City to Wilderness

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From the north of Chiang Mae we took the Thathon bus to Chiang Dao which is about 80km and 1.5 hours on a very crowded local bus with no AC just fans that do'nt work. No westerners on board just us and seats for 3, only 2 on our one! 39C on the bus, phew, in the full sun once we arrived at the village of Chiang Dao it was 42C, nearly unbearable until a red taxi arrived to take us to The Nest which is 8km up towards the Dao national Park.

Once at the village we got a sorng-taa-ou(yellow taxi)to the Chiang Dao Nest. The nest sits just outside the Doi Chang Dao National Park and next to one of Thailands biggest mountains Doi Chiang Dao which is 2195m. Our hut was made of bamboo and had a big fan,but location,location,location, wow!
Very quiet because its low season here,the contrast from the bustle of Chiang Mai was enormous but unfortunately the temperature was'nt.

In the afternoon we took a short walk to a temple in the mountains called Samnak Song Tham Pha Plong which to get to,you climb 510 steps exactly. Its the start of the monsoon season here and we were caught in a heavy burst which we found out later caused damage to homes only a few km away down the valley. The reason is the ground is very dry and hard,so the rain rushes off the slopes to flood the low ground.We spoke to a monk! bit of a shock, as he asked us where we came from and then mentioned whiskey. We were told that they have ipods too.

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Photos

Nest swimming pool
No one there so had to use self timer, difficult because of shape of pool, nearly fell in

Nest Pool
Best view whilst swimming

SamnakSong Tham Pha Plong
510 step Chedi

510 step Chedi
nearly there