. Throughout the rescue attempt over a Billion litres of water was pumped out to try to keep flooding under control.

Hitting the road we made a beeline for Chaing Mai, we had run out of time. Poor Snail had to get back to the grind and I had Thai lessons to attend. So we were hightailing it for home.. On route to Chaing Mai, Snail had one final little gem up her sleeve…. We were literally weaving through the twisties of route 118 when she jumps on the brakes and turns off suddenly. Drives a 100m or so down a non-descript driveway and we enter a lovely little place called Charin Garden Resort and it’s got a Thai Bakery that has icy cold lattes and Mango pies and a multitude of other cakes to die for.

Slurping on an ice-cold latte, munching on homemade mango pie and planning our next adventure was the perfect end to this adventure. Thanks Snail, for showing me your amazing Northern Thailand back yard.  I can’t wait for the next one. Oh, in case you’re wondering how many kilometres we travelled on this trip; it was a little over 800km. Our next planned trip is a run-down the Thai/Myanmar border to Mae Sot and stay tuned we’ve got a couple of Crusty characters making their debut as Meanderthals.