rivers

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Doi Inthanon National park - Pha Dok Sieo trail

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The previous post in this series is here..

We drove to the Doi Inthanon Park sign where we had to pay token money to the local village people. They usually have a village lady accompany tourists on the walk to the village. We spent an hour walking through the forest on the Pha Dok Sieo trail crossing multiple waterfalls on the way and learning a lot of things about the forest and the village we were visiting.

The village was again inhabited by folks who originally came from Burma. They cultivated coffee (originally Heroin which was discontinued by government and switched to coffee) and rice.

Our guide was a lady from the village. She explained everything on the long hike and Joy translated where reqiured. It was a pleasant day and we thoroughly enjoyed the hike. It ended in the village where we met a very old lady operating a loom to make scarves. We sat at a cafe and had bananas and San managed to get a coffee (made from local beans) and it was time to walk to the car and drive to our next stop.

While we walked to the car, we met a 106 year old grandma who was so sweet. She could not hear at all, but she asked San to sit next to her to take photos and spread the tarp for her. We were truly touched by this grandma. She had three kids, the oldest son was 86 and the youngest daughter was 66. We met the daughter. Apparently grandma had a tough life in Burma.

Here are the pictures..

Landscape mode photos.. we learned about stingless bees, plants that can confuse fish and make them drunk, jumping snakes, and a lot of forest facts..

and a video highlights reel..

We said bye to the village and moved to stop 3 for the day..

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Meeting the Long Neck tribe people in Chiang Mai

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The previous post in this series is here..

Joy showed up in the morning to pick us up at 7AM sharp. We had received the breakfast and they gave what they could. San was covered. I was not. Luckily I still had some energy bars left for the day. We also wanted to stop by a pharmacy to get some throat lozenges. Joy helped San buy stuff. It was good we had a translator!

With a quick pharmacy stop, we were on our way to our first stop on a very packed day. Joy was surprised that we wanted to see all that in one day, but we promised him we will step up and we will be done before 6PM for sure. He simply smiled. As we drove out of the busy area of Chiang Mai, he showed us the old houses in the area made of Teak wood on one street where the trees were also old and lined the street on both sides. It was going to be an almost 100km drive. Gave us some rest. We saw an airplane that was converted to a restaurant on the way as well.

Our first stop was to visit the Long neck tribe who are originally from Burma but have been given refuge in Thailand. They can sell trinkets to tourists and have some land to cultivate crops for themselves, but are restricted to that area. The women have long necks and wear a heavy set of rings from the time they are children. Originally only women born on a full moon Wednesday had to wear it. Now all girls are wearing it here. Learning about their history and way of life was interesting. We took some photos with the women and children, bought some souvenirs and walked back to the car. The river that ran through their area was key to their survival and there were beautiful waterfalls right near the houses of the tribe.

A few more photos..

A video highlights reel..

The reason for visiting them first was that the next stop wasn’t going to be ready for us that early and they were on the way..

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An evening to remember in Siem Reap City

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The previous post in this series is here..

It had been a long day. We had woken up at 3:45AM to leave the hotel at 4AM and had made 6 stops by noon. Had eaten parts of the packed breakfast (San could eat a lot more than me given the allergies) and some energy bars and kept going. By 1PM when we came back to the hotel we were exhausted. After a 3 hour nap and some Wagh Bakri chai, we decided to go enjoy golden hour along the river.

The plan was to walk along the river, cross over to the night market restaurant area, eat dinner and walk back to the hotel. It was just a 20-25 minute walk. The river walk was beautiful. Then we walked to the same area where we had found dinner and decided to go to a different restaurant. I thought the writing was in Telugu from a distance.. turns it out was in the local language. The food was decent. We both were developing a sore throat. So we stuck to simple safe items. We were the only ones in the restaurant as it was still early.

Enjoyed the food and walked back.. Saw a cat restaurant on the way back and was missing the little one. She loves cats. I am told that one day I will be a Crampa (cat grandpa).. and that is all the pa I will get.. but given I am allergic to most cats, that privilege will be lost on me.

A video highlights reel..

We got back to the hotel by 7 and it was lights out. Our driver had promised one more sunrise, this time we would actually get to see the sun come out over the forests atop another temple on the hill. We were to leave the hotel by 4:30AM.. again. San was in two minds and said she will decide at 4AM, but I begged her to join me in the morning and we dozed off.

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.