Phitsanulok Caving
Nov 19 - Nov 21
After our caving experiences in the far north, we decided to spend some additional time caving. Looking at the maps, Phitsanulok was near a number of interesting sounding caves, including the longest in Thailand, so we added three extra days to our stay in Phitsanulok. This was probably a bit unusual, since Phitsanulok is more of a travel hub than a destination itself. Sukhothai and a famous Buddha are the main reason people come there, so most only stay for a night or two. We also had to rent a car, since the caves were about an hour outside of town. This proved to be more expensive than we had hoped, since the big rental company (Budget) had shifted their inventory south to handle the Surin Elephant Roundup, but we did manage to get one.
The plan for the first day was to explore a string of caves along a limestone cliff. In the cave database I was using, there were five caves along this ridge of lengths ranging from 60m to 3.7km. The first target was Nam Tok, a small cave but fairly easy to find once we were in the right area. With the help of Google Maps, we navigated the network of ever smaller roads to the right area and parked beside a mango plantation. A trail led through the plantation to almost the bottom of the cliff. The last 5 meters would have been easier with a machete though, as it was covered in prickly vines and horrible biting red ants about 3/4 of an inch long. We did find a cave in the area indicated, right behind the pools in the orchard, and the water at the entrance was mostly gone, which made it an easy entry. The cave itself was fairly small, but offered a couple of interesting nooks to explore.
Nam Tok, from Phitsanulok Caving
The second target was the 3.7km cave, Khang Khao. The description indicates that it would be also be easy to find, since it had an "obvious" entrance that could be seen from the road. We did see a dark hole partway up the cliff face and tried to make it there. Our first attempt failed, and we had to exit and memorize the vegetation and angle of approach and try again. We made it, but it turned out not to be the right cave, just a little depression in the side of the cliff. We found one cave entrance that seemed to meet the description, except rather than an easy boulder climb down to a stream bed, it was a boulder climb followed by a good 10 foot drop to the next foothold, and then maybe climbable to the streambed another 15 or so feet below that. With no ropes, we had to abandon this. I did see a skylight about 30 feet or more above me in this cave, which also fits the description of Khang Khao. I'm not sure what happened to the "easy scramble", as I didn't see any rubble in the stream passage. Maybe we just missed something?
All this climbing around the jungle and the cliffside took several hours, in the heat of the day, and was discouraging. So we returned to the car and drove up the road a bit to try the caves on the other end of the cliff. We found one very easily, but it was filled with deep water. It was getting late in the day, so I was reluctant to go for a swim. I also couldn't tell if this was the 1.7km cave or the 60m cave. One had no description at all, and the other could have fit it. Continuing along the cliff, we found another wet cave, and then a narrow but very tall stream passage. Very muddy, but no swimming. This was also fairly short, and later I found out was probably Hornet Cave. However, the distances between all of the caves involved don't match up.
Hard to find caves, from Phitsanulok Caving
Since we were unfamiliar with the area, we want to make sure we got out by dark, so we called it a day.
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The next day, we decided to try for the longest cave in Thailand, Tham Phra Wang Daeng, a 13.6km cave. The directions to it were pretty straightforward, as it was on the grounds of a wat. We found the wat without too much trouble, but the small dirt road it was on meant travel was slow. Once we got to the wat, it was a short hike to the cave entrance. We encountered a lone monk (and several dogs), and tried to explain what we were there for. I'm not sure he understood.
On the way to the cave we saw the strangest Buddha I saw the entire time I was in Thailand. It was a large one, maybe 15 or 20 feet tall, and painted to be lifelike, rather than the typical bronze or gold color, or natural stone. But what made it really strange is that it was surrounded by a huge cylindrical chainlink cage. Maybe to keep animals out?
The cave had an impressive entrance, a huge opening surrounded by jungle. The entrance chamber was filled with rubble and sloped down to a riverbed. Fortunately, the monks had created steps here and there to make it easy to get down to the river. At the base of the slope, in the darkness by the riverbank, we were surprised to see a lifesize golden Buddha. This was actually very helpful, since it made it easy to know when to get out of the river for the exit path. 
River Buddha, from Phitsanulok Caving
We proceeded upstream, and were quickly distracted by a pretty waterfall, where we took some pictures. Further along, we came to an area where we knew we might have to swim. Sure enough, it was deep, and there was a rope tied along points in the ceiling to guide you through the dark water. I wasn't sure that getting wet right away was best, and we'd had a slow start this day, so this was a good point to stop for lunch. We'd gotten some food from the Phitsanulok night market, all wrappped up in plastic bags, which worked great for cave food. The best was the spicy chicken kra pow, which we got several days, and something like spicy beef jerky, available coated with a sweet sauce or without.
As we were eating, I noticed that our lights had attracted some attention - cave fish! I'd been in cave with fish before, but never been lucky enough to see any. This cave had huge ones, longer than my hand, and completely white. They seemed not to be blind in that they appeared to be attracted by my light shining into the water. 
Large cave fish, from Phitsanulok Caving
The cave description we had mentioned that there was a bypass on one side of the river by going up and around. However, the description of the bypass was unclear as to whether you should go right or left - both led to an upper passage, but only one was a valid bypass. And we didn't yet have a clear understanding of the map (not to mention that it was a blurry jpg that I couldn't read any text on). We ended up choosing the wrong one, of course, but it led to an amazing set of chambers, the largest of which was a huge curving room, 40 meters by about 80 meters according to the map. By spreading out a couple of our lights in the room, we could get an good idea of the scope of it. The only cave I've been in that was larger was Mammoth Cave in Kentucky. We explored this area for quite a while, and every once an a while happened upon another large Buddha that the monks had somehow brought in here - down the rocky slope, along the river, and up a steep mud and rock climb.
Big room, from Phitsanulok Caving
Eventually we figured out that this was not the bypass and finished our exploration of the area and headed back down to the river. It was getting into the late afternoon, but we had time for a quick swim up the passage to at least see what was on the other side. The water was cool, but at this point that was mostly a refreshing feeling since the cave was much warmer than the caves of New England that I was used to. The water was comfortable to be in, once you'd gotten over the slight shock of getting into it. The river varied from waist to chest to swimming deep for maybe 100 meters before it came to a set of rimstone dams. We took a look and then headed out because we wanted to make sure we could get the car back on the highway well before dark.
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We'd had a lot of fun in Wang Daeng, and only gotten to see a tiny portion, so we decided to spend the final day in Phitsanulok visiting it again. I now wish we'd extended our trip another day or two and continued to work our way further into the cave, as it turned out to be one of my favorite things in Thailand.
On the second day, we were quicker to find the place, since we didn't have to hesitate and check directions every once and a while. We descended down to the river and considered the downstream direction, which had some possibly unexplored leads. After climbing over some boulders, we did make some progress in this direction, but everything eventually petered out. After consulting the map, it looked like we'd have to go all the way back up to the entrance chamber and around to it's other side and them back down to get to where we could actually follow the stream again.
Instead, we went back upstream to the place where we'd gone to the upper chambers yesterday, and took the slope up on the opposite side of the stream. This one was a bit steeper, but the monks had tied a number of knotted ropes around to help with the ascent and descent. We got to the top, and again were in an enormous room, about the same width and height as the one the day before, but longer. It was so large, in fact, that I was unable to keep track of exactly which direction I was heading as we wandered through it the first time.
In addition to having a couple large Buddhas, it had a pair of the umbrella trees that the Thais use. There was also a platform that seemed like it should have a Buddha, but didn't. Behind that platform was a crack passageway that wasn't on the map. It went a short distance, but eventually pinched out. On the opposite side of the room, we did find the way back down to the stream, ending up only about 150 feet beyond where we'd turned around yesterday.
Big formation, from Phitsanulok Caving
Beyond this point, the cave became more regular - a passage varying from 10 to 20 meters wide and about 25 to 30 meters tall. The stream ran through the bottom of the passage, filling it almost from wall to wall, except for periodic sandbanks on the sides. So we'd travel for a short distance on one bank, and then have to wade across the river to the other side. Typically the water depth was about waist deep in the middle, but there were a couple deeper spots, one of which led to swimming (and leaving the backpack behind). We found an unsurveyed passage indicated on the map, but it would have required some ropework so we didn't follow it.
At one point we ran across a particularly large sandbank, perhaps 10 or 15 feet high at the highest point. In one place, water had dripped down from the ceiling far above creating a pit in the sand with a rim of little sand stalagmites. Hanging out in the pit was one of the couple cave centipedes that we saw. Nearby, I found a small crevice that was very muddy. We followed it as far as we could, but just ended up making a mess of ourselves. Cleaning the mud off in the river attracted the attention of some of the cave fish, which would nibble at your hands and toes, whatever was in the water.
[I experienced the blind cave fish first-hand quite well, several times. My first encounter was a while back in the cave, where there was an island in the middle of the river with a tunnel in it. I was playing around in the tunnel, perhaps trying to pose for a picture, when I got my first wellie. What's a "wellie"? This: In a prior trip report from some other cave explorers, it was mentioned that the blind white cave fish "occasionally nibbles their wellies." Were these boots? Perhaps "Wellingtons"? I started calling the fish bites "wellies."
[The nibble itself was gentle, but startling. The cave fish seemed to be curious about anything in the water. If I moved my hands or feet around in the water, they left me alone, but once I stopped, they swam over to investigate the new thing. Once they came close, they nibbled at me. My first wellies was on the leg, while I was trying to stay still for a picture. It surprised me, but was over before I knew it. Later, more fish nibbled my shoes and hands as I washed mud off them from a narrow mud canyon we explored. When my thumb got nibbles, I jumped. Getting nibbled anywhere - even on the shoe I was holding in my hand while washing it - made me jump. Wellies indeed! They're toothless, at least, so it felt like getting pinched by a rubber glove when you're just not expecting it. Even when you expect it, it's sudden and startling. The feeling reminds me of the fish spa, but with fish the size of kittens and mouths large enough to eat eggs. That's a wellie. --Danny]
Cave centipede, from Phitsanulok Caving
Nearby (I think), we found another small passage, this one quickly opening up into a dome shaped room. This room was unusual because it had a perfectly flat floor of mud. Stalactites hung down from the ceiling and penetrated the floor. I dug around one, and it continued several inches below the floor.
By this time, it had gotten late again, and it was time to turn around. On the way back, we found a path that we'd missed, high on a bank, and decided to spend a little time following it. It went up and up, nearly to the ceiling, and eventually into an upper passage. The passage consisted of a set of rimstone dams, with the final one being taller than waist high. Standing at it, you could look out and down into the blackness of the main river passage, like being on a castle parapet. It was far too high for me to see the river below with just my headlamp. The room itself had a convex floor in the center, and stepping on it caused a booming sound, as it if were hollow underneath, so I kept to the walls. Around the back side of the dome was a small meditation chamber, complete with floor mat and incense.
Rimstone parapet, from Phitsanulok Caving
We returned back to the river and followed it to the bypass (helpfully marked by the monks with a bit of cloth tied to a rock), went up, down to the river, and then down the river to the Buddha marking the exit path.
On the way to the cave that day, we'd noticed a considerable police presence on the road. In one place, half of the highway had been blocked off. In another place, we'd seen a crowd of people wearing red shirts. This turned out to be an anti-government dissident group that's been causing a lot of trouble recently, relating to the exiled prime minister and television star (see wikipedia). Fortunately, when we returned, these were all cleared up.
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