Erawan Cave - And The 611 Stairs Up To It

I'm not an anti-social person, but I always rate a place higher overall if I don't see many other farang there. On an early trip I had the experience of visiting the shrine and limestone caves near Erawan, far up into Isaan - and didn't see another "round eye" the entire day. It was wonderful.

I'd guess Tham Erawan to be about 90 kilometers (55 miles) West of Udonthani along Highway 210, very close to the border between provinces Loei and Nong Bua Lamphu. For those who use coordinates for mapping things, it's at 17° 20' 51.39" N 102° 1' 5.77" E. For those willing to take my guesstimate it's at the blue circle on the map image at the top of the post.

Tham is Thai for cave, and Erawan is the Thai word for the mythological three-headed elephant known as Airavata to most Hindus. If you've been near Samut Prakan Southeast of Bangkok you may well have seen a huge statue of Erawan towering over the Erawan Museum and temple. You'll see a post on that at some point.

We approached the mountain from the East, leaving Udonthani right after breakfast when my friend arrived in his cousin’s truck to drive us around for the day. The ride through the countryside was relaxing and the Isaan music coming from the stereo was pleasant, and the day was off to a good start.

From quite a ways away we could see the statue of the Buddha - detail enlarged in the photo - sitting peacefully at the entrance to the cave, high up on the hillside. Believing the top of the mountain itself resembles a kneeling elephant (clue: it's facing to the right) it's sometimes referred to as Tham Chang, or elephant's cave. "How do we get up there?" I asked, as we pulled into the parking area, joining three other vehicles. I hadn't seeing tram lines, but was hoping against hope. "Stairs," I was told, so I began putting my affairs in order, downed one bottle of water and tucked another into my large side pocket.

It was peaceful as we approached the statue of Erawan at the base of the stairs. There were only a few people milling around listlessly nearby, having ice cream and snacks and resting in the shade after making their way down the mountainside. It was an unsettling omen. My friend paid the minor collection box fee and headed up the stairway ahead of me, turning to see if I was behind him and laughing at what was probably a look of dread on my face although I'd tried to put on my "good sport" face.

Note that the red collection box is at the base of the stairway as you enter. After my visit I wondered if that was in case you didn't survive the climb. "Have you been here before?" I asked my friend. "Sure," he said "many times." How many stairs to the cave?" I asked, somewhat dreading the answer. "Six hundred eleven!" he replied gleefully with a big smile, anticipating my reaction. I didn't let him down, but I doubt he fully understood the sacrilegious reference to the person some accept as the son of God, especially the way I colored it up in my surprise.


I paced myself (as if I really had a choice) and made it to the Buddha statue at the entrance to the cave. We had stopped to rest and enjoy the magnificent views any number of times, and a few people passed us up. Once at the entrance we paused to make merit at the statue, and as we turned to head into the cave itself we were joined by a young boy who attached himself to us as our guide. My friend said "he wants 40 baht," and I agreed, even though my friend had been through the cave before. It looked a little like he'd be kicking the dirt around or been there a while or both, and I dubbed him "Dusty."

Dusty grinned and trotted off down the somewhat steep path into the cave (the green pointer shows two people heading down), sliding along with a practiced skill I couldn't imitate, but it did give me an understanding of why he was so dirty as the clouds of dust rose around me while I did my best to avoid falling onto my butt.

You could feel the air change and become cooler as we soon left the open shade of the entrance and were bathed exclusively in the glow of bare fluorescent tubes, hanging every 20 feet or so from a single cord and strung on crude wooden poles along what served as a path. We continued on a downhill slope, deeper into the cave.

"What would you call these in Thai?" I wondered out loud, pointing to a light that I had to push to the side as I went past. He told me, but of course I've forgotten. I thought to myself "In the U.S. we'd call these 'a lawsuit waiting to happen'" as I slid another few inches and started taking smaller steps.

Soon the cave opened up above us in the first of several large caverns, and the formations were absolutely amazing. Towering far, far up into the darkness they formed a number of stalactites and stalagmites; the walls sometimes looking like a series of waterfalls set in stone. My flash was next to useless, and I soon abandoned the idea of attempting many photos allowing my eyes to adjust to the near-darkness (some of the lights were out) and just enjoy the formations, walking as carefully as I could.

Dusty - being in his element - skipped circles around us as he ran from spot to spot, climbing up some of the rocks and waving his water bottle around to point at things as he spoke in Thai, explaining points briefly before hopping down and moving quickly off ahead of us again. I didn't understand a word of it, but he seemed to be enjoying showing us around. My friend didn't try to keep up translating Dusty's commentary for me, saying "Not interesting - don't need to know," and I didn't push further. It was enough to just be there.

After a while we began to see light ahead and could feel a gentle breeze, slightly warmer than the air we'd been walking through. When I asked what it was I was told it was from a lookout we were approaching on another side of the mountain's top, and soon enough I saw a series of basic (OK, I'll be judgmental and just say crude) wooden stairs rising 60 or 70 feet up to it. These were not designed to hold a lot of weight; each step being about five feet wide with nothing to support it in the center other than the air below it. I stepped on the side edges of each one, cringing a little each time the structure creaked and groaned; my legs already a little shaky from the other 611 less than an hour ago.

Reaching the edge of the opening I stood at a railing just as rickety as the stairs behind me and got a little fright when I accidentally leaned on it as I peered down the steep drop to ground level below. It was a fantastic view, though, and I was glad I'd decided not to blow off the last few flights of old stairs and skip it.

I think I was more nervous going back DOWN the stairs than I was coming up them. Going down I was more aware of how far I'd fall and what I'd bounce off of than when I'd climbed up. Dusty hopped up on the railings and slid down them, one after another; more monkey than boy. You can see him far ahead of us at the bottom in the picture above. We re-traced our steps through the semi-darkness, uphill this time, and made our way back to the cave entrance.

I stood with my legs shaking a little with fatigue, wondering how my tired knees would do going back down the stairs still awaiting us. My friend lay down on the wooden platform to one side and promptly fell asleep. I tipped Dusty his 40 baht - actually, I gave him 60 - and sat down myself to rest a bit and finish my back-up bottle of water before waking my friend and heading back down to the parking lot.

A breeze had come up while we were inside so we had that going for us as we descended the stairs. Taking our time we again enjoyed the views along the way. We, too, stopped for ice cream, water and snacks before getting into the truck and heading back home.

My legs hurt for three days afterward.