Chiang Dao as well know at his nickname “City of Stars” which pertains to the limestone peaks that stick out above the green valley. Chiang Dao Caves are situated approx 70 km north of Chiang Mai on a good highway. The Caves are one of the main attractions in the Chiang Dao National Park. It’s inside one of these mountains that is one of Thailand’s best known cave systems in northern Thailand. There are meant to be over 100 caves in the twelve kilometre Chiang Dao cave complex. From Chiang Mai the trip takes about one and a quarter hours by car.
Let’s go underground!
Once paid the 40 THB admission fee go up the steps to the cave entrance, then descend into a large cavern where there are numerous Buddha images.
The first two caves can be explored by your own without the services of a guide as the caverns are lit by electrical lighting. These are Tham Seua Dao (540 m) and Tham Phra Nawn (360 m). Both of these caves contains a lot shrines, statues and Buddha images.These are numerous natural formations of limestone and crystal that you will see, along with stalactites and stalagmites.
Chiang Dao Cave Image Gallery
If you like you can charter the services of one of the cave guides for a lamp lit tour of some of the deeper caverns. There are only five main caves which are currently open to the public.
To explore the other three, Tham Maa (7365m), Tham Naam (660m) and Tham Kaew (477m) you can either hire a gas lantern and one of the local guides for at least 100 THB. The guides will easily navigate you around safely at your own pace and point out all the sights. It is not all walking, in places you have to duck down to crawl through small openings and then clamber into large caverns. So don’t come in your best clothes if you want to go deeper into the caves.
If you go during the rainy season some areas near the underground river might contain water. Check out the water level marks on the walls to see how high up it can get.
Chiang Dao cave and it´s Temple complex is really quite enjoyable and well worth a day trip out of Chiang Mai.
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