I stumbled on this article of mine (from I Think 2006), when I attempted to get to the confluence of 16N 99E.
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Hello,
My name is Robert Haynes and I work on the Canadian Helpdesk.
On March 20th I journeyed farther and deeper into the wild jungles of Thailand than I would’ve ever dreamt imaginable. Here is a ‘snippet’ of my trip…
I embarked on a venture that I was hoping would land me at the longitude of 99 degrees East, and 16 degrees North.
Where might that be you ask?
15km East of Umphang
Um-what?
Well, that’s 160kms South of Mae Sot.
Where??
Mae Sot is roughly 240 miles North West of Bangkok, on the Mynamar/Thailand border.
Umphang is easily accessible by car or my favorite mode of transportation, motorcycle.
Although roughly only 100 miles south of Mae Sot, it takes about 5 to 6 hours to drive because the road is so twisty, steep and windy that your average speed is about 20mph on nicely paved roads, with little traffic.
The purpose of my visit to Umphang was to see the 6th largest waterfall in the world
Thee Lor Su, south west of Umphang on one day, and then head south east the next day to 16N 99E.
(Thee Lor Su waterfall is about 1000ft high by 1650ft wide!! Both the Canadian and American sides of the Niagara falls, are a height of about 200ft)
The next day I set off to see how close I could get to 16N 99E.
An hour motorcycle through small villages, across wooden bridges, till we reached as far as we could on wheels, and off on foot we went from there.
It’s near impossible to describe in words, or photos, the scenery, landscape and idea of being almost literally, in the middle of nowhere. (Or the thought should my guide keel over how I might get back, haha)
After a few more hours on foot, zigzagging our way over through a river, in which we crossed about 50 times, over small hills (can’t really call them mountains coming from Canada), in plus 90 degree heat took its tole. The final tredge up a mountain we realized that at this pace we were still more than an hour away from our goal.
We turned back at 16.00.413N and 98.59.254E
Just under a mile!!
It truly an amazing day, criss-crossing a river 50times, snakes iguanas water buffalos and spiders, the likes made for an experience I won’t soon forget
(I could go on and on about this day, but for the sake of ‘a quick read’, will leave it at this, the story itself takes nearly 20min to tell, so typing, I can’t imagine!!!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hello,
My name is Robert Haynes and I work on the Canadian Helpdesk.
On March 20th I journeyed farther and deeper into the wild jungles of Thailand than I would’ve ever dreamt imaginable. Here is a ‘snippet’ of my trip…
I embarked on a venture that I was hoping would land me at the longitude of 99 degrees East, and 16 degrees North.
Where might that be you ask?
15km East of Umphang
Um-what?
Well, that’s 160kms South of Mae Sot.
Where??
Mae Sot is roughly 240 miles North West of Bangkok, on the Mynamar/Thailand border.
Umphang is easily accessible by car or my favorite mode of transportation, motorcycle.
Although roughly only 100 miles south of Mae Sot, it takes about 5 to 6 hours to drive because the road is so twisty, steep and windy that your average speed is about 20mph on nicely paved roads, with little traffic.
The purpose of my visit to Umphang was to see the 6th largest waterfall in the world
Thee Lor Su, south west of Umphang on one day, and then head south east the next day to 16N 99E.
(Thee Lor Su waterfall is about 1000ft high by 1650ft wide!! Both the Canadian and American sides of the Niagara falls, are a height of about 200ft)
The next day I set off to see how close I could get to 16N 99E.
An hour motorcycle through small villages, across wooden bridges, till we reached as far as we could on wheels, and off on foot we went from there.
It’s near impossible to describe in words, or photos, the scenery, landscape and idea of being almost literally, in the middle of nowhere. (Or the thought should my guide keel over how I might get back, haha)
After a few more hours on foot, zigzagging our way over through a river, in which we crossed about 50 times, over small hills (can’t really call them mountains coming from Canada), in plus 90 degree heat took its tole. The final tredge up a mountain we realized that at this pace we were still more than an hour away from our goal.
We turned back at 16.00.413N and 98.59.254E
Just under a mile!!
It truly an amazing day, criss-crossing a river 50times, snakes iguanas water buffalos and spiders, the likes made for an experience I won’t soon forget
(I could go on and on about this day, but for the sake of ‘a quick read’, will leave it at this, the story itself takes nearly 20min to tell, so typing, I can’t imagine!!!)
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