In June 2014, exactly 10 years from my first visit, I had opportunity to revisit Dong Phayayen – Khao Yai Forest Complex in Thailand, but to be more precise, only the sections of Pang Sida and Ta Phraya National Parks as a part of my company project site visit near Cambodian Thai border. I was quite excited about the trip as a decade ago I only focused on the popular Khao Yai and Thaplan National Parks and wrongly assumed that I went to Ta Phaya National Park. The first stop was Pang Sida National Park. Our visit coincided with the butterfly viewing season, so the park was full of butterflies. The park ranger claimed that this year harsh summer causing fewer butterflies but still more than 500 species! But even less butterflies than usual, we really impressed with the park; I also saw a unique traffic sign of beware butterfly. We had picnic at Pangsida Waterfall, because of summer there was no water at all, but we were happy to eat with hundreds of butterflies around us.

A few days later our group went to Ta Phaya National Park, this park is located along the border, we saw ancient Khmer Temples, but after saw Angkor, there was nothing I would want to mention. Our highlight turned out to be Lalu Park, a strange area but beautiful hoodoo landform. We could not enter the park by ourselves, our guide took us to a small village, and we had to ride on farmer’s motorized cart with local guide. The ride on farmer cart was fun but bumpy. Our trip at Lalu was fantastic by its beauty and its story was very shocking and unbelievable. According to a ranger in Ta Phaya National Park and a local guide, When Thai Government declared a national park area; Lalu was already a denuded forest by illegal logging. Since there was no forest to protect and the area was a bad land for farming, both government and villagers stayed away from Lalu. When Thailand nominated Ta Phaya National Park to UNESCO, they used the official map, so technically Lalu also become World Heritage Site. Then the tourism boomed, and government wanted to get the land back. There is a loophole in Thai law that if the landowner can show that if he already used the land for certain period, no need to return the land. By this loophole, villagers invaded Lalu and destroyed hoodoo to make the land farmable hoping to own the land and sell it to investor in the future, only small area is left for tourism!

I am not sure that UNESCO know this problem or not, since Dong Phayayen is inscribed solely by the reason of animal and forest not the hoodoo landform, and Lalu’s status problem happened even before the inscription. Anyway, I really enjoyed the less visited eastern part of Dong Phayayen – Khao Yai Forest Complex for its enchanting butterfly forest and interesting hoodoo landform, a very good World Heritage Site indeed.