A recent article (1) describes the Pensuk Great Western Resort in Thailand (pensuk.com). To get there, the route is described as "traveling across open scrubland punctuated by stark, serrated limestone cliffs and tablelands." The road was also lined with small beef and dairy farms, and there were pastures with cowboys herding calves. All of this was amid Bhuddist temples--"the only visible sign that this was the Far East, not the Wild West."
The resort is located in Nakhon Ratchasima province, also known as Khorat. The province is known for Khmer ruins and the Khao Yai National Park. Approximate coordinates are N 15 degrees and E 102 degrees. This area is part of the Central Indochina Dry Forests ecoregion (www.worldwildlife.org/wildworld/profiles). The characteristic forest association is an open deciduous dipterocarp forest. These forests are open and grade into savanna woodlands depending on the degree of disturbance. The grassy understory is dotted with cycads. This ecoregion covers a large area in northeastern and northern Thailand, and also extends into Cambodia. Mountain ranges in the south and west of the province are in the Southeastern Indochina dry evergreen forests ecoregion, which is dominated by different species of Dipterocarpaceae. This plant family contains the trees which dominate the lowland rain forests of southeast Asia.
(1) Thai Noon. Joshua Kurlantzick. The Atlantic 301 (5): 117-121 (June 2008).
