On the top of Thailand!

November 23, 2007. Chiang Mai, Thailand. (Doi Inthanon National Park)

(notes from my journal)

Since we had spent almost three days in Chiang Mai, we decided to take a day out of the city and go do something outdoors. Since any strenuous activity was out of question due to my knee injury, we booked a day trip to Doi Inthanon National Park. This park is Thailand’s’ only rain forest and also has the highest peak in Thailand.

We set off at 9 am and were driven around the city to pick up other people who were part of the group (11 in all, in a Toyota van + a guide and a driver). We got to the park at around 10:30 and saw 2 beautiful waterfalls. After that, we went to a Karen village. Honestly, I find all these villages setup and made for tourists and nothing else. There were 3 houses (I counted), 1 building in which you could see 2 women weaving and a church (the missionaries came here 30 years ago to convert these tribes). After that, we went to a “local market” that was full of … take a guess – tourists! Then, we then headed to lunch. Since we were vegetarians, we were given a separate table from the rest (why?). The food was good. There were more chilies in the food than there were vegetables, but the curry was very tasty. However, my throat that had been giving me a lot of trouble ever since we got to Chiang Mai, started getting worse and I got some hot water to gargle, which felt much better.

Then we set off and were driven up to two pagoda’s that were created by the Royal Thai Air Force for the King and Queen, to honor the Kings 60th birthday. The pagoda’s were beautiful and the view spectacular. It was tad chilly up there.

Finally, we proceeded to visit the highest point in Thailand. It was nothing to write home about. There is a military post there and it’s mostly a quick walk through the woods and we were done. At that point, my throat was hurting a lot and I also had motion sickness. I just could not care less where we went. We got home and then relaxed a bit in our room and headed out to the street near our hotel.

It’s the “hip street” of Chiang Mai and the Thai’s and tourists come here. It was even more crowded due to Loy Krathong. We went to the Riverside café (a full fledged restaurant really) and ate pizza. I had been craving pizza forever. It hit the spot. It was Friday night, so we felt like we kept our Friday night = pizza night ritual alive.

Afterwards, we wandered around the area and finally went back to our room to call it a day (10:30 pm ish). After dinner, we walked around a bit.