Doi Inthanon State Park - July 19

 When you Google Chiang Mai the images that pop up are of the King and Queen pagodas in Doi Inthanon State Park, so I was surprised to learn the park is actually 100 km outside of the city.  I also was absolutely set on seeing it. Last night before dinner we were able to book a tour that included a two-hour trek through the national park for today.  The pagodas are on the tallest mountain in Thailand, a foothill of the Himalayas, and so it is relatively cold up there, especially to Thais.  I was worried about freezing temps and not having the right clothes with us but turns out it is about 60 degrees,  which, even though it has been a little cooler with all the rain,  sounded like a welcome change from the heat we've been experiencing.

After another quick 7-eleven breakfast,  the van picked us up before 8 am and we set out on our tour with four Spaniards, 2 Brits, and two other Americans.  Throughout the day we really enjoyed getting to know our fellow travelers,  particularly Thienly and Brenden, a young couple who is relocating to Northern California,  and James and Jess from Dorset, England. It was also fun practicing our Spanish with Marta.

Our first stop was the Wachiratharn waterfall.  Though it was not raining at that time, it might as well have been with the amount of mist coming off the massive waterfall.   It was quite impressive.

We then drove to the very top of the mountain to the highest point in Thailand






.... unless of course you count the actual highest point which is just a little uphill from where they placed the sign.   (You see Jim is actually higher than Julia.)

The real peak has a stupa to King Inthawichayanont who was the last king of Chiang Mai before Thailand was united into one kingdom when his princess daughter married, joining this region with Siam.  The daughter had the stupa erected to house the remains of her father 102 years ago. It was a refreshingly chilly 15 degrees Celsius up on the top, up from 12 degrees at 6:00 am.

Next we headed down the mountain to the much-anticipated pagodas to the King and Queen.   The king's was built 30 years ago to celebrate his 60th birthday and is 60 meters high.  The queen's was built five years later for her 55th birthday (and is, naturally, 55 meters high). This was a terribly disappointing stop.   Here is a picture of what we came to see:

Here is what we we actually saw.  

The pagodas were lovely on the inside though and taught us the most we have learned about Buddhism and the origins of the religion.

We dropped by a market for 10 minutes and then on to lunch. As we were finishing up lunch, it began to really rain again, just in time for the start of our to our trek.  Up to that point the day had been okay but nothing spectacular.   Our tour guide was nothing to speak of - in fact, she barely said anything to us.  I was worried that the trek was going to be just a walk in the woods. But we were met by a member of the Karen tribe who walked us 2 hours through the jungle pointing out all sorts of wildlife along the way. We came upon the amazing Pha Dork Siew Waterfall and past rice paddies growing in terraces. The trek turned out to be a true highlight of the day even though most of it was in the pouring rain. Thankfully we had ponchos still with us that the elephant guides had given us the day before. We ended the trek near the Karen village at a place where they brew coffee from coffee beans grown in the jungle, and they offered us samples.

Then, the long drive back to the city. We got back and decided to check out a restaurant called the Whole Earth for dinner - one that Rachel had researched. When we pulled up in our tuk-tuk we knew we were in for a fancy night of dining. The food was delicious and the setting was gorgeous. From there we walked to the Night Market and browsed the stalls. It is not quite as big as the Sunday Night Market but still too big to take in in one night, especially when you are as tired as I was.

Rachel and I have always been scheduled to stay the few extra days after Jim and Julia were scheduled to leave, though we had no idea what we were going to do with those days. I had no reservations and no plans.  In talking to Chris at the elephant sanctuary about what we should do with extra days in Bangkok, he felt strongly we should go to Myanmar.  We looked into visas and did not have enough time to process them before we would need to go. So we settled on Laos at the suggestion of Michelle and with recommendations from Chris.  Luckily, we were able to change Julia's ticket for a relatively small fee, so though she's not flying back with us, she is flying back just a few hours before Rachel and I are and on a totally different route.  I'm so happy I get to keep both my girls for a few extra days, though we will be sad to say goodbye to Jim on Friday.