Doi Inthanon National Park

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An early start, as I was heading to the highest peak in Thailand. I went off in search of some breakfast, I headed to the main crossroads and came across some stalls. I tried to order of the menu, but the woman explained that the menu was for the night stall, not what she was selling. She opened two big pots of rice porridge to show me what was on offer, one looked kind of plain and the other looked a bit more exciting, so I opted for that. I got to pick which meat I wanted to add, there were a few on offer and I picked pork. The lady bagged it up for me and gave me a bowl and spoon, and I took it back to the hotel to eat. It was definitely one of the best rice porridges I have ever eaten, it was quite garlicky, and the pork and the boiled egg just made it taste even better.

I was picked up around 8:45-9:00 am. There were six people from my hotel doing this tour today. Our guide, Aom, was super cute and funny. She taught us some basic Thai words, that I forgot pretty much instantly, the sounds are so different. She outlined what we would do today, and was telling us that we could try opium, and that lunch would be monkey soup and snake. Then we all settled in for a nap, as our first stop was an hour and a half away. We reached our first stop Wachirathan Waterfalls. It was pretty busy. Of course, there was a huge queue for the ladies bathroom, I got to experience a new style of squat toilet, oh the joys! The waterfalls were really pretty and fairly big too. However it was pretty crowded at the base, so I walked a bit higher, and there were better views, and less people. There were a few pretty rainbows, too. I hadn't seen a rainbow in forever. I attempted to walk to the top of the waterfalls, but had to give up, as I didn't have enough time. One of the bad points of being on a group tour, time constraints. I headed further down from the waterfall, to check out the views from there. There were lots of cute little pools.

We drove for a little while to reach over next destination, the White Karen Sobhad village. It was a small place, we took a random turning off the main road to reach it. Aom was telling us that if we wanted to see farming we would need to drive an hour further north. I think that's where the men mainly were. Here, the village is filled with women weaving. Weaving is big business here, and if a woman can't weave, no man will marry her. Aom explained the different what the different colour clothing meant. Single women wear white clothes, letting men know they are available, married women wear black, so everyone knows they are taken, and men wear red, no matter whether they are single or married. We then had a little wander around a small part of the village. It reminded me a lot of the villages I had seen in Laos.

Our next destination was Sirithan Waterfall. I think the name means pretty. The Queen has visited these waterfall twice, so they were renamed in her honour. The waterfall is about 40 metres high and has its origins in the Mae Klang River. I was confused by the dates used on the information board, and Aom explained that it used Buddhist calendar, which is 543 years ahead of our calendar. This waterfall was pretty, we were a lot further away from it, and it was smaller than Wachirathan Waterfall. However there was a nice viewing platform and it was empty when we arrived, we had the place to ourselves for a while, until another tour group showed up. We had to walk about 5 minutes down some steps to reach the waterfall, it wasn't too bad getting back up to the top.

Our last stop before lunch was a local Hmong market, we spent about half an hour there, a bit too long for me. It was a pretty bog standard, small market and most of the stalls sold the sames things. I needed some caffeine by this point, so I bought an iced coffee, it came in a bag, yay first time I've had a drink in a bag, for years! I walked up and down the market, the only things that interested me were the fruity wines. The lady at the stall I went to gave me loads of free samples, I had to actually tell her to stop, I think she wanted to get me drunk. I bought some coconut wine and some strawberry wine. There were a couple of different strawberry wines, that had been aged for different amounts of time. I preferred the one that had only been aged for a year. We drove literally two minutes down the road to reach the restaurant where we would eat lunch. It was a generic tourist trap place, that caters for all the day tours that pass through the area. I shared a table with the three Koreans from my hotel and a Japanese guy. The food was pretty mediocre, rice, spicy sweet and sour chicken, chicken in coconut milk soup, morning glory, mixed vegetables, and fried fish. We were given pineapple and watermelon for dessert.

We had a slightly longer drive ahead of us, about 30 to 45 minutes, so I rested my eyes, to nap off lunch and the booze I'd been given. We headed towards the highest peak in Thailand. The roads were really congested, and it was dark and cloudy outside, a bit of a contrast the weather we had experienced further down. There was no real walk to the peak, we just followed a really flat trail. I thought that there would have been a bit of an uphill slog, but no, we did that all on a smooth tarmacked road in the van. We were dropped off and had to walk for a few minutes to reach the highest peak. There was a sign which we stopped by, I think it was for good luck. You were meant to put some money there, but I don't think anyone in our group did, we all just had our photos taken there. This place was behind the King Inthanon Memorial Shrine. In March 1915, Chao Dara Ramsi, the royal consort of King Chulalongkorn, went on an excursion to the peak of Doi Inthanon and ordered that a memorial shrine should be erected there, so that the ashes of her father King Inthanan, the seventh ruling prince of Chiang Mai, could be deposited there. In 1975, the Thai air force built a small chedi next tot the original shrine in commemoration and honour of the King. A new shrine was then built on the base of the broken one in My 1986. We then turned a corner and were greeted with a huge sign to say that we were at the highest peak in Thailand. We were 2,565.3341 metres above sea level. We followed the trail round and came out to a big car park, where our van was waiting for us. This area is also home to a Thai air force base. The gates were wide open and loads of people were coming and going, I think there must be some kind of observatory in there, that is open to the public.

We drove downhill for about 5 minutes and arrived at our last destination for the day. We arrived at the King and Queen Pagodas, it was busy here, as there were loads of people about, the gardens were filled with people taking photos. The two chedis were built to honour the 60th birthdays of each monarch. The first was built in 1987 to commemorate King Rama IX, Bhumibol Aduladej's birthday and the second in 1992 for Queen Sirikit's birthday. The two chedis are named Naphamethinidon and Naphaphonphumisiri, Naphamethinidon means by the strength of the air and land and Naphaphonphumisiri means being the strength of the air and the grace of the land. I headed to the King Pagoda first. I love that they have built covered escalators, no need to walk up all the stairs. I took a look inside the pagoda, it was quite busy with people praying and paying their respects. There were great views over the national park. It was pretty cloudy though, so I couldn't see as much as I would have liked. However the sunlight streaming through the thick clouds looked beautiful. I had a walk around the garden, it was pretty but too busy for me. Also I had a headache coming no by this point. Unfortunately there was no escalator going down, so I had to take the stairs. But I did take the escalator up to the Queen Pagoda. I took a wander around the garden at this pagoda first. It seemed bigger than the King's garden, but there weren't as many flowers. It did have a cute little bridge in the middle though. The Queen Pagoda was a gorgeous purple colour, and the artwork both inside and out was beautiful.

The drive back to Chiang Mai was a long one, but at least it gave me a chance to sleep off the headache I had developed. I'm surprised that my headache disappeared as I kept twatting my head off the window. The traffic was really bad and we got back to the city around 5:20-5:30. I was starving when we got back, I pretty much ran all the way to Seven Eleven (well, a brisk walk, I can't run) and grabbed a toastie. I got a can of coffee, which I drank while I was waiting for the toastie to toast, and then scoffed that on the spot. It was a pork and salad cream one, it sounds so wrong but tastes pretty good. I also got a bag of scallop crisps, which I managed to wait til I got back to the hotel to eat. I asked the ladies at reception, which the best shopping mall was to visit, need to get more drugs. Then I set off for the blind massage place. I stopped in at the Tesco Lotus, I love looking around supermarkets in other countries to see what kinds of things they sell.

I finally made it to the blind massage place. When the woman asked if I wanted a man or a woman, I said I didn't mind. I had to wait a few minutes until a masseuse was free. This time I got an older, bald man. He was a bit chatty. This massage was much better than the one yesterday, he was a lot stronger, so applied more pressure and there was a lot more cracking involved. I had noticed that the neighbourhood I was in, was filled with pharmacies. I was buzzing, I managed to get all the medicines I needed without having to go to one of the big shopping malls. Result! I made a quick pit-stop at the hotel to drop off my purchases and then headed out once again. I wasn't feeling too hungry, but I felt I should eat something. After all, I am in Thailand, and had to take every opportunity to eat as much delicious food as possible. I went to the place, where I had bought breakfast that morning. There were different people running the stall now. I had yellow noodles with pork and dumplings in a clear broth. It was nice, a bit sweet, but I added loads of vinegar to correct that. When I was walking back from the massage place earlier, I had spotted a roti stall, so I headed their for pud. I asked for something that wasn't on the menu. I wanted a banana and honey roti, and the woman initially said no, but later she added the honey and charged me a bit more, which I was happy about, I'm always happy to pay more, to get what I want. This one had an egg in it, too. I always think it is wrong to mix sweet and savoury foods, but the egg, banana and honey was a good combination.

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Photos

Pork and Egg Rice Porridge
Photo is a bit crap, and doesn't show how amazing it was.

White Karen Sobhad Village
Single Lady's Clothing

White Karen Sobhad Village
Married Lady's Clothing

Comments

[Home and Away]

This is a radar station built in 1974-1975...
I was the construction manager. I blogged about surveying the mountain in December 1968 and then returning in 1974 for the construction. Thanks for the recent picture.

[Zephyr]

Thanks for the information. It must be really cool to see it in pictures and know that you played a part in it. I will look it up in your blogs :)