Thansawan Waterfall: A Turquoise Gem in Doi Phu Nang NP

Travel writers in Thailand throw the term “gem” around liberally.  This is entirely excusable in a country that is indeed studded with jewels, but knowing when something is genuinely special and worth a detour can be harder.

Thansawan Waterfall in Doi Phu Nang National Park is one of these rare finds. An arc of wild cascades spills into eminently swimmable turquoise pools.  It’s as beautiful as any of the Erawan Falls, but with none of the crowds.  Forget crowds; we didn’t see a single other person in the two hours we spent here.

Just joining us? Catch up on the last leg of the journey in Nan, Thailand: Temple Murals, Rice Fields, and the Pleasure of Taking It Slow.

Thansawan is part of Doi Phu Nang National Park, one of a series of interlinked parks and wildlife protection areas that form a massive expanse of green spanning the provinces of Phayao, Nan, and Phrae. It’s a wild area, but perfectly manageable with a car and a bit of planning.  

The falls are just over an hour from Phayao and about two hours from Nan. Neither drive is long or challenging, but you need to find yourself in one of those two cities, neither of which is on traditional tourist circuits. They should be, especially when detours like this lie between them.  

Doi Phu Nang is a somewhat incongruous collection of sites, but no worse for it.  A THB 100 ticket buys entry to a nearby dinosaur museum which celebrates a cache of locally discovered fossils.  The sites are not particularly close, so it pays to consider what you want to see, and in what order.  We skipped the museum, to the fury of our five-year-old, Harry. 

We instead tried to visit Huai Ton Phueng Waterfall, not far from Thansawan. Signs led us down a long, narrow road better suited to motorbikes than our Kia, which straddled its entire width. When we reached a downed tree that blocked our way, there was nothing to do but reverse out.

I had recently taken a tactical driving class where driving in reverse was a major theme—I was delighted. The kids were unsure what lay behind my grin as I looked over their heads out the back window, but we were soon back on the main road.  It was a reminder that as good as Thai roads are, you must always be willing (and able) to back out, sometimes literally.  

The path to the falls started at the bottom of a nearly empty parking lot.  Our ticket pamphlet noted that Doi Phu Nang is home to one of the last remaining flocks of the endangered green peafowl.  Unfortunately, we’d arrived in the wrong season; the best chance of seeing these beautiful cousins of the Indian peacock is during the January to March breeding season.

A short walk down a paved path took us to the river bottom.  From there, it was a short ramble along the stream followed by an easy scramble up a low bank.  This placed us on a small promontory; all around us, cascades spilled over cliffs that ran in a forty-meter arc.

It was an uncommonly beautiful scene.  The dying monsoon had toppled a couple of enormous trees, one of which lay against the falls while its roots, a tangle double my height, ran to our little island.  In October, the river still flowed powerfully, and the falls produced a light mist that kept the entire valley perpetually wet.  Anywhere the soil was not sodden was covered in a riot of green.

Despite the volume of water, the pools beneath the falls were gentle and excellent for swimming.  Splashing with the family in these jungle pools, surrounded by curtains of water and under a roof of ancient hardwoods, was a highlight of the trip and among the loveliest moments of any of our travels to date. 

We lingered in Thansawan’s pools for nearly two hours.  Rather than chasing us away, a light rain made the scene even more magical.  Hunger eventually took its toll, so we returned to the park headquarters, where we found an empty restaurant and a small convenience store.

After a quick lunch of potato chips in a bun, which Kat assures me is a New Zealand delicacy known as a “chippy sandwich,” we tried a few of the nearby nature trails.  We were looking for an excuse to prolong the magic of the falls, but the trails were not all that promising and so didn’t disappoint.

Still in high spirits, we decided to finish the drive to Phayao. As we drove along the small lane leaving the park, Kat told me to stop the car.  Outside the window, a flock of at least eight Indochinese Green Peafowl foraged in the fields along the road.

Unlike the more familiar Blue Indian Peacocks, even the female Green Peafowl are covered in iridescent plumage.  They are stunning birds, and seeing them in the wild against all expectations was a perfect way to cap our visit to Doi Phu Nang National Park.