Bhumibol Dam, Tak
The largest concrete arch dam in Southeast Asia, holding a reservoir over two hundred kilometres long.
Bhumibol Dam, Tak
Bhumibol Dam closes the Ping river in Sam Ngao district, north of Tak, and is the largest concrete arch dam in Southeast Asia - a curved wall over 150 metres high anchored into the gorge walls. It was completed in 1964 and was the first large multipurpose dam built in Thailand.
Behind it the reservoir runs back more than two hundred kilometres into the mountains, a long, narrow, steep-sided lake with drowned valleys branching off it. Boats work the water from the jetty below the dam, and floating raft houses are moored in the sheltered arms.
A viewpoint on the crest looks down the face and back over the reservoir. The dam supplies power and irrigation for the central plain and is a working installation rather than a visitor site, though the approach and the viewpoints are open.
- Lan Sang National Park, Tak — A compact park of granite hills and waterfalls on the road west from Tak towards the Burmese border.
- Taksin Maharat National Park, Tak — Hill forest west of Tak, holding the largest krabak tree in Thailand and a nine-tier waterfall.
