Pirahna Fishing in Thailand

The first time I saw the hand printed sign advertising Piranha Fishing, I was 3 hours into a mountainous motorbike trek in northeast Thailand.  My butt was aching and I had pulled off at a scenic overlook to give my rump a rest.  There, tacked to the guard rail of the overlook was a very unprofessional, hand drawn sign with a picture or two advertising Piranha Park, 8 km north of Pai.   I had not come to Thailand to fish, so I disregarded the sign. 


I arrived in Pai at 6 pm just as the sun was beginning to set.  After dark is NOT the best time to be searching an unfamiliar Thai town for a room, so I pulled out my trusty "Go Thailand" book to get a recommendation for a cheap safe room.  The book gave a few suggestions, all of which required that I first locate the bus station.  Not knowing what such a thing would like like in Thailand, I rode my bike up and down the market vendor lined streets looking for a large, official-looking station that was big enough to house a bus or two....this was wrong thinking.

I drove by this building several times before being tipped off by the long bench out front, that this might, in fact be the bus station.     Next, I was to walk about 70 yards to locate the Duang Guest House

Advertising is not exactly the strong suit of Thais (more on this later).   Fortunately, the garage door was opened when I arrived and I was given the choice of 2 alternative rooms.  I chose the one that came WITH a bathroom.  This turned out to be the DELUXE Suite, as it not only had a bathroom, it also had a fan and a TV showing all Thai programming. 

My room cost 400 baht or just under $12.  Note the outdoor sink that my neighbors who did NOT have the Deluxe room got to use.

The next day, I wandered around Pai.  I considered simply staying in my $12 room two nights in a row, but there was a part of me that wondered if changing rooms might afford me a DIFFERENT experience.   Then I stumbled upon another hand drawn sign advertising Piranha Park.  In fact, as I rambled around town, at every juncture, I seemed to bump into more of these hand drawn signs.  Finally, it occurred to me that I was getting an invitation....It was worth the trek by motorbike to at least find out who was the marketing mastermind behind all of this advertising.

Until this moment, I had gotten used to missing numerous sights in Thailand.  Along the road, there tended to be one sign saying something like "elephant tracks, 3 km"....that would be ONLY sign.   Yet Pirahna Park managed to plant a sign at exactly the right place, just when you started to doubt if you were going the right way, there would be another of those signs, in English.     When I finally arrived, I realized that though this was a fishing park, it was really about the closest place to Nirvana that I could find, at least by my standards.

The "park" consisted of 3 large ponds that I later learned were dug by the Thai government 10 years ago when the govt went up in the mountains on a mission of digging ponds for families to grow Tilapia in.

These 3 ponds were fed by fresh mountain water diverted directly from a waterfall coming off the mountain just behind the park.  The owners piped the water in, and had it cascade down their own rock water fall to oxygenate the ponds and to provide a never ending cacophony of waterfall music.

The owner also built 3 beautiful bamboo bungalows, each one with an outdoor bathroom complete with hot water shower.  Unfortunately, given it was "high season" here, all 3 bungalows were rented.   So, the owner offered to pitch me a tent to sleep in by the lake.   This for a whopping $6 / night.  At first, this seemed steep.  What I didn't realize is that it was a large tent with the most comfortable Thai pallet bed.   It was the best sleep I've had in a long time.

My tent was pitched under a pavilion on flat soft ground.   The door to the tent was only 3 feet away from the pond, and the spot came complete with a public toilet only 15 feet away.

This was the view from tent.  

I learned an old Thai method for catching fish.  Though the "novelty" fish in these ponds were Piranha, there were much more significant fish to catch.   The park was full of enormous catfish, snake-heads, carp, and numerous other types of fish I was unfamiliar with.


Turns out that the piranha, though aggressive feeders, are not the same dinosaur toothed fish that we all read about in the Amazon.   These piranha have tiny, razor sharp teeth, but they tend to eat smaller fish AND nuts and berries.    This was the first of 5 piranhas that I caught that evening. 




The owner of this park is a Thai / UK couple.  Their goal is to provide people with a beautiful place to have a fishing experience with fish they can't catch anywhere else...people are requested to release the fish so that others can enjoy the experience.

The more I poked around the Park, the more intrigued I got.   They owned numerous acres of tropical ponds and fertile farmland.   I realized that they were almost completely self sufficient.  They have large holding tanks, not for breeding, but for growing.   The fish thrive in the mountain stream fed ponds, and the breed like crazy.   He regularly nets the babies and keeps them in these separate tanks to grow them up.

The mother in law, probably in her late 50's actively farms the grounds.  In the back ground is rice, an you might be able to make out the words "pirahna park" in yellow shrubs lining the dirt road.   They grow rice, papaya, coconuts, cabbages, and I suspect numerous other vegetables...I just didn't feel comfortable going out in their farm land in my sandals...what with the cobras and all....

If it wasn't being farmed, the land was covered with the most beautiful landscaping, forever in bloom in this tropical climate.  This is landscaping just below the owners house which fronts along one of the ponds.

The owner was a builder in the UK before relocating here and marrying the Thai daughter 10 years ago.  He built this house, and all 3 of the bungalows around the ponds.   I assume there will be about 3 more bungalows added before he's done.

Oddly, I did not get a picture of the UK man.  He was very colorful and friendly, and no matter how much I raved about the haven he'd built, he just smiled and and agreed that it was a special place, in an Aw shucks, thank ya mate kind of way.   This is his wife, washing off the front porch / bar.

 

Their daughter is a cute little girl who looks completely Thai, but has her Daddies curly hair.

This was an attempt to capture the night time view from my tent using time laps with my litlle point and shoot camera.

Finally, the family dog had just given birth a to a litter of the cutest puppies.  It was fun to watch the puppies scramble for the next available teat.  Mom was incredible patient and resigne to play her role: