From Trang town we drove approx 40 km north towards Huai Yod. We first visited Tham Khao Pina. Next was Tham Lae which was more commonly called Tham Thale. The cave dissects the hill and seemed to be surrounded by a canal, so is a big meandering river cave.
It was a private show cave and the trip by boat was Bt200 for an 8 seater boat. We had 2 guides, one spoke some English.
The cave is electrically lit. We paddled in then at various sections we had to get out onto walkways to look at the lower chambers. Everything was covered with gooey mud. We had to walk barefoot in one section because the mud was sucking our sandals off!
The chambers are very impressive, some packed with helictites and long straws and there were some long straws coming from thick white stals.
Quite amazing. There were lots of bats in the lower chambers.
We went through 420 m of very low passage where we actually had to lie down in the boat. It was fun but not a cave to do in the wet season!
Then we went to an upper chamber, very different from the lower ones, dry with no mud, no straws or helictites.
We did a circular route which took an hour.
In 2003 I found a leaflet for the cave which was then called Tham Khao Kob or Le Khao Kob Cave.
© Liz Price
No reproduction without permission
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