Yeah Yeah, I know…

We haven’t written in awhile. There are a couple of reasons for that. Firstly, not a lot has been going on in Hang Chat. We’ve settled into jungle living and have a pretty good daily routine going. Also, I’ve been very busy with school stuff—lesson planning, script writing, game creating. I know, there’s no excuse. But hold tight: we will soon have pictures up of Sukhothai. Until then, please enjoy this video of our furry wild rabbit friends:

Matty little buggers but they really couldn’t be more lovable.

The Roof of Thailand (Doi Inthanon)

I’d been craving a particularly big adventure, so last weekend Jack and I headed to Chiang Mai to book a tour to Doi Inthanon. We hadn’t seen much of the beautiful natural wonders in Thailand so this was long overdue. I wanted some waterfalls, damnit!

Since haggling is a part of everyday life here, we weren’t sure if we should book online or see if we can get a cheaper price at a travel agency. Turns out tours are one of the few things that are not haggleable—lesson learned. We paid about $33 each for a full day (9-5) group tour, which seemed reasonable enough anyway and turned out to be well worth it!

Doi Inthanon is known as “The Roof of Thailand,” being its tallest mountain at 2565m (8415 ft) above sea level. It is named after Chiang Mai's last sovereign, King Inthawichayanon, who worked hard to preserve the forests in the north.

The company picked us up at our hotel at about 8:30 in an air-conditioned minibus, where we met another couple (the woman was Thai and the man Turkish). After picking up a Chinese woman and her son, a couple from France, and a couple from Bahrain (as our bus represented almost all corners of the globe), we headed out. The drive to the mountain was about an hour and 15 minutes (~65km away).

The first place we stopped was the Sirithan Waterfall:

The Temple on Top of a Mountain (Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep)

Yesterday Pii Pan had to go to Chiang Mai to pick up her daughter and she was sweet enough to invite us along. Chiang Mai is about an hour and a half drive from Hang Chat, through some beautiful (and sometimes treacherous) mountains. We are always up for an air-conditioned car ride anywhere, especially with our good friend Pii Pan. We had some extra time before we had to pick up her daughter, so she brought us to the most famous wat (temple) in all of northern Thailand—Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. It is a beautiful temple on top of a mountain overlooking the city. Jack is somewhat “wat”-ed out, having seen a dozen temples already. I agree that many Thai temples are similar-looking, but they are always very beautiful and we can appreciate the craftsmanship and work put into creating them. Besides we couldn’t pass up the trip to the top of a mountain.