Doi Inthanon

Today's excursion is to Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand. It's relatively low at around 2500m, but is surrounded by a national park. There are waterfalls within the park. I was picked up from the hostel, then taken on a tour of Chiang Mai collecting the other participants, who turned up to be: a French Canadian couple, a retired Frenchwoman, a girl from the UK, a young Belgian couple, an Australian and his Filipino partner, and four young Taiwanese, not sure if they were two couples, besides me. We were one of two buses in a convoy sharing a tour guide.

The park is about 90 minutes drive southwest of Chiang Mai. First we were taken to a minor waterfall.

Alors, vous êtes la Française, I said, opening a conversation with the Frenchwoman. When she told me her name, I said, but M is not the French form. It turned out that she was originally from Argentina and had lived in France since her student days. So we switched to Spanish.

After that we were taken to a Karen village. They are a minority group in Thailand and many live in northern Thailand. The guide in the yellow shirt is explaining how the government is helping this and similar villages to grow cash crops to boost their income.

The white dress is for unmarried women. After marriage they wear black dresses.

But both married and unmarried men wear red dresses. Hmm.

In the same room Karen women were weaving on a loom. It is possible to buy fabric products such as scarves though I don't think any of my group took the opportunity.

After this we were taken to Wachirathan Falls, more impressive than the first one. The water spray was strong and got us a bit wet.

The water droplets even created a rainbow downstream.

At the site is a cafeteria catering for tour groups. We had to wait for a while for our turn; it was high tourism season in northern Thailand. The food were alright though overseasoned.

M and I continued our conversation. I gave her a piece of the durian cake to try. As a result she decided that fresh durian was not for her. A couple of days ago at the market, I saw glad wrap packs of durian flesh for sale as well as the whole fruit. They were actually more expensive by weight than the imported frozen product in Australia. Not sure if it was because of the season or due to exports sucking up the supply. I had helped a German couple buy a pack to sample and they commented that it was like avocado. Maybe they were being polite.

Next they took us to a pair of chedi (stupa) that commemorate the 60th birthdays of the Thai king and queen.

It was rather misty up there but there were pretty gardens surrounding both chedis. I also had to put on an additional T-shirt as it was a little cool.

Trumpet flower.

M being a tour guide in Paris and fluent in languages couldn't resist correcting my Spanish grammar when I replied that I had visited both stupas. (She had visited only one and used the escalator because of the height.) I should have said ambas not ambos, to agree in gender.

But she also complimented me on my vocabulary. I had replied mencionaste un hijo (you mentioned a son) when she asked me why I had asked if she was divorciada. Mencionaste is in the preterite and the pronoun is elided, as normal in Spanish. She had been separada for years, hence enjoying her holiday by herself.

Interesting garden decorations.

The mist came and went sporadically.

The rest house, when it wasn't obscured.

A short drive away was the actual peak. Visitors took turns to take photos. The guide commented that it used to be freezing cold in winter, but global warming has made winters milder.

Shortly after this photo was taken it started bucketing. We all got wet running to the tour bus. In the bus M said laughing I'm sorry I took shelter with someone with an umbrella and didn't realise it wasn't you until I reached the bus. You've been ditched for a man with an umbrella, said the Aussie, joining in the joke.

This was the last stop of the day, a tourist market selling dried fruit and souvenirs. The dried fruit was actually excellent. I got a bag of mangos slices, M a bag of cherries and the Aussie a bag of strawberries. Very smart too, dried fruit has a longer shelf life than fresh fruit. As you can see, it was still raining.

We were taken back to our respective lodgings. After the Belgians were dropped off the Aussie commented out of the blue that all the Belgians he had met were conservative. I wonder if it was a combination of him being gay, the Belgians being shy, and attribution error (psychology again).

In the evening I went to Brown Rice organic bistro. Service was a bit haphazard, I think the staff were family members. A boy was nervously checking the order slips every so often because the kitchen seemed to be overwhelmed. I had the Khao Soi which is noodles in curry sauce. Now my preference is for rice with curry and noodles with laksa, but that rendition was as good as it gets. Much more interesting was the signature Tom Yum drink which comprised the ingredients for Tom Yum soup, with less chilli and sweetened, as a cold drink. At the end of the meal, Duang, the chef, apologised for the slow service. I said it didn't matter, it had been raining heavily so I was in no hurry to leave.

It was still drizzling when I left so I got soaked. The streets were flooded. I must have looked a sight with my wet, bedraggled hair when I found a café serving hot coffee.

I called it a night and started packing for the departure in the morrow.