Had Enough? You’re Ready For The Hot Springs
Couldn’t have spent the last days more wisely. Relaxing and soaking body and mind at the Hin Dat natural hot springs – some 250 kilometers from Bangkok. Forget about the spins and lies and distorted sense of reality in Bangkok. Get a dose of real Thailand.
Formerly known as Kuimang Hot Spring, it is a well of natural hot water of 45 – 55 degrees Celsius beside a stream of cool water. They say Japanese troops discovered it during WWII. How could Thais have missed it? Anyway, Hin Dat is a most rewarding experience.
Once you leave Kanchanaburi behind you and follow the 130 kilometers on gorgeous highway 323 until kilometer 105.5, you’ll not only enjoy a spectacle of nature and mountains along the road. Have a break at one of the many restaurants offering fresh forest mushrooms. Soon you reach Hin Dat.
A simple open air bath of most basic infrastructure, with hot water that is believed to have a healing property for various ailments such as rheumatism and gout. Entrance fee is 10 baht for locals, 40 baht for foreigners – tells you something about the infrastructure?
Well, what else you need when you got large hot water tubs lined with natural stone – and a clean (!) fresh mountain stream two meters away to cool you down again. You could rent private bath tubs, but what would you need narrow walls and a roof for when the sky’s the limit?
Go natural, go with the locals – who enjoy Hin Dat in larger numbers over the weekend. You may want to choose a lonely rainy day for your visit to enjoy the bath’s peace. And don’t trust the name of the nearby Green World Hot Spring & Golf Resort. They have no access to the hot spring water, but talk about repairs and broken pipelines and … screw them.
All they have is a rotten jacuzzi in the cellar. Go for the real thing at the public bath. The only thing to worry: I always wonder when visiting a public bath in Thailand why you won’t find cleaner toilets than in a Thai public bath. As nobody uses the toilets.
Same in Hin Dat. You hope they discharge in the mountain stream …
Another plus: Hin Dat is open until late night:
