Trang: Fresh pepper and tranquility in the mountains of Palian
Venture to the foot slopes of an impressive ridge to taste local pepper in a rural corner of Trang province.
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I’m not shy to call Trang my personal favorite of Thailand’s 77 provinces. Part of the reason for such fondness is that it was here where I started my travel writing career almost exactly 12 years ago, firstly covering the capital town and then, as part of the new-hire assignment of a lifetime from Travelfish, writing online guides to the glorious islands of Ko Mook, Ko Ngai, Ko Kradan, Ko Libong and Ko Sukorn. Over many subsequent visits to Trang I’ve kept focusing on these islands while also branching to outlying stunners like Ko Phetra, Ko Lao Liang and Ko Rok.
But all of this island-centric travel meant that I left little time for Trang’s extensive mainland reaches. I’ve collected a fair number of days eating my way through the capital, a pleasant and laid-back mid-size city where I’ve always felt strangely at home among the many dugong sculptures. (Thailand’s primary remaining habitat for these gentle cousins of the manatee is just off Ko Libong and images of them can be seen everywhere throughout the province.) I’ve also done a bit of waterfall- and cave-hopping while generally enjoying the brilliant greens and batik-tinged scenes of mainland Trang’s many farms, villages and forest areas.
Until yesterday, though, a couple of day trips was all I’d ever devoted to inland Trang, outside of the capital. I’ve long known that, to the east, the Banthat mountain range creates a natural border between the provinces of Trang on the Andaman coast and Phatthalung over on the Gulf side along Songkhla Lake. These mountains add much to the clear-day views from both Phatthalung and Trang, but very few foreigners ever explore them. Even among Thai nature lovers, these mountains are far less traveled than, for example, the Khao Luang area up in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
This post is not about the entire Banthat range, which extends for at least 100 km in parts of four different provinces. This post is about a single cloud-touching mountain with trails and a crystal stream, and maybe some Trang pepper to boot.
