The Amazing Le Khaokob (Tham Le) Cave of Trang, Thailand with Video
*Written by Wilson Ng*
This was my second time to explore the Le Khaokob or Tham Le cave in Trang.
After an hour plus drive journey from Krabi, we reached Trang. We got there by our tour van. The driver was driving pretty fast to make sure we reached in time. Flight got delayed so we kinda rushed to Trang.
I didn’t recall this lovely entrance 5 or 6 years back, but the place now was well maintained.You might wonder what is so interesting about this place? Read on and you will know.
Our group of 8 people separated to 2 groups. 1 group of 4 will sit in a sampan (small boat) with 2 guides, one in front and 1 behind. This was us, Alicia, Rebecca, Rachel and me.
After a good ‘ol 10 min of paddling, we reached the entrance of the cave. Look at the height of the ceiling of the cave. To make us possible to go, we need to lie down completely as the guides paddled us in.
This was how low the ceiling of the entrance going in. We had to lie down completely or else will get some knocking on our heads. We also had too keep our hands within the sampan.
We reached first and the other group came next. Rachel was helping Stephanie, Khai and Laney off the boat.
What’s in Le Khaokob / Tham Le cave? Stalactite and stalagmite formations, natural stalactite and stalagmite formations. Rachel pointing up the stalactite and stalagmite formations.
Me looking up the stalactite and stalagmite formations. Wonder how it looked like from my view.
This was it. Quite scary huh. There were also many different variation of stalactite and stalagmite formations. I decided to post least pictures of it for you all to visit and explore yourselves. There were a few chambers within the cave, some was pretty small but big enough to fit me. Well, stalactite and stalagmite formations are made natural taking hundreds of years. There were a few amazing ones.
When we thought the thrill was over, we were wrong. Going out was harder than we thought. This was how close the ceiling in between us and the sampan. Want to see the actual stuff? Check out the video below!
It was really dark. The guides totally relied to the flashlights. On a few occasions in the video, the sampan was stuck to the ceiling wall. As we exited the cave around 5pm, the high tide was another factor. Thanks to the guide, we forced ourselves out of the cave. Their screaming voices were “extra sound effects” for our excitement. This was really exciting, you can tell from the video right.
Wanna see how close it got to us. This one almost hit my face! The dark journey out took us around at least 15 min. It was exciting and not as dangerous as its seen. We totally loved it.
We tipped the guides for their efforts and tagged them for a group photo. It was a great way to start our holiday in Trang. This is a recommended place to visit in Trang, Thailand.
Stay tuned, more to come!
Thanks for reading!
Awesome Kayak ride into the caves! I plan to try this too in Thailand. Glad you guys had fun!
Regards,
David
Malaysia Asia
.-= David Jr´s last blog ..Agnes Keith House Sandakan Borneo =-.
Amazing. Definitely a place to go, but the problem is, I have many other places that I wanna visit too. Someone please tell the Government to announce Fridays as the 3rd off day permanently and instruct companies to double people’s salaries.
No, I’m not drunk, but I am wishful thinking. 😛
Awesome cave pics. I tried to cave once in Canada but was ill equiped for th edark wet slippery surface. That particular cave, I believe, sealed as people would get lost in it and not come out. Yep, and not come out and never be found. This cave experience is definitely tourist oriented where the Canadian cave was going it on your own.
Kruzon,
Most places in Thailand are tourist oriented. However, this cave is least popular compare to many others. It was fun, a bit of danger but safe at the end of the day.
Wilson
Recently my friends told me about their terrible experience in the Tham Le cave. They visited 3 caves and were told that the third and last cave was very exciting. Very gungho they went, but they were not given any warning of what to expect.
Little did they know that they had to lie flat on the boat very tightly and close together side by side through the dark cave tunnel, not able to move (rocking the boat was dangerous) and barely able to breath. As the boat moved forward the ceiling was very low and so close to their faces that they were terrified of being scratched on the face by the approaching jagged rocks on the ceiling. The boatman had to use their hands to maneouvrre the top of the cave in order to push the boat forward. It was a frightening ordeal for them. They came out wet with perspiration, trust me, no one wants to have anything to do with caves for quite some time.
Please DO NOT go into this cave if you have a weak heart or phobia of small spaces, or even if you are a ‘scaredy cat’ , obviously it is not recommended for older people .
If the water level rises suddenly, there will be a fatal accident, so its not worth the risk.
Hi G. Wan,
Well, we been there twice so we knew what was coming. If you read our experience, we share the same experience. We do understand the risk and the concern you were worrying about, maybe the tour operators should be more informative. We do agree that this might activity might not be suitable for the weak hear or phobia of small spaces. Thanks for the comments and we believed that the readers will be reading your experiences as well.
We hope your friends are alright.
Thanks
Wilson