When I read Yulia’s (AKA Miss Tourist) post about the Sticky Waterfall in Chiang Mai back in 2015, I was immediately fascinated. Climbing a sticky waterfall on your bare feet? This is going straight on our bucket list! When we visited Chiang Mai (Thailand) for the second time a couple of years later, we checked out this Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall for ourselves.
The Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall in Chiang Mai
The Bua Tong Waterfall in Chiang Mai is better known as the Sticky Waterfall. You can climb this limestone waterfall on your bare feet. It’s not slippery (most parts at least) because of the limestone particles in the water.
The waterfall itself isn’t that impressive, as there isn’t that much water falling down. However, the rocks below the water are rounded, creamy, and not slippery, surrounded by a lush green forest. A pretty beautiful sight from below.
The Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall isn’t as flooded with tourists as some other attractions in Chiang Mai, but it’s pretty popular with locals, especially on weekends. When we visited, there were quite some construction works going on though, to make the site more tourist friendly.
Climbing the Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall
The parking at the Bua Tong Waterfall is at the top. So in order to be able to climb the Sticky Waterfall, you first have to descend the stairs along the side. Or go down the waterfall and then climb it again.
We went down to the 3rd level of this multi-tiered waterfall and stripped down to our swimwear. Us girls let the boys test the waters first before we followed suit. It’s a little scary because the non-slippery part is counterintuitive. But we climbed the Sticky Waterfall on our bare feet!
Stay alert and be careful while climbing though, as some parts (the grey ones) are a little slippery. Especially the last part was a bit tricky, but there are ropes at certain points to help you climb.
To cool down, you can splash around in the bathing pools at the top of the waterfall.
Visiting the Bua Tong Spring
Although the Sticky Falls are the main attraction, there is a clear water spring as well. Look for the sign saying “Namphu Chet Si” at the top of the waterfall. From there it’s only a short walk to the sacred spring, the source of water for the Bua Tong Waterfall.
There’s supposed to be a loop hike of about 2 km through the jungle as well, but it isn’t (clearly) signposted. We started hiking, but turned back because we weren’t sure we were going in the right direction.
The loop hike wasn’t clearly signposted when we visited in July 2017. If that’s changed by now, please let us know in the comments!
How to get to the Sticky Waterfall in Chiang Mai
The Bua Tong Waterfall is about 60 km (~37 miles) north of Chiang Mai Old Town. You can rent a motorbike to go explore the falls by yourself, or share a red songthaew with some other people. Booking a guided tour with transportation included is another option.
Visiting the Sticky Falls on a motorbike
We rented a motorbike from the lady down the street of our guest house to go check out the Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall by ourselves. It cost us 200 baht (~ $6 ~ €5.40) per motorbike per day. Fuel is usually not included, meaning your tank will be nearly empty when driving out of the shop.
When renting a motorbike you often have to leave a deposit and/or (a copy of) your passport. After some negotiating, Brecht brought the 3,000 baht (~ $90 ~ €81) deposit down to 400 baht (~ $12 ~ €11), and we left a copy of one of our passports.
We left for the Sticky Waterfall at about 11:00 in the morning. After some trouble trying to make it to the right side of the highway, we finally turned left onto Route 1001, driving north. After following this road for about 54 km (~ 33 miles), you have to make a right onto a smaller road leading straight to the waterfall. There should be a sign pointing towards the Bua Tong Waterfall. From there it’s another 3 km (~ 2 miles) to the car park.
According to Google Maps this trip will take you about 1 hour and 20 minutes, but all in all it took us over 2 hours to get from Chiang Mai Old Town to the Sticky Waterfall. In our defence, there were 2 of us on 1 motorbike, and we weren’t familiar with the road.
Visiting the Sticky Falls with a songthaew
A red songthaew filled with tourists is a common sight in Chiang Mai. You can hire one of those to get you anywhere, including the Bua Tong Waterfall. The price of a return trip to the Sticky Falls depends on how many people you’re sharing the songthaew with, and (obviously) your negotiating skills, but it’s usually around 1000 baht (~ $30 ~ €27) for the entire songthaew.
Visiting the Sticky Falls on a tour
If you’d rather do a tour including the Bua Tong Waterfall instead of exploring it on your own, there are plenty of options as well. You can check at the reception of your accommodation or with a local travel agency, or book a private tour with a local through TakeMeTour. Transportation is included most of the time.
Visiting the Sticky Falls using public transport
Our readers shared how they got to the Bua Tong Waterfall using public transport. While it only cost 80 baht (~ $2.40 ~ €2.15) per person return in 2019, it now seems to be 100 baht ($3 ~ €2.70) per person one way. We’ve summarized their tips below, or you can check out Mateusz’ commen, Liisa’s comment, and most recently Adam’s comment at the bottom of this post.
Note that this is not the best option at the time, because of the limited service, which doesn’t give you enough time at the Sticky Waterfall.
So, one of the cheapest, but not the easiest nor fastest, way to get to Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall is using public transport. Head to Chang Phueak Bus Station, otherwise known as Chiang Mai Bus Terminal 1, and find the red and white signboard reading “Prempracha” at one of the shophouses outside the main terminal. They have songthaews, minibusses, vans and busses running between Chiang Mai and Phrao, passing the Sticky Waterfall.
One of our readers commented there are only 2 busses leaving a day, one at 11:00 and another at 17:00. So you’d want to catch the 11:00 one. This bus tends to sell out, so to be sure, you can prebook your ticket through the Prempracha Transports website, or just check availability online. You need a ticket from Chang Puek to Prao.
When buying a ticket at the counter or boarding the bus, show them on a map you want to get to the Bua Tong Waterfall, so they’ll know where to drop you. It’s about a 40 minute bus ride to the drop point. From the drop point, it’s another 3 km (~ 1.9 miles) to the Sticky Waterfall entrance gate. You can walk (about 30 minutes) or hitchhike to get there.
The return bus from Prempracha leaves from Phrao at 13:00, which doesn’t really give you enough time to properly visit the Sticky Waterfall. So when heading back to Chiang Mai, return to the drop point and wait for a songthaew driving in the right direction. Wave them to a stop, agree on a price and climb aboard.
TIP: It’s safest to have the exact amount to pay the driver. Otherwise it’s possible they suddenly don’t speak any English anymore, or conveniently don’t have any change.
The Bua Tong Waterfall – Practical Information
Entrance to the Bua Tong Waterfall is free. There are (squat) toilets at the car park, but no toilet paper. At the top of the waterfall there’s a picnic area and a few restaurants.
If you’re hungry after your climb, the restaurant closest to the park entrance serves an excellent (spicy!) khao soi according to Aditya.
We didn’t have lunch at the waterfall though, but stopped at a shabby looking cluster of shops a couple of minutes after we left the Bua Tong car park. It felt like quite the adventure as the shops looked shady and poor, but the food was actually surprisingly good. It was cheap too, costing us 200 baht (~ $6 ~ €5.40) for lunch for 4, including drinks. Yay for us taking that “risk”!
When visiting the Bua Tong Waterfall, best bring the following things: swimwear and a towel, flip-flops, sunscreen, mosquito spray, and a (waterproof) camera.
We spent about 2 hours at the Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall, climbing it, taking pictures, and checking out the Bua Tong Spring. That’s as long as it took us to drive up there on our motorbikes, but it still was a day trip worth doing. The motorbike ride is part of the fun and now we get to brag about climbing a waterfall on our bare feet!
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So I visited the Chang Phueak Bus terminal and got a one way ticket for 40 THB!! Would be nice for you to update your post as 1000 THB is only the price you pay to get a private songthaew but not if you ride with a company! I’m sitting alongside Thai locals as we speak!
Hi Reuben,
Thanks for sharing your experience!
If you could give us some more info, we’ll definitely include your experience in our post! You mean you took a songthaew from the bus terminal to the Bua Tong Sticky Waterfall and paid just 40 THB one way? Did that songthaew agree to wait for you at the waterfall to get you back to Chiang Mai? Or how did you get back?
That’s what I meant, that the entire songthaew costs 1000 THB, so the individual price you pay depends on how many people are in it. But I admit that I did not formulate that clearly. It’s corrected now.
How did you like the Sticky Waterfall?
Thanks and enjoy your stay in Chiang Mai!
Birthe
Hi Birthe, we did some googling around after reading Ruben’s comment and here is how we got there.
1. Go to Chang Phuak bus station, there is an orange banner with Prempracha name on it. They are running between Chiang Mai and Phrao, conveniently sticky waterfalls are on the way.
2. Buy a ticket for 40 THB and show them on map you want to get to Bua Tong.
3. They will drop you near the turn to waterfall, then you need to walk 3km (or hitchhike) to get there.
4. On the way back just go back to point where you got dropped and wait for songthaew or minibus going to Chiang Mai and wave at them to stop and pick you up. Also it is a good idea to have exactly 40 THB as otherwise they may take more and immediately forget any English when asking why they charged more than agreed.
And that’s it. A bit more effort but you can make it with 80THB both ways.
That’s great, Mateusz, thanks for sharing all that info here! I’ll reference your comment in the post.
How did you like the Sticky Waterfall?
Thank you for this amazing tip Mateusz. We did exactly what you said. Getting to terminal 1 was easy between the public bus, songthaews and even the Grab app (what we used). The orange banner description was very useful at Terminal 1. The Prempracha people were very professional – like actual printed ticket and receipt and assigned seat in the songthaew 😀 On our way back we got a songthaew in 7 minutes and he straightaway proposed 40 THB, so I didn’t even bother to negotiate.
Birthe, just thought we’d update you a little as well. We relied a lot on your post and Mateusz’s comment. They seem to have closed the stairs/path beyond (what they were calling) Floor 2 – the first substantial landing from the top. Going further down required you to go down the waterfall itself. There was another (substantial) landing, and then some ways further down was the pool at the bottom – so not sure if there were 5 levels and I missed something or am just counting things differently. Anyway, the main thing is that to us it seemed like the best thing to do would be to leave our shoes at the top and just go down the waterfall the whole way and then back up – probably driven in part by my reluctance to walk barefeet down the stairs. The first part (or the last if you’re climbing up), you’ll remember, is the one you should be most careful with given that it’s steep and has some moss. So would suggest using the rope here.
Also there was a lady with 20THB lockers at the top but she left at some point mid-morning, so most people were just leaving their stuff in the open.
We didn’t try the hike or the pool because we had too much fun showering in the waterfall at the bottom and didn’t know how long we’d have to wait for a ride back. We just ate at one of the restaurants in the park. In fact, the one that we ate at, the first one/closest to park entrance, was great for us vegetarians. They even made off-menu vegetarian Khao Soi for us. Super spicy and the best we’ve had so far (could be because we were tired too :-))
Thanks again for this great recommendation!
Wow, Aditya, thanks for letting us know about your experience this elaborately! We’re happy to read you enjoyed your trip to the Sticky Waterfall and our post (and Mateusz’ comment) helped you get there!
I can’t remember that clearly how many levels there were exactly, or where the stairs ended.. We carried our shoes in our backpacks, but since your shoes were still there when you got back, I suppose that’s an option too. 😉
Is entrance to the park still free?
Greetings from Belgium!
Yes, the park is still free.
I think there was some entry to be made in a register if you’re driving in, but for us on the foot, they just waved us in.
At the entrance there were a couple of cages labelled “pet deposit” with a bowl for water – so I suppose your pets can’t go to falls proper with you.
Thanks for the update, Aditya! Enjoy the rest of your stay in Chiang Mai!
Hi Mateusz, Could You tell me how often more less bus from Chang Phuak to Phrao is going?
Hi Mikolaj, I did some research and found the Prempracha minibus, van or bus leaves more or less hourly from Chiang Mai Bus Terminal 1 (also known as Chang Phueak Bus Terminal).
You can find a bus schedule via https://www.rome2rio.com/ Just fill in “Chang Phueak Bus Terminal” to “Bua Tong Waterfalls”. I’m not sure how up-to-date these times are though.
Hope this helps!
Enjoy your trip!
Birthe
Acabamos de tomar el carrito en la terminal y nos costó 50 Bahts por persona…. así q esa es la actualización al día de hoy =)
Thanks for letting us know you took the bus for 50 baht per person today, Kenneth! You’re talking about the bus at the “Prempracha” banner, right?
Enjoy the sticky waterfall!
Just wanted to point out that there are showers at the park too
Thank you for this post and these comments! We took the bus today in 2022 and the prices have gone up – 100 per person one way. The sign has faded quite a bit at the station and is more like yellow now! We also got there around 12 and we missed the busses for the day. Next day they were leaving (Sunday) 9.30 or 11. The driver was coming back at 14.00 the latest so could pick us up at the road at 14.40. We took the bus at 11, but with the walk as well, it would probably be better to take the earlier one. We got lucky though and could hitchike some of the way! I would recommend going a day early to buy the tickets there and back as the bus was quite full, but also it was a bit difficult to explain that we wanted to even use the bus and not take some other 1000 bth car they had as an option. Overall it was a wondeful trip, the falls and stairs were all open, there was a modern toilet building and looked like some good food as well, although we didn’t have the time to try it. If you’d have more time there looks to be a cool market near the big road. Thanks for this post again!
Thanks so much for sharing your experience, Liisa! We’ve incorporated your info in the post above. I’m glad to read you enjoyed the Sticky Waterfalls. 🙂
Just one question: any idea how long the bus trip took?
Enjoy the rest of your stay in Thailand!
Greetings from Belgium,
Birthe
The drive was about 40 minutes and the walk ~30. 🙂
Thanks for your reply!
Thanks for the info on how to get to the sticky waterfalls! I wanted to share my experience:
1. There is now only one bus a day that will bring you to the waterfalls, at 11am. The other is at 5pm which is obviously too late for the waterfalls.
2. The Prempracha counter is outside of the main terminal in one of the shophouses, so don’t go searching around the main terminal like I did! Seems like they replaced their banner as well and it’s now a red and white signboard.
3. It seems like you can pre-book your tickets here: https://premprachatransports.com/
When I got there the 11am bus was unfortunately sold out, so I didn’t get to go. So it might be a good idea to pre book your tickets.
Hi Adam and thanks for your comment filled with helpful information! I’ve updated the post including your experience. Hope you eventually got to go to the Sticky Waterfalls, the next day maybe? If you did, how did you get back?
Enjoy the rest of your trip to Thailand!
Greetings from Belgium,
Birthe
Unfortunately I didn’t go in the end because I did the math, and given that the return trip departs from Phrao at 13:00 I wouldn’t have much time to spend at the waterfall (already you see Lisa’s comment above about not having much time when the bus departed Phrao at 14:00). I would say that the easiest thing to do would be to get 4 people and split the cost of a songthaew or car; the going rate right now as I heard is 1,000 THB for a return trip. If I don’t find someone I might just pay the premium for a tour.
Hopefully the limited schedule is temporary and more departures will be added soon!
I see, Adam, thanks for the info. Hope you still get to visit!