Day trip to Mae On caves and Sankampaeng Hot Springs

I asked a friend for ideas for a little excursion out of the city and she recommended Mae On caves and Sankampaeng Hot Springs so I jumped on my scooter and headed off. It’s a beautiful ride into the country (25-35km) east of Meaung Chiang Mai, after 20 mins you hit the rice fields and the hilly landscape which is absolutely stunning. It was a not hard to find the caves as it’s well sign posted until the very last minute when the turnings don’t seem too obvious, as soon as you see a big sign for the caves turn left and make the climb up the hill.

The hills on the way to Mae On

The cave is quite a trek up the hill with over 100 steps when you reach the car park but the view is worth it and the breeze helps. I entered the cave and found myself alone in an eerie dark space that continued deep into the mountain. I tried to not let my imagination run away with me, but I couldn’t help but think there was going to be a huge mega tarantula just around the corner. Lucky for me nothing tried to eat me. The place was huge with stalagmites and stalactites everywhere, in one corner of the largest part of the cave there is a leaning Buddha and throughout the entire cave system the theme continues with iconic Buddhist statues and images.

The leaning Buddha with a light for his head!

The place has amazing acoustics with an immense reverb such as that found in a huge catherdral, stamping your feet creates a huge deep bass sound which reminded me of the balrog from Lord of the Rings, again I was afraid I may wake up that mega sleeping tarantula, paranoia follows me everywhere. Definitely worth a visit for anybody wanting to get out of Chiang Mai and get into the country side.

The stalagmite Chedi in the cave

I left the cave and continued on to the hot springs. On arrival I paid the farang price for entry to the park and took a stroll to the hot springs. They have a hot spring bath where you can buy some eggs in basket to boil in the water. Looked like an awesome idea so for 20b I got my three eggs and a little bag of soy sauce and placed them in the water. Do not trust the signs, it took more like 25min to hard boil the eggs, not the 10-12min as advertised.

The eggs, mmmmm stinky!

Not very accurate, this is Thailand after all!

So I sat there eating my eggs when I realised I was the only white dude there, plus the only lonesome guy. Everybody else had a beautiful girl on their arm looking romantically into each others eyes as they sucked on their eggs. I felt a little out of place at this point but continued to chow down on my eggs down with ravenous delight as I starred at the beautiful scenery and the sexy unavailable girls. I highly recommend visiting this place as it’s stunning, it has saunas, hot baths and Thai massage available too with some accommodation close by if you want to make a few days out it. Next time I go I’ll take a girl though even if I have to hire someone, it would make it that much more enjoyable.