Khao Kor (Kor Mountain), Mon 27th Oct 2008

Monday 27th October found us traveling north to Khao Kor (also written as Kao Kho). The mountain is about 30km north-northwest of Phetchabun and was the site of intensive fighting between the Chinese backed communists from Laos and the Thai army supported by the Americans. The Laos border lies approximately 100km to the north; the fighting took place during the late 1970's. The road winding up the mountain is, in places, extremely steep and it was a question of first gear for my poor Phantom laden with a combined weight of around 165 kg (I am not going to say exactly how this figure was made up!). We were traveling through magnificent tropical countryside; rolling hills and valleys alternating between farmland and jungle.

Khao Kor (Kor Mountain).
The Thai Royal Family has a residence at Khao Kor and we briefly stopped on the way to the summit. I am always surprised to see pine trees in Thailand and there are some quite majestic specimens in and around the residence grounds; they remind me of the "North Corner" at the village where I grew up in Cornwall. There is still quite a military presence in the area, our destination being a military museum located on top of the mountain.

Entrance to the museum was 20 Baht and there was no indication that foreigners should pay more (I will explain about this "dual pricing" in a later post). The museum is located at what was the main firebase near the summit of Khao Kor. Various vehicles and aircraft are on display around the gun emplacements containing field guns and heavy mortars. The old base commands (as would be expected) a clear view of the surrounding country and in turn leads to a shallow trench network running to a number of concrete bunkers facing to the north, east and west (ie. towards the enemy). Just as we descended the steps leading to the trenches the sky turned very dark indeed and we ran for shelter to the furthest bunker facing towards the north and Laos. The thunderstorm duly arrived and cut off all visibility through the narrow slit in the wall. One could really imagine the insurgents out there steadily on the advance! A more detailed description of the museum will be added as a separate post. With the rain easing off, we continued on our journey to Phitsanulok about 100km northwest of Phetchabun. Descending the mountain we passed a magnificent temple built under the guidance of Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn (the princess is King Rama IX and Queen Sirikit's third child and is occasionally shown on UK television). The temple houses the remains of a revered monk. Unfortunately, time was pressing and the rain clouds were building so we set off again, on a very muddy motorbike, towards Phitsanulok. As with so much of this journey, we were forced to take shelter from the rain enroute but finally arrived at just after seven in the evening.