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February 15th 2011
Published: February 15th 2011
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Even the guard dogsEven the guard dogsEven the guard dogs

are laid back in Chiang Mai
Well the bus ride wasn’t too bad in the end. A mild bit of sea sickness but you are so chilled after spending time in Pai you can just mellow in the beautiful mountain scenery, the midday sunshine and enjoy (ish), just don’t try to read a book.

Chiang Mai welcomed us back with open arms, we were even given a room upgrade as ‘regulars’ and it’s a nice feeling walking down the street of a relatively strange city, thousands of miles away from home being greeted by people you recognise with a warm smile and a welcome back. You just hope it’s not simply because you’re good tippers ;-) This will be a short blog because like most people in Chiang Mai, we didn’t do a lot. The pace of life in this large city is probably the most relaxed we have experienced anywhere.

We decided to head further out so hired a scooter with a decent engine and headed south to the Doi Inthanon National Park. It’s not only home to (and named after) the highest peak in Thailand (2565m) it also hosts waterfalls and both Karen and Hmong hilltribe villages. The 60km ride to the park
Top of the WorldTop of the WorldTop of the World

well SIam at least
is an experience in itself as you start to see the non tourist, industrial Thailand that is driving the phenomenal growth in the region. But at Chom Thong where you turn into the park the landscape changes dramatically from very flat to large mountains, & very, very steep ones at that. We decided to head to the top first and even on a new 125cc scooter there were sections of road that were almost too much, how the crappy old songthaws made it up we’ll never know. We also didn’t think too much about the petrol situation, not realising the peak was nearly 40K away from the entrance and all uphill. Oh well, who needs brakes on the way down. When you reach the peak you can’t really see much, the highest point is surrounded by trees and the great vista is spoiled by the Princess Sirindhorn Neutron Monitor, some sort of military looking complex supposedly monitoring cosmic rays and you do feel pretty close to the cosmos here. But a few yards back down the road and the magnificence of the National Park unfolds before you and provides some spectacular views, no wonder it’s called the ‘Roof of Thailand’.
The Roof of ThailandThe Roof of ThailandThe Roof of Thailand

The beautiful National Park
There are some cracking walks in through the park that it would be great to explore if we head this way again. The joy of mountains in a wet region is the accompanying waterfalls so we stopped off to visit the Siriphum and the Vachiratharn Waterfalls, the latter turning out to be the most spectacular we have seen in Asia. After a stop for a bite in the local food market a kindly old lady from the local hill tribe village told me that she had the solution to our lack of petrol, she knew we were cornered and with those trading skills and ruthlessness Barclays should offer her a job as the next CEO. On the way back through the park we took a detour to see the Mae Ya waterfall, not quite as spectacular but beautiful all the same. A beautiful day in a beautiful region only dulled slightly by the backaches from 180km on a scooter.

A day of rest followed where the only interruptions were a fantastic massage for Chris by a 50yr old gran with fingers like steel rods, and a lovely evening with one of us watching Arsenal live in a pub that
Never to be seen againNever to be seen againNever to be seen again

The trousers, not Lisa
serves Guinness and the other watching a girly flick with mountains of chocolate, can you guess which? The next day we scootered up again and headed out for a bit more culture. We decided that a trip to the Mae Sa Valley and the Queen Sikrit Botanic Gardens sounded like a pleasant day. It wasn’t too far out so with no aches we arrived at the aforementioned gardens, paid our foreigner fee, (even though we can now fall asleep anywhere we still don’t qualify as Thais!!) and set off on a slow stroll round the gardens, it was really quiet, unlike the Elephant Camp just down the road. As you strolled around the reason became obvious, it’s not really very interesting or even that pretty, it may be another of those ‘time of the year’ things but the ‘Garden of Heavenly White Flowers’ should be renamed the ‘Garden of lots of sticks poking out of ground’ and even the pathway through every kind of climber known to man failed to inspire. At the peak of the park was a very good and interesting natural history museum, with useful info about the different types of jungle found in Thailand and a
Vachiratharn FallsVachiratharn FallsVachiratharn Falls

How a waterfall should be
history of the exploration of the whole region. Well you win some you lose some and with that thought we headed back down the hill to our transport to go to visit the Hill Tribe Museum & a few other interesting spots.

Well that’s what we intended any way until the normally incredibly reserved Lisa decided that the perfectly good concrete path we were walking on wasn’t exciting enough and so chose to go off-road down the steep grass & mud slope. She very quickly realised that this wasn’t one of her smartest ideas but by that time it was a snadge too late as she was hurtling down the hill towards a tree, easy she thought ‘grab tree, stop the fall’ but not being blessed with the best hand-eye skills she missed, bounced off said tree and continued on downwards. Unaware what had transpired behind him Chris, having remained on the perfectly good path, turned the corner just in time to see Lisa rejoin the concrete, unfortunately she managed to do it knees first which as you can imaging was particularly painful. It didn’t take a Doctor to work out that the ripped knees on her trousers, the
Heavenly Legs?Heavenly Legs?Heavenly Legs?

or are they simply Holey!!!
copious amounts of red liquid leaking out & the fact that many more layers of the dermis than usual were now on display wasn’t a good sign. She never really does things easily does she? In the same way as the headbutting the bamboo bush in Laos this also happened on a Sunday in the middle of nowhere. So before the leg stiffened too much we loaded her on the scooter and set off to the nearest recommended hospital back in Chiang Mai. As the kind doctor cleaned and treated the horrible looking wound he couldn’t believe that the wound wasn’t scooter related but was much more cerebral, that is an inability to think ;-) After the treatment, the stitches, the drugs and the take away cleansing kit the final sting in the tail was that when presented with the bill we realised we didn’t actually have enough money on us. So Chris had to leave Lisa as collateral and head back to the town to find the credit card, he even managed not to stop at the pub on the way back. Thai healthcare is still very good value compared to the west but after this Lisa will be
Comms UpgradeComms UpgradeComms Upgrade

Consulting with the Buddha has just got easier
on bread and water for a few weeks!!!! The real shame being that the reality of the injury sank in with doctor’s parting shot of definitely do not get it wet as tomorrow we were to start our journey south to meet our Brit/Aussie friends and spend a few week in the islands.

The following day we headed off to the bus station having secured a spot on the Nakornchai Air 1st class bus back to Bangkok and without a doubt it’s the best bus we’ve ever travelled on. Seats that almost go flat, with built in massagers, seat back TV’s and with more leg room that any premium economy flight, the 9 hr journey was almost a pleasure.



Additional photos below
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Watt a ChediWatt a Chedi
Watt a Chedi

What a beauty thats hidden in a small town in the middle of nowhere
Scooter KidsScooter Kids
Scooter Kids

yep it's cold on the bike
Mae YaMae Ya
Mae Ya

Different type of falls but still lovely


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