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..

Land of Angels, Chiang Mai

The previous post in this series is here..

After spending time with the elephants our next stop was Land of Angels theme park.

This park was supposedly a kids attraction but photographers post some amazing pictures from this place in travel forums.. so I wanted to add this to the 1st days agenda. Given it was on the way back from the elephant sanctuary with a small detour, Joy was okay with this plan. As a waterfall crazy person, I was not going to miss this!

He gave us 1 hour at this place. We came out in 50 minutes after walking through every path in this place and getting some nice pictures.

A few more photos in landscape format..

Here is a video highlights reel..

After we came out, our next stop was a drive back towards Chiang Mai but towards the tallest local mountain.. San decided to take a nap on the way back while I silently watched the roads, the University area and the mountains..

Never been happier - Doilom elephant sanctuary in Chiang Mai

The previous post in this series is here..

After visiting the long neck tribe, our next stop was the Doilom elephant sanctuary. We had told Joy that we wanted less crowd. So he went to a place farther away. We were the first customers and after waiting 15 minutes for another group that never showed up, they decided to give us a private tour for the two of us. It was nice of them. I am sure Joy explained our time crunch to them.

There is only one thing that has made me happier than a 90 minute hot yoga class. That is spending 90 minutes with this amazing gentle elephant. Had an great time making medicine for her and feeding her and walking with her and taking a bath with her.

Had already walked in there with a cold and had taken tylenol. After getting in the cold water with the elephant and getting completely wet, not sure if I helped my own cause. The recovery was going to take longer. San was not happy with my move to jump into the water but I don’t get to do this every day! So there was no reasoning with me.

After the water, we got changed quickly and luckily they had really nice towels to keep us warm for a few minutes to dry.

They served us lunch but again I just settled for plain white rice with salt and pepper. Only the jeera was missing. After eating an energy bar and two more tylenols for desert and topping it off with a packet of emergen-C vitamins, was ready to move to our next stop..

A video highlights reel..

Our next stop was a place that I added to the tour list that is not in most folks list. Had heard about this place through a friend who visited Chiang Mai as a photographers delight. That in the next post..