Lake of pink water lilies, Nong Han Kumphawapi
Surprising tour
Right after the visit to Phufai Flora, Dr. Wanpen Wirojanagud brought us to an amazing place called Lake of pink water lilies on December 31, 2013. It’s located in Nong Han Kumphawapi, Udon Thani. It takes about 1 hour by car to get to this place from Khon Kaen.
When Dr. Wanpen suggested to go to this scenic place, I thought in my mind that I had ever seen similar view in my hometown - Town of Lotus - and maybe it’s just nothing special. But it turned out that we never saw such a huge view before, pink water lilies all over the place in this big lake area. According to the tourist brochure, water lilies blossom especially during these 3 months of December through February. And you need to take a boat trip in the morning time to enjoy this world class scenic point.
Sea of water lilies
Arriving at the Lake area, Dr. Wanpen bought tickets for the boat trip. The weather in the morning time was a little bit cold, especially cruising on the lake.
Blurred pink strip
In the beginning, it seemed nothing you can see but the blue sky and huge open space, plus noisy motor sound when sitting in the boat. But, later on you could see a blurred pink strip in the far end of horizon. The flag of Thailand with red, white and blue colour just matches this landscape perfectly. It’s a good idea to have the Thai flag standing in this place, announcing to the whole world that this fantastic view belongs to Thailand, and you will be really proud of visiting this place in Thailand. What a wonderful place God has created!
Seeing is believing
You wouldn’t believe what you have seen until you were in this sea of pink water lilies. Dr. Wanpen said she never saw this before even when she had ever conducted some project in this lake area. Also Tom Ratpukdi commented on the Facebook that he had driven and passed by this place more than 20 times, but never had expected to see such a view. With such a wonderful place, Dr. Wanpen would suggest to her colleagues that bringing coffee and dessert along is even the best in the early morning trip. If possible, take the hand-paddling boat, instead of the motor-powered one.
How did this sea of water lilies form over the time? The boat owner mentioned that it’s only a small area of water lilies in earlier times. So there must be some ecological conditions favouring and nurturing this pink area, like the algae bloom in some reservoirs.
Quiet isle within the lake
As was the last day of 2013, the tourists would cruise and land at this quiet isle, and pray for the prosperous life in the next new year. When walking around this isle, you will see some Thai-style log cabins under construction. They said these are all for the monks to live in there. The log cabins uplifted in the forest looks so peaceful. I guess this is where you may ponder and meditate for a while.
