My plan is to visit the top of the highest mountain in Thailand today - Doi Inthanon. It is 2565 metres - 8415 feet but you can drive to the top. The simplest way given my time available was to enrol for a days trek which I did with ............. It cost 1800 BHT.
The drive from Chiang Mai is about 90 minutes on good quality roads through pleasant flat agricultural land - mainly laid to rice it seems before rising to what by most standards are hills and not what most people would consider mountains. Thailand has no snow. Despite the lack of serious elevation it is scenic and attractive and unspoilt - and cooler which is lovely. The guide advice was “take a warm jacket” but even in winter it was T shirt weather throughout.
Our guide for the day was Pol - as I am finding a typical Thai young man. He is 33 and married with two children. Laughing - friendly - joking - and tactile in as much as if he was close to you he would rest against you or massage your shoulders. No there was nothing in it - the same with everyone men and women - just natural friendliness - we are all mates!
Pol although small looks wirery and tough - scar tissue around his eyes. I suspect and ask him about MuayThai. It turns out he was a champion - his younger smaller but more successful brother now lives in California teaching Muay Thai. Pol no longer fights - he pointed to a scar adjacent to his eye on the side of his head - 12 stitches from an elbow! He is a guide during the high season but teaches Muay Thai in China during the closed season - summer - when it is too hot to trek. Muay Thai by the way is a Thai obsession. Their national sport. It is kick boxing but also includes elbows and knees and is an important element of the hugely commercially successful cage fighting. Years ago I remember watching an Alan Wicker travel programme following the QE2. In one episode Wicker went ashore with the engine room guys for a night out on the town - probably Thailand. Anyway the guys start drinking and come across a boxing ring where they get free drinks if they can go 3 rounds with a scrawny little fighter. A big mistake. In went the big muscled up engineers one at a time each to get battered and bloodied by the little fighting machines - who were so quick and agile. The lumbering engineers never laid a punch with their haymakers! I asked Pol who he thought would win between the great Phillipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and the Muay Thai champion. A big grin. He said the Muay Thai champion - legs are longer than arms!
Back to the serenity of the trek. It was lovely - gentle and unspoilt - mainly on red earth paths, through lush vegetation and beside a cascading river. I attach some mob photos below. Over a couple of hours we saw several good waterfalls, a green snake, a huge spider (non toxic apparently but it looked it!). We picked passion fruit straight off the tree to eat. We saw coffee growing and later were taken to a little business that grinds and sells coffee.
It was explained to us that years ago opium was the only product the farmers could grow and of course it was illegal. Following a visit to the area from the late much loved King he arranged for them to be shown how to grow coffee and strawberries commercially which they now do with success.
This short easy trek was rather lovely and I will remember it.
Eventually we rendevous our mini bus and hop back in for an uphill drive. Before long we are in the carpark of Doi Isaphon National Park. The gardens are manicured - the paths immaculate. After a 5 minute gentle stroll and without taking a deep breath we are at the highest point in Thailand! This has not been the big summit achievement - the opposite. But it makes me smile. Getting to Thailand - getting to Chiang Mai has taken some effort. I have been to the highest point in Thailand. Big deal ! But it means something to sad me - ha!
Later we drop down a bit to visit two giant pagodas set in ornamental gardens. They are known as the King and Queen Pagodas. The views were large but limited by the haze but none the less a special quiet place to be to reflect on the world for a while.
It is not too long before we are back in Chiang Mai. Before we go back to the hostel Gerry (my room mate from Seattle) and I get a ice cold large Chang beer from the nearby 7 Eleven store and sit on the decking at the Hostel chatting to the friendly staff. They recommend I should go down to the river for my last night in Chiang Mai. After a lovely shower they get me a Tuk Tuk to the Great View Bar - a massive and very successful place with Thai and Westerner's. Aptly named but too big for me I head to the adjacent Riverside Bar. More like it. I sit at the bar and eventually talk to an ancient Thai guy. He asked me where I come from. I said the UK but most foreigners understand England better. He was obsessed with two things he thought he knew about England - very cold weather and earthquakes. Later I realised he was mixing up England with New Zealand but he was nice gentle old guy. I asked him what he did. He said music man. I play here. I said what time do you start. He said 730. I said it is 7.41. We laughed. He was frail and elderly but he could really play an electric acoustic guitar.
I decide to get back to Chang Market for something to eat. Another Tuk Tuk ride. I love Tuk Tuks. Everyone one is the same but everyone has something different about it. The drivers are invariably characters. This guy was very proud that he had fixed up music in his machine. I over played how great it was to be in the only Tuk Tuk in Chiang Mai with a disco. He sped along on the quieter streets like a go cart driver both of us grinning. I get to the market and sit outside at one of the many food places. I people watch. I have green Thai soup and squid and fried rice. Brilliant food for 160 BHT - just over £3.
Not a bad day was it?
Mob photos from the trek in the Doi Inthanon National Park :
King and Queen Royal Pagodas
Pictures from the the River Ping area Chiang Mai
The drive from Chiang Mai is about 90 minutes on good quality roads through pleasant flat agricultural land - mainly laid to rice it seems before rising to what by most standards are hills and not what most people would consider mountains. Thailand has no snow. Despite the lack of serious elevation it is scenic and attractive and unspoilt - and cooler which is lovely. The guide advice was “take a warm jacket” but even in winter it was T shirt weather throughout.
Our guide for the day was Pol - as I am finding a typical Thai young man. He is 33 and married with two children. Laughing - friendly - joking - and tactile in as much as if he was close to you he would rest against you or massage your shoulders. No there was nothing in it - the same with everyone men and women - just natural friendliness - we are all mates!
Pol although small looks wirery and tough - scar tissue around his eyes. I suspect and ask him about MuayThai. It turns out he was a champion - his younger smaller but more successful brother now lives in California teaching Muay Thai. Pol no longer fights - he pointed to a scar adjacent to his eye on the side of his head - 12 stitches from an elbow! He is a guide during the high season but teaches Muay Thai in China during the closed season - summer - when it is too hot to trek. Muay Thai by the way is a Thai obsession. Their national sport. It is kick boxing but also includes elbows and knees and is an important element of the hugely commercially successful cage fighting. Years ago I remember watching an Alan Wicker travel programme following the QE2. In one episode Wicker went ashore with the engine room guys for a night out on the town - probably Thailand. Anyway the guys start drinking and come across a boxing ring where they get free drinks if they can go 3 rounds with a scrawny little fighter. A big mistake. In went the big muscled up engineers one at a time each to get battered and bloodied by the little fighting machines - who were so quick and agile. The lumbering engineers never laid a punch with their haymakers! I asked Pol who he thought would win between the great Phillipino boxing champion Manny Pacquiao and the Muay Thai champion. A big grin. He said the Muay Thai champion - legs are longer than arms!
Back to the serenity of the trek. It was lovely - gentle and unspoilt - mainly on red earth paths, through lush vegetation and beside a cascading river. I attach some mob photos below. Over a couple of hours we saw several good waterfalls, a green snake, a huge spider (non toxic apparently but it looked it!). We picked passion fruit straight off the tree to eat. We saw coffee growing and later were taken to a little business that grinds and sells coffee.
It was explained to us that years ago opium was the only product the farmers could grow and of course it was illegal. Following a visit to the area from the late much loved King he arranged for them to be shown how to grow coffee and strawberries commercially which they now do with success.
This short easy trek was rather lovely and I will remember it.
Eventually we rendevous our mini bus and hop back in for an uphill drive. Before long we are in the carpark of Doi Isaphon National Park. The gardens are manicured - the paths immaculate. After a 5 minute gentle stroll and without taking a deep breath we are at the highest point in Thailand! This has not been the big summit achievement - the opposite. But it makes me smile. Getting to Thailand - getting to Chiang Mai has taken some effort. I have been to the highest point in Thailand. Big deal ! But it means something to sad me - ha!
Later we drop down a bit to visit two giant pagodas set in ornamental gardens. They are known as the King and Queen Pagodas. The views were large but limited by the haze but none the less a special quiet place to be to reflect on the world for a while.
It is not too long before we are back in Chiang Mai. Before we go back to the hostel Gerry (my room mate from Seattle) and I get a ice cold large Chang beer from the nearby 7 Eleven store and sit on the decking at the Hostel chatting to the friendly staff. They recommend I should go down to the river for my last night in Chiang Mai. After a lovely shower they get me a Tuk Tuk to the Great View Bar - a massive and very successful place with Thai and Westerner's. Aptly named but too big for me I head to the adjacent Riverside Bar. More like it. I sit at the bar and eventually talk to an ancient Thai guy. He asked me where I come from. I said the UK but most foreigners understand England better. He was obsessed with two things he thought he knew about England - very cold weather and earthquakes. Later I realised he was mixing up England with New Zealand but he was nice gentle old guy. I asked him what he did. He said music man. I play here. I said what time do you start. He said 730. I said it is 7.41. We laughed. He was frail and elderly but he could really play an electric acoustic guitar.
I decide to get back to Chang Market for something to eat. Another Tuk Tuk ride. I love Tuk Tuks. Everyone one is the same but everyone has something different about it. The drivers are invariably characters. This guy was very proud that he had fixed up music in his machine. I over played how great it was to be in the only Tuk Tuk in Chiang Mai with a disco. He sped along on the quieter streets like a go cart driver both of us grinning. I get to the market and sit outside at one of the many food places. I people watch. I have green Thai soup and squid and fried rice. Brilliant food for 160 BHT - just over £3.
Not a bad day was it?
Mob photos from the trek in the Doi Inthanon National Park :
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| Passion fruit off the tree |
 |
| Coffee growing |
 |
| Coffee brewing |
 |
| Rice drying |
 |
| Coffee grinding |
 |
| Strong stuff |
Pictures from the the River Ping area Chiang Mai
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