i drove down the coast from HH last week and spent a day in the khao saam roi yot park, about 1 hour south of HH.

first off, i must say that's probably the most scenic road in Thailand. I love the mountains set against the tropical farmlands. Its certainly comparable to driving through Krabi.

we went to look at the cave, Thanm Phraya Nakhon which requires a lot of walking up many steps (430 i think) but is well worth it, a beautiful cave with shafts of light illuminating the vegetation living in the center of the cave.

we looked at some land for sale and saw a great little plot with a small thai house and a fantastic view of the mountains for 1.7 million. i'm not buying it, so let me know if you are looking and i'lll send you the sellers phone number.

we decided not to buy land there because there is one big problem if you think of it as a beach area. the sea is almost black close to shore because of the shallow beach and muddy bottom. I'm not a big beach goer myself but I figure the beach would put off a future renter or buyer should i ever want to move on.

anyhow, it seems like a really nice area and the people we talked to seem very nice also. i think if i was to live in the HH area, this would be a great place to get close to nature but still be close to everything.

i drove down the coast from HH last week and spent a day in the khao saam roi yot park, about 1 hour south of HH.

first off, i must say that's probably the most scenic road in Thailand. I love the mountains set against the tropical farmlands. Its certainly comparable to driving through Krabi.

we went to look at the cave, Thanm Phraya Nakhon which requires a lot of walking up many steps (430 i think) but is well worth it, a beautiful cave with shafts of light illuminating the vegetation living in the center of the cave.

we looked at some land for sale and saw a great little plot with a small thai house and a fantastic view of the mountains for 1.7 million. i'm not buying it, so let me know if you are looking and i'lll send you the sellers phone number.

we decided not to buy land there because there is one big problem if you think of it as a beach area. the sea is almost black close to shore because of the shallow beach and muddy bottom. I'm not a big beach goer myself but I figure the beach would put off a future renter or buyer should i ever want to move on.

anyhow, it seems like a really nice area and the people we talked to seem very nice also. i think if i was to live in the HH area, this would be a great place to get close to nature but still be close to everything.

I had that same reaction to the beach near Kui Buri. When I was there, down in the seaside village, you would have needed to walk a kilo to get to the sea. A bit like the national park near Trang.

Yet, for some reason, they seem to be building a number of resorts near Kui Buri. Maybe they are for Thais who want to be near the sea .. not in the sea.

If you want to see a beautiful (but dangerous = rips) beach, try Thai Muang .. north of Phuket, south of Khao Lak.

Thans for first impression reviews, i love them. Once again a place i plan to visit. Had a firt impression review some weeks ago in the samuiforum about kohpagnan, i went there and it is much more fun with a review. I mean my kind of review, short time visit, i dont need expats telling me how great it is to live there. Very good post and since the moderator with s in the begining dont live there i suppose it will be left alone. Thanks. I read it carefully.

Good post.

Hi Steve, i'd be interested in thta piece of Land you wrote about & if you could give me some more info, it'd be much appreciated ??

Last time I knew no one could own land in Sam Roi Yod National Park, yes, it's a national park. No Cha-Note has ever been issued. But things might changed since I left HH last year. Check with Land Office before thing's gone wrong. Right now land owners in another National Park near Pala-U waterfalls are being under investigation because they were deforesting and building houses in this vast piece of land in "national park" which is supposed to be for farming only. I think that one is Kaeng Krajan National Park in Petchburi.