Khao Phueng Cave

3 Alex Maat - 4 years ago

While driving around the area, we found sign posts pointing to this cave. At the end of the road, there is a little toilet building. Your 10-minute hike up to the cave starts here.

However, we were accompanied by a random deaf woman (as noted in other reviews as well) and she seemed quite helpful as much as eager to help us get there. I think you can find (and visit) the cave yourself, but the woman was already guiding us there. The brought headlamps and tried pointing out some details within the cave. However...

When we were back at our motorbikes, we thought about tipping her 50 Baht per person, but she wanted 500 Baht in total. It really is a bummer that after a good experience, some local woman living in a small house down the road demands so much for something which wasn't needed in our opinion. Haggled it down to 400, left promptly thereafter. Be aware.

4 Dave Kennedy - 4 years ago

It's a good cave but a very tuff climb if your scared of heights, my wife never made it all the way, I went up with a 6 and 9 year old, my 6 year old girl was a little scared but made it up. The cave itself is great and you get taken to a second cave full of bats.
As for the women she is deaf but very nice she wanted 500 baht but was happy with 400 baht a little bit pushy but nice enough. Worth the visit. Check Google maps though as it took me through an old disused road to get there which ended in the middle of know where.

4 Danai - 10 months ago

Hard to find small cave entrance.
Remote place and so adventure.

The deaf brutal woman guide is not around.

4 Ankit Singh - 3 years ago

It's awesome to find some thing which really makes you socked. It is the place in the centre of forest and mountains , one have to go up to visit the cave. Some people are there to help you they will charge 100-200 THB to make you visit all the places or you can go yourself and easily save your THB.

1 Vijendra Bhat - 2 years ago

It's a clear scam. There's a team of at least 3 deaf and dumb ladies who try to rip the tourists off and one of them will almost escort you to the cave without you asking her. It was all weird. Luckily, on the way to the cave, we met a tourist walking back from the cave who was asked to pay 500 baht in front of us which is a lot of money in my opinion. So we bailed out and even though they didn't do much, we paid her 100 baht, and she was still complaining. So I don't recommend doing this.

Just to give you a perspective of the cost, the entrance fee to the nearby national park costs you 120 baht.

5 Rudi Zimmerer - 2 years ago

There are 2 huge cave systems on two floors. The caves are spooky and creepy with bats and a lot of noise inside of the caves... You need flashlights for the caves, and good trekking shoes to climb up the mountain to the caves. The path divides in 2 paths one for the lower floor with a small hole as the entrance and the upper floor has two huge entries...

1 Savannah Williams - 4 years ago

Yes, the caves are pretty cool. But beware- it seems 2 deaf women are always "guarding" the cave.
They were nice enough, but they would not let us go down the path to the caves without one of them guiding us. My friend and I came by scooter, and one of the women made us leave my bag with her, about which I did not feel comfortable. We hiked up a steep trail for about 10 minutes. The larger cave is to the left, and the smaller cave filled with bats is to the right. The deaf woman leading us offered to carry some of our things, like my camera, in her backpack on the hike up. That was nice. But we really did not need a guide. Nor did we want one.
She took us on a tour. We could have seen it all ourselves, taking as much time as we pleased. But she was very forceful about some things- like making sure we looked at certain things, or grabbed on to hand holds on the trail. She also pulled up my pants without warning a couple times. I was extremely annoyed to say the least. When we entered the second cave, there was an area with some wooden steps that lead to another room in the cave. She proceeded to "tell" us that if we wanted to go further, we would have to pay her 1000 baht! I was fuming. If it had just been my friend and I there without this unwelcome "guide", we would have been able to enjoy all of these wonderful caves, for free. They are in a national park. No one should unofficially be making a profit forcing others to do business with them on a NATIONAL PARK. I even made sure our visit to the cave was free by asking the park employee at the Huay To waterfall entrance.
The whole experience was over in about 40 minutes. When we returned back to the shelter area where we were parked, I retrieved my bag. My friend and I felt obligated to tip this woman, even though we did not want to nor did we think we should. I pulled out 50 baht for her, she shook her head and demanded 500 baht. !!!
We were so frustrated. She never told us any price before we began this "tour". It sounds to me like these ladies charge whatever amount they feel like depending on the tourist.
Based on other reviews, it seems like these ladies are here often. I would advise visiting the caves at a time when they are not around. You will enjoy peace and quiet, and the freedom to explore at your own pace. Oh, and you won't be charged 500 baht or more.
Bring a headlamp or flashlight, hiking shoes or sturdy sandals like Chacos, some water, and a camera.