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Hi everyone, I hope you are all well
Yesterday was a more relaxed sedate day, but one still out and about. I opted for a visit to the national park which boasts the highest mountain in Thailand.
There were 6 of us on the trip, me, a couple from Switzerland a guy from Guatemala and two girls from France. The guy and one of the girls live and work in Bangkok. All the rest of us are just on holiday.
We had a lovely young Thai lady call Gift, obviously not her real name but we didn't have a cat in hells chance of pronouncing her name lol. Our driver was Mr T apparently and to reassure us she told us he had a 100% safety record lol.
Whilst waiting for the minibus I got talking to 3 new arrivals fresh from the night train. All 3 from England a couple and a single female, all similar ages. The couple are called Ewan and Mandy and the girl I is called Hannah I told them about my experiences with the tigers and elephants. Hannah said she was thinking about
them and wanted to book, the couple didn't seem so interested. They had left Bangkok just before they declared Marshall law and said there were armed police at the train station when they arrived in Chiang Mai but other than that I haven't seen or heard anything, so it just seems to be Bangkok where the problems are. I'm only in Thailand for a few more days and then head to Laos.
So the minibus headed off to the national park which took about an hour and a half to get to. Our first stoop was wachirathan waterfall which is about 80 meters high. There is the main waterfall and then some smaller ones over to the right. You could feel the mists on you face coming off the churning water. I wandered a little along the paths around the waterfall and along the river.
There were lots of ants on the ground and vegetation, and as I was heading back up the path a few had landed on my arm so I brushed them off. But the got paranoid that every time I felt something on my skin it was an anypt or
bug. From a distance I must have looked like I suffered from a very nervous tick or was swatting away imaginary flies lol.
We stopped for about 20 minutes and then headed to a local small tribe village. The villagers descended from a tribe who moved to Thailand from Burma and are called the white coats as the ladies wear a long whit tunic until the get married and they then wear a different colour. They make a living from weaving scarves, shawls and bags, growing coffee and rice and selling home grown veggies to the public at markets. We stopped there about ten mins as there wasn't much to see.
We then headed to the Sirithan waterfall for more photos and a wander, about a ten minutes stop. It was hot and humid and when the breeze blew lots of helicopter leaves were blown off the trees and spun through the air, simialr to the ones from our sycamore trees. All around you could hear the sound of crickets chirping.
Next port of call a small gathering of stalls selling tourist tat, flowers, fret fruit and veggies and other food
stuffs. I bought a small bag of dried pineapple and a bag of peanuts covered in something like toffee and sesame seeds, it tasted just like peanut brittle!
Then it was lunch time so we headed to a local roadside restaurant where we filled our boots. Rice, Thai soup, battered deep fried fish a bit like fish goujons served on the plate with the bones of the fish complete with head lol. Stir fry veggies, mushrooms and a sweet and sour dish. Fresh fruit to finish off. Yummy!
We then headed to the highest point in Thailand in Doi inthanon National Park 2565,meters above sea level. There is a shrine there to King Inthanon who,was a Thai king who after a visit to the spot wanted a shrine building when he died to house his ashes that he wanted interned there.
Our final stop was the royal pagodas which had been built for the king and queen Thailand. The one for the queen was under going maintenance and was surrounded by scaffolding. The one to king was fully visible. Both we set atop the hillside and surrounded by gardens. Both also
housed images of Buddha and had painted ceilings and Round the outside were various freezes made from brick work.
Sadly the mist rolled in before I could get any shots of the views. Finally we headed home. A nice chilled day had by all
Xxx
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