Sak Yai Forest Park

It makes and excellent focus for a day’s exploration of the undulating hills of Uttaradit Province, especially as it can be combined with a visit to nearby Sirikit Dam. The route there leads past small villages and rice fields set between low hills, and there is very little traffic along these minor roads.

‘Sak yai’ means ‘big teak’ and the teak trees in the forest park look very healthy and mature, though there’s one that stands out from the crowd. Proudly claimed to be the biggest teak tree in the world, it is not so much the tree’s height as its girth that is surprising. The tree once measured 47 meters tall, but the top was blown off in a storm about a decade ago and now it’s down to 37 meters.

Its circumference just over a meter from the ground is just under 10 meters, which means it would take several people holding hands to encircle it. Sadly, you can’t check it out as the tree is fenced off by a viewing platform that runs all the way round it. The tree’s age is estimated at around 1,500 years, which must make it the oldest living thing in the country. If trees could only talk, what tales would this one tell?