'Overestimate' cannot be applied to the heading above as the place is so popular among Thai teenagers, esp. those who are studying in the university level, as they are mature enough to take care of themselves and so the parents allow them to make such a trip.

“I went to Phukradueng last week.” Ridiculously enough that this very simple sentence can make the one saying it become a hero of the group. But it is true! How? I know this question is popping up in your mind at the moment. The easy answer is since the place is challenging, whoever can climb up to the top is supposed to be strong and patient. It requires 5-7 hours climbing and you have to walk through some dangerous places like cobra area, tiger area, elephant area, and so on. Also some parts are very sheer that you need to be extra careful or you will hurt yourself more easily. Your bags are another thing to consider. When you can’t almost bring yourself up there, stop the idea of preparing this and that with you if not necessary. One best suggestion would be to bring with you a small bag that can contain a bottle of water (which could last for the whole climbing period), some fruit or food to feed yourself during the middle of nowhere, camera (so you won’t miss cool scenes) and an inhaler for those who have problems with breathing when being so tired. As for the big bag with your clothes and stuff, hire local people called ‘Luk Hab’ to take it up there for you. The rate is 10 baht/ 1 Kg (Dec 2001) and usually they would spend just 4 hours to go up there so your bags will be waiting for you at the office uphill. Another important thing is to not forget to make sure that your health is ready for the tough journey, at least eat and sleep well before the trip, and do some exercise to prepare your body for the hard work.

The entrance fee is 20 and 200 baht for Thais and foreigners respectively (Dec 2001). The ticket is worth keeping because beautiful scenery will be printed on it. The first 2 kilometers called ‘Sam Hag’ is the most difficult part as it’s quite steep and it automatically becomes challenging whether to go on or to go back. My friends and I had a problem here because Ar had asthma as her born disease and it seemed she would be worse if we continued. Finally she told the rest of us to go on and she would go back alone. We all looked at one another, and the decision was we came as a group, and if one could not continue, we all would go back, and how would we be selfish to leave her walk back alone, not knowing what would happen with her. We stopped there for some ten minutes, giving Ar time to relax. Fortunately there was one shop to sell energy drink and so we got it for her. It was funny that the shop was playing Dunk’s song (Ar’s favorite singer) and it was like the changing point that she told all of us that she would go on with us so we all would not regret everything (no, in fact we had never planned this trip, just some friends said they just came back from PKD and Jib asked me informally if I wanted to go, and that night we all packed bags and spent our next morning traveling there).

Anyway, Ar was better and so we continued our trip, after a few hours, we started to be tired and needed some rest. We stopped again at the view point. Everything was fresh and wonderful and we were glad we made the right choice.

By the time we reached the peak, it was almost dark (we spent about 6 hours climbing) so we went to the office to get our bags and to set up our tent.

“Who here knows how to do it?” asked Ar, after all of us spent some time thinking how that tent should be set.

“Honestly, although it’s mine, I have never set it alone by myself. Well, it was like 8 years ago since the last time I saw it. I was camping for my Girl Scout class and I was responsible for some cooking so my friends set it…,” I admitted to my friend shyly.

“Great. Let’s see if we will have a place to stay tonight,” my brother said sarcastically.

“Why don’t two people go rent some blankets, pots and stuff and the rest try to use your cell brain figuring what we should do,” Jib finally made the point.

“Yeah, should be that way,” my brother agreed “I’ll go get the blankets…”

“No way, you gotta be here with the tent!” I said (at least it’s good to be a big sister ;)).

“All rise!” he said, walking to the tent helplessly, “Hey, there’s gotta be 2 main poles, how come there is just one here?” he asked after awhile.

“Let me see…” Jan, our German friend said eventually. He might be thinking in his mind “I shouldn’t have joined these people at all” ;)

As it was darker, the weather was getting colder. We saw the sign posted that the temperature was 4 Degree Celsius … oh my god, we had never experienced this kind of cold before, especially we were going to stay just under the sky tonight…no building, nothing at all but the canvas tent!

“Go take a shower, you smell bad,” my brother told me and Ar after he and Jib came back from the bathroom. “It’s so damn cold, like we were washing our body with icy water,” he didn’t forgot to scare us when we were about to go.

“Argh….don’t they have warm water or something?" Ar and I heard someone scream. It sure warned us what we would have to face.

After an unwilling shower, we cooked some easy menus for dinner. Although it was cold, the sky was clear and we could see nice stars.

“So romantic,” I said.

“That’s why the couples like to come here,” Ar added.

“But many of them also broke up, the trip proved many things,” my brother opposed.

We talked till 10 pm before going to sleep.

“Mint, it is very freezing,” whispered Ar at the middle of the night, “I applied Counter Pain Cool (a brand of an ointment) on my legs and now I feel soooooooo cold.”

Without planning, Jib and I laughed at the same time. It didn’t mean that we didn’t feel pity to our friend, but how she acted was too cute.

“The ointment is so strong, this blanket can’t help make me any warmer,” Ar still insisted.

“We know,” Jib said giggly.

“Man, such a long night,” we all agreed.

Although we had another canvas covered our tent, hard dew could still wet everything inside. We woke up at 4.30 am and walked to Nok Ann Cliff (2 Kms. Away) to see the first sun rise which was supposed to be amazing and beautiful (Jan preferred to be on his own schedule). It was already crowded by the time we arrived there. There was too foggy to see expected scenery, many people were disappointed I could tell by their facial expression.

After having breakfast, we started a long walk to 5 waterfalls. Unfortunately there was not much water and the maple trees we were about to see were not many too. We went back to our tent deadly, had lunch and took some rest. Ar and I had rather stay at the tent while Jib and Melo made a 9-kilometer walk to Lom Sak Cliff for the sunset. No surprise they looked like zombies when they came back…

“Guys, I have no energy left,” Jib said when she was a few meters away…it sure gained our smile looking at her trying to bring herself to the tent…no, we were not cruel, we knew she would made it!

While Jib and Melo were away, Ar and I were almost killed by a gigantic dear! It walked to our tent to find something to eat. Ar took its photo and the flash startled it. As she ran away, Ar didn’t forget to shout to me to also run but at that time I had no idea what happened and was applying some ointment on my legs and massaging them. I opened the tent’s door and the huge dear was only a few feet from me. My adrenalin came out. I ran away so quick, forgetting I had sore legs. Fortunately the staff could stop the dear and save us. It was scary but also funny in a way.

Some hours later, Ar and I had to set the fire to cook. The charcoal was damp from the dew last night so no matter how hard we tried to light it, nothing happened.

“Oh yes, we still have some candles with us, why don’t we put it in here?” as soon as we discussed, Ar put some candles we had in the bonfire, and it worked…but WAY TOO MUCH! Big wind came and it brought the fire to the glasses everywhere. We were about to burn the National Park!!!

“Water, where’s our water?” I shouted excitedly.

“I don’t know, should be somewhere in the tent, go look,” Ar answered while trying to put out the fire by hitting it with her shoes and whatever within her reach.

Fortunately, a few people nearby offered some help or our names would be on the front page of every newspaper!

“Guess we will have to eat this canned food tonight,” I said after we survived the fire.

“Oh well, we have no skills at all,” Ar summed up embarrassingly.

‘Good we were not arrested,” I continued.

“Absolutely agree!” Ar said before sitting down waiting to tell Jib and Melo what they missed.