The other day one of my colleagues and friend from my work asked me if, I would like to accompany him on a drive to his home province called Chaiyaphum, which was going to be about a 6 hour drive from Pattaya city along Route 7. Of course, I didn't hesitate saying, sure I'm in, this was going to be another great opportunity to see more of Thailand, Chaiyaphum is, his home town and he needed to go and pick up some spare parts for a car we were restoring and apparently one of his contacts in the town had the parts we needed to complete this restoration.
We set of on Route 7 early the next morning to make our 6 hour journey in his pick-up truck to his home town, along the way he mention this StoneHenge National Park which is famous in his home town, it is known as the Mor Hin Khao of Thailand, he said up on these green mountain hills there are some strange rock formations that have just appeared coming out of the flat ground and the strange part they are not man made.
My friend did tell me that, I would love this stone park up on the green mountains not only for these bizarre rock formations growing out of the ground like mushrooms but also on a real clear day you can see for miles across the country side including his home town, the day wasn't to bad by the time we got there but just wasn't clear enough a little hazy but still pretty stunning views from up here after making our way up these dirt tracks.
There are many beautiful rock formations up on these green hills but no one knows how they came to be here the Five Rock Pillars known as the "Sao Hin Ha Ton" are the most respected rocks up here on this green hill, it is said that the locals believe that these Five Rock Pillars, hold spirits within them and the locals will come up here on this green hill and pray to each individual rock in hope of bringing them different types of good luck and fortune. These Five Rock Pillars stand up to a impressive 12 meters tall.
The rocks in this stone park are mainly made up of white sandstone but not all some are made up of mixes containing silt-stone, mud-stone and purple sandstone giving them a impressive look as the sun shines on them all day long giving off many beautiful color reflections.
My friend was telling me that the best time to visit these green hills of rocks is between May and June as during these 2 months these green hills blossom with beautiful wild Siamese Tulips, scattering all over these green hills how beautiful would that be to see.
If you wished to spend a romantic weekend up on these green hills there is a camping site available, but if you were just visiting the national park it's free to enter you leave your car by the dirt road parking lot but if you want to camp in the national park it would cost you $6 US (200 Baht) to stay at the camp site where toilet and shower facilities are available and a small snack shop for your coffee and noddles and if you needed to hire a Tent it's $3 US (100 Baht) per/day , pillows, blankets and small thin mattress also available for hire at a small cost.
If camping out for a weekend there are a few hiking trails around the mountains and another field of boulders called Khlong Chang Stone Group very nearby not as big as the Stonehenge rocks but still worth a look and also you have the Tat Ton Waterfalls.
Although this waterfall flows all year around the Tat Ton Waterfalls is at it's best in the rainy season from July through to October, the actual waterfall is about 6 meters high and 50 meters wide with a beautiful trees lining both sides of the stream giving the waterfall that peaceful, relaxing, breathtaking view and you can have a refreshing swim at the base of this waterfall if you wanted to cool of, I must say, it was just the prefect place to be that day am so glad, I when along with my friend, it was another piece of astonishing Thailand, I have seen and experienced.
