Glide down Thailand's Infamous River Kwai on Stand Up Paddle Boards, past untouched jungle, pristine waterfalls and giant caves. Spend the night on Luxury River Raft Resort hotel...

 

Amara's Water Sports, based at Blue Lagoon Pattaya Thailand, together with a bunch of great freinds completed the River Quest September 20 -21st  2008. The trip was amazing and we wish to share this experience with more people. contact us. if you are interested in Adventure Stand Up Paddle Trips is Thailand.

 

On the trail of adventure, ten SUP riders left the concrete jungle of Bangkok, Thailand (estimated population 15 million) and entered the mountainous valleys of the infamous River Kwai. This area is well-known for being home to the most notorious section of the Death Railway where more than 106,000 POW laborers died constructing the Thailand-Burma Railway in World War 2.

In September the river is flowing fast, as the monsoon rains swell the dams and burst the smaller rivers banks.  Each night, water has to be bled from the dam up-stream to prevent that too from overflowing.  After watching news stories of flooding and mudslides, we had been warned to cancel the trip.

 

We negotiated the jungle of highways and confusing signs and eventually found ourselves in a paradise of floating rafts, waterfalls and lovingly collected driftwood fashioned into our home for next two days. The Sai Yok River View Resort is like a mystical home of the river elves from Lord of the Rings. The staff were very helpful and kind and the food was excellent.

10 SUP riders and a bloke with flippers and the smallest car tyre I have ever seen woke the next day to stare in trepidation at the fast flowing river.

The night before, Bird and Bo had, without warning jumped into the flow. They could swim against it, without loosing ground for a few seconds only.

We drove all the boards up-stream about 5km by road to another beautifuly made raft resort.

The River was flowing fast and we were all nervous as we released the first board and rider into the current.

Soon we were all alone in a landscape of Waterfalls, limestone caves and untamed jungle.
This was a surreal experience. A waterfall is an example of nature's effortless wonders, and how little that we construct, can improve on a pristine landscape.

We were moving fast without doing anything, yet we had full control, able to cross from side to side, stay still or even go upsteam.

Each bend in the river reveals a mystery, a floating house complete with pot plants on the balcony, looks like a tavern in the wild east, shall we tie up the boards and go in for a drink?

The river is timeless, flowing relentlessly and feeding the country like the artery of an enormous beast. We traveled peacefully, yet we were always aware of her underlying power.

I am still SUPrised by how fast peoples skills improve on Stand Up Paddle Boards. No one had any dificlutly at all, and pretty soon riders were standing on the tail doing big lazy loops down the river, drifting backwards, sideways and pulling of nose spins. The Starboard 11'2" Ultimate Blend was the most popular board on the trip. The 12' Mr. Easy was perhaps even more fun as the extra stable board made inventing new tricks much easier.

We did two trips the first day roughly 8km each, with a great lunch imbetween at the resort.The food was "arroy maak maak". After lunch we loaded the boards into a river boat this time to be taken upstream to another raft hotel. The Resort staff gave us all a ride upstream for free in a pick-up.

The next day we did a longer downstream run, starting from the resort.
We drove some cars downstream 21km by road and left them ready to load the boards onto at the end of the run. We had no idea how far this would be by river.

It was just so damn good to be there. It is the people who make the sport special. SUP is great fun alone, but when you share the fun, it more than doubles it. The people who are attracted to flat water SUPing are some of the most serene and good natured people you will ever meet.

We had no GPS unit so we did not know our cruising speed either. Each trip we were getting faster as we quickly gained experience. We stopped to duck our heads under brisk waterfalls sparkling like diamonds in the sun. Ducking under stands of bambou or exploring bat caves near the rivers edge.

This stretch of river is remarkably undeveloped, each bend in the river offering a suprise vista in a stunning timeless landscape.No matter how beautiful the location or how wonderful the toys. It is the people who make such adventures memorable.
Amara and I would like to thank everybody who trusted us, took a chance and became part of this wonderful memory.

Now that we know what to expect, we will prepare more Starboard Adventure tours. Please contact us if you would like to join us or try a SUP lesson at one of our locations.

Pattaya Days Blog has a great personal account from the photographer from Asia Sports Photography. There are several entries to read with great photos. Search SUP or Stand Up Paddle on this site for some great stories and photos of the Stand Up Paddle Board Adventure on the River Kwai in Thailand.

View a smaller compilation of the Gallery here, (images remain the property of Asia Sports Photography, who will be glad to help if you need them).

We will do another trip to the River Kwai in September 2010.

We are planning a combined River Adventure and Surf Experience for June/July 2009

Contact The Starboard SUP team in Phuket for Surf lessons, Short SUP Discovery Experince tours for beginners. gear rental and corperate events.

Contact The Starboard SUP team in Pattaya at Blue Lagoon Water Sports Club - Amara, Bird, Bo and Craig

Contact The Starboard SUP team in Koh Samui for SUP lessons and beautiful beach cruises.