Wachiratan falls with three rainbows

The previous post in this series about our thanksgiving trip is here..

We started day 7 with a long drive.. but first we had some logistic trouble. Given the dip in falls and other hiking sessions that involved a lot of sweating, I was clearly out of clothes. The hotel laundry service was minimum 5 days out. Thankfully Joy and Goy knew a laundry service nearby. So we went and dropped our clothes there and they told the owner to drop the clothes back at our hotel if possible. They were nice and agreed to do so before 6PM. After this brief stop, we had to drive close to 2 hours to Do Inthanon national park. We told Joy we were happy his wife was joining us. He told us that she will not be hiking with us. Apparently the hike starts in one place and ends in another. So she will drive the car to the other lot and wait for us there to save time.

We went through the gum tree road.. where the trees are 150 years old to exit Chiang Mai city area. Once we reached the National park, our first stop was Wachiratan waterfalls. I was like a little kid. San promptly told Joy about her brave and stupid husbands escapades in Camodia a few days ago. Joy looked at me and diplomatically said we should go see the falls on our own and come back. He have us 30 minutes. We got a lot of yoga pictures as well…

Here are some landscape photos as well. Taking steady shots to get the long exposure was not easy with the hand with the wind. Enjoyed the falls thoroughly.. We did get wet and were worried about making the cold worse. Then again, we were on an adventure and were not going to miss out on anything!

A video highlights reel..

Our next stop was a drive away to do a hike from the park guide stop to the village..

Watching the sunset atop the Pre Rup temple

The previous post in this series is here..

Our last tourist stop for the evening was the Pre Rup Temple. A magnificent temple built for Shiva worshipped as the god of death. A place where the royals were cremated at the base of the temple. The sunsets facing the temple. There are four shrines on each side with lingas. Our driver had already mentally composed the shot he was going to take with me doing yoga in front of Shiva with the setting sun in the background.. trying to bring all three together needed some angles and calculations in a narrow time window. He already hyped me for the sunset. San kept rolling her eyes as she knew that Saruk was mentioning all my drugs in one sentence.. yoga, sunset, photography, shiva.. she warned me that this had the potential to be a big disappointment..

We were driving fast and Saruk said the only way we make it to the top is if we went through the side entrance. So off we went. There was a person checking our tickets but no crowd. We walked up to the temple and saw each stairs was a foot or more in height and there were more than a 100 steps to climb.. machchu pichchu style.. San rolled her eyes again, but the Wagh Bakri chai was still flowing and with my SLR back on my shoulder, started climbing up the stairs. We made it in time for me to do a timelapse video of the sunset, Saruk to try his yogagraphy (he should have gone wide but got an A+ for effort again) and walk back down right when it was starting to get dark.

A video highlights reel..

Our sightseeing for the day was almost over. We were going to go back towards our hotel but stop in the night market area for us to find food. . .

The romance is still alive and well- a private lunch in Banteay Srei

The previous post in this series is here..

Our hotel had said that we were allowed a packed breakfast if we left very early to sightsee and were also allowed one packed complimentary lunch if we gave them enough notice. Given we were going to be spending 7AM to 7PM on our first day, we had asked for lunch.

Our driver had asked us to hold on for another 45 miinutes after we came back from the 1000 linga waterfall. My clothes were still drying on the way. We made it to a cliff site in Banteay Srei area. Apparently most folks came here in the morning on the way to see the falls in the other direction. They make it one way till Noon. Hence his request. When we made it to the place it was amazing. San called it the grand canyon of Cambodia.

we spent some time taking pictures with our photographer driver giving us creative ideas. He did forbid me from doing any more dangerous yoga stunts after what happened at the falls. I promised to be a good boy and not go near any cliff edge.

After this he told us that if we walk 5 minutes along a path we could get to a private ledge to have our lunch with no one around. We said okay and walked to the spot. No one in sight. Had lunch.. well, San had lunch and I had her smile as my lunch. Somehow did not feel hungry watching her be so happy.

A video highlight reel..

We took some more photos and started towards our next stop.. we were coming down the hill to a big temple.. will pick it up tomorrow..