Phu Kradueng is both a national park and mountain, reaching heights of 1300m above sea level. The mountain gets its name from its appearance resembling a huge bell (Thai: กระดึง; kradueng). Legend has it that the vicinity of the mountain is known to echo a mysterious bell sound.

Such heights had to be climbed, that is why we decided to take a very early morning bus from the nearby town, as you can see Louis was finishing his sleep there:

Once there we started the long and steep climbing, the first part of the hike was 5km at 20% inclination! That was quite challenging, fortunately, there were several stops with drink stands on the way, so we could take a few breaks to catch our breath and rest our legs. The path was rocky and uneven, with loose stones and slippery mud in some parts.

After a couple of hours of intense hiking, we reached a plateau and then joined the visitor centre after a 3km walk, there we could rent a tent with all the necessary gear. The camping zone was peaceful, and had large open fields with some trees:

The temperatures were much cooler, maximum 29°C instead of 38°C downhill. Also, very few people were around, actually, we could even say that there were as much as deer as humans:

And of course, the landscapes seen from every cliff of the plateau were breathtaking:

A particular cliff also had a Buddha footprint, which is for sure left by Buddha himself and not carved by someone!

The national park is inhabited by a handful of elephants, but unfortunately, we could only see the trace they leave on the walking paths:

On the other hand, we found a quite chill gecko while going back down, who was happy to be taken a picture of.

While going down Louis found a new skill, hanging on tree branches!