Tourists visiting Chiang Rai, Thailand usually also venture further north to Mae Sai, Thailand. If you will visit Thailand’s northern most region soon, we recommend that you spend a few hours at the Mae Sai Fish Caves where the monkeys, not the fish, steal the show.

Wat Tham Pla and the fish caves are easily accessible and well marked on the highway running north out of Chiang Rai. You will find the Mae Sai fish caves half way in between, or about 12 km south of Mae Sai, Thailand. Wat Tham Pla is situated at the base of a small mountain. Monkeys are free to roam within a large gated area, and climb over the temple, signs, and surrounding trees. Though you should always be cautious around wild animals, the well mannered monkeys will gently pick a peanut out of the hands of tourists.

The Fish Cave is filled by a lake that ends at the base of the mountain. The lake is filled with Koi carp and catfish that you can feed while standing on a small bridge. Buddhist shrines and monks are found throughout the area, along with additional caves of various sizes.

The main attraction for us on this day trip in northern Thailand was the larger cave Tam Pleaw Plongfha.
According to the signs posted at the base of the stone stairway, Tam Pleaw Plongfha is 200M up the steps. One Thai villager at Wat Tham Pla told us there are about 300 steps in total. We forgot to count, distracted by the view and the monkeys swinging in the trees.

Before sending you off to our Tham Pum Tham Pla Mae Sai Thailand picture gallery, here’s a bit about Wat Tham Pla from the sign posted by the Tourism Authority of Thailand:

Tham Pum Tham Pla - Tham Pla, Thai words for Fish Cave, is the home of various species of large fish. A Burmese monk named Ut Suai Lao arrived here and built a temple and a Burmese style bejewelled Buddha image know as Phra Song Khrueang inside Tham Pla. Tham Pum is another cave on top of the hill.

On this day tour we spent the morning at Tham Pum Tham Pla, then headed further north for lunch and shopping in Mae Sai, Thailand. We’ll post the Mae Sai shopping photographs for all to see next.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 1:07 am and is filed under Chiang Rai, Thailand, Thailand Tours, Buddhist Temples, Places. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.