From the park entrance on route 201, it’s 5km to the park headquarters and visitor centre. I got a lift on a park ranger’s motorbike to save me the hot walk. The visitor centre and park headquarters are located on very well-tended, landscaped grounds, and the communal toilets by the campground are spotlessly clean. One reason for this is that Phu Pha Maan is very rarely visited, being sandwiched between two big, well-known parks: Phu Kradung and Nam Nao. After pitching my tent, I took a walk along the nature trail that took me through mostly bamboo forest. The track is not well-maintained, and a lot of tree-fall and overgrowth made the way very hard to find sometimes, but the reward for persistence is a scramble up the rocky mountain to a lovely view point over the park. From here, I could see that a lot of the park is actually cultivated land. The park is protecting the limestone and granite cliffs that rise up from this flat area and the woodland on the lower slopes that merge with Phu Kradung National Park further north.

The major point of interest here is the many caves in these sheer cliffs, so on my second day, I started out early to walk the 8km to see some of these. The walk was mostly through grassland and sweetcorn fields that turned to forest as I got nearer to the cliffs. There are many butterflies along the way and a few birds to spot if you have patience and binoculars. The showpieces of Lai Thong Cave are the ancient cave paintings. The simple figures are of humans painted in red above the main cave entrance while inside is a beautiful collection of stalagmites and stalagtites.

A better selection can be seen a further 1.5km scramble at Pa Ya Nakarach cave. A very narrow entrance leads into a veritable auditorium. The glitter stalagmites I expected were conspicuous in their absence. Possibly, I didn’t walk far enough inside. Having negotiated some small wooden ladders to get to the cave floor, I walked a little way in with my cheap Chinese torch until my childhood fear of the dark overtook me and I went back the way I came! Apparently, there are a number of large chambers deeper inside, maybe with glitter!

It’s quite a hot hike there and back, but I picked up a friend. A dog appeared from a farmer’s yard near the caves and DIDN’T bark at me! It led me up to the caves, followed me the 8km back to park headquarters, and then faithfully followed me everywhere I went - even sleeping outside my tent for the night! Apart from the 200B entry fee, I wasn’t charged anything for camping, but there is nowhere to eat at the park.