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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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Wachiratan falls with three rainbows

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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..

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The beauty of Doi Suthep temple

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The previous post in this series is here..

We had a long drive from the Land of Angels to go up the mountain overlooking Chiang Mai to reach the Doi Suthep temple.

The temple was built is 1385 and is just beautiful. Gilded gold decorations, elaborate nagas (there is a hairline difference between Aadhi seshan and a dragon and this area is where the crossover happened is my guess), Buddhas in every pose, paper lanterns, the most beautiful set of steps we have ever walked on.. watching faith upfront, a fast track to heaven (apparently if you climb up the stairs to go to the temple, you go to heaven.. we paid for the escalator cage), etc.

We rang the bells and made wishes, prayed in the shrine, got blessed by the monk and got yet another “saradu” tied on our hands, watched the city and the airport from the view point.. basically had an enjoyable afternoon that made the time with the elephants in the forests a 100km away earlier in the morning, a distant memory.

We bumped into friends at the head of the staircase! What were the odds.. Apparently pretty high when half of bay area friend circle goes to attend the same wedding in Thailand..

The photos and videos do NOT do justice to the beauty of this place.

We also stopped by briefly at Wat Pha Lat which is now a famous meditation center. It was closed for tourists as the monks cannot meditate with the tourists around. So had to be content with taking video outside. Then we stopped at Wat Si Soda at the base of the hill which is just beautiful. We did not get time to go up the staircase but the nagas and stairs were amazing.

Here are the few landscape mode photos..

and the video highlights reel where you can also see Wat Pha Lat from outside and Wat Si Soda..

After the Doi Suthep temple, we were back to the old Chiang Mai area to see some old temples that were built here even before Doi Suthep.. that in the next post..

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.