Just below the forest park headquarters, there is a small tourist village of restaurants and guesthouses. About 1km further uphill, the headquarters has a tiny area for camping. As the bus doesn’t limp in to Phu Chi Fa village until around 4:30pm, and with the half-hour struggle up the hill to the HQ with camping gear, there wasn’t enough time after pitching my tent to climb to the top for the sunset. There was quite a good view of it from the campsite, though, as people hovered over their fires and stoves.

At 3:30am, someone thought it was a good idea to get up and light a fire. As all our tents were pitched close together, it meant everyone else had to get up, too. There is an uphill walk of just over 1km to the viewpoint; I got up there at 5am to find about 50 people there already! It was a cold wait for the sunrise that we might not even see, as it had been obscured by rain and clouds for the last 6 days! We were luckier, as there was no rain, but it was still cloudy. However, we got a "Dance of the Seven Veils" act as the clouds parted for moments at a time to reveal a gorgeous sunrise over Laos. Phu Chi Fa is right on the border, and we were looking down on a very mountainous Laos at that. The thick, white cloud down below us was like a snowfield with the tips of the green mountains poking through, and as the cloud thinned, it writhed and drifted around the peaks, giving us a great show! There must have been around 150 people up there as the sun rose, weekends must be impossible!

The old jalopy bus leaves Phu Chi Fa at 7am while most people are still watching the sunrise, myself included, but I got a lift back down the mountain from a park ranger who was taking some friends back to town. He told me about Phu Khaeo Wildlife Sanctuary in Petchabun Province, which he said is a wonderful place for nature and animals. Maybe more about that in a few weeks’ time!