The two countries of Thailand are North and South. Part 2.
Part 2. In which we drive through waterfalls, walk through the jungle and spend the night in a hut on chicken legs.
November 20, Tuesday. Chiang Mai - Doi Inthanon.
Plans for the day:
- Mae Ya waterfall (the most beautiful) Mae Ya waterfall
-Mae Klang Waterfall
-Wachiritan waterfall Wachirathan waterfall
- hiking trail (Ang Kha trail)
-The Great Holy Relics Pagoda Nabhapolbhumisiri
- Siriphum waterfall
- Mae Klang Luang village, hotel in the park, on the rice terraces
Total mileage 155 km
Morning starts at 6:30. I like to wake up early when traveling, which is not the case with my usual life. How can you sleep? So many adventures ahead! By eight in the morning a car will come for us.
Breakfast is not included in the price of our room, but we don't feel like going somewhere in the morning. Especially since I'm going slowly. I pack my bags. I am generally an adherent of packaging) And now I have two suitcases - my own and my husband's. It takes more time than one)
We will have breakfast in the hotel cafe. Prices are not encouraging. In general, the north of Thailand is exactly the place where you can eat cheaply and very tasty, but mostly on macaroons, that is, in the evening. Cafes that serve breakfast serve European food and charge high prices. It is quite possible that I was just unlucky, but I never found where I can have breakfast inexpensively.
Our breakfast takes place in the most wonderful place of our hotel - near the carp pond. I love places like this.
We see a spiritual picture. An ancient old woman, withered, wrinkled, was taken out in a carriage to a pond and fed from a spoon. She hardly understands where she is and, most likely, cannot appreciate either the beauty that surrounds her or the care of her loved ones, but if I were an ancient old woman, then no matter what, I would like to have breakfast in such a place)
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Great morning. The driver is already waiting for us. There are 2 days ahead on the road, that is, we will spend almost all the time on the move.
Surely there is an opportunity to get to the park by public transport, but the car in this sense saves the most important thing - time. I was worried about how my husband would cope with the right-hand drive and serpentine, so we ordered a car with a driver.
This is a minibus. Where we ordered, only minibuses are given with a driver.
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I love moving. The road for me is the journey. For some, time spent on the road can feel like time wasted. Many people prefer radial trips to circular routes and accommodation in one place. But my awl in the ass pushes me to the maximum of crossings and even a radial trip will be with an overnight stay in the national park.
By 10 o'clock we reach the first waterfall - Mae Ya waterfall.
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It is outside the park. A small serpentine and the car leaves the parking lot. From the car park you need to walk 700 meters. On the way we meet a big spider.
The waterfall is very beautiful!
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We're alone here, I'm climbing a big rock. I enjoy sitting and staring at the water. The only thing that interferes with the ideal moment is that there is no direct view of the waterfall. But from the side, he admires. This is the best waterfall we have ever seen.
At some second, the thought creeps into my head - to get through the pebbles closer to the middle. But it's dangerous. Water rushes at high speed, around the stones. Kill yourself there - just spit.
The second waterfall - Mae Klang Waterfall - is also outside the park. Or rather, at the very foot of Mount Doi Inthanon.
You need to walk 300 meters to the waterfall, no more. The waterfall itself is nothing special. It is quite powerful, but there is no beautiful view. But there is an opportunity to go directly to the streams of water, and this is such a pleasant highlight.
We don't sit here. Let's go to the next one.
We drive inside the Doi Inthanon National Park. Entrance tickets cost 300 baht, we bought them at the first waterfall, apparently, despite the entrance ways, all the waterfalls belong to the park.
We go to another waterfall. Now the car brings us as close to the water as possible. A couple of steps up the path and here it is - the Wachirathan waterfall, forever shining in the rainbow.
There are quite a lot of people here.
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Then we drive to the very top to the Ang Ka Nature Trail.
When I was making plans, I thought about going down the long Kew Mae Pan route. But, having soberly assessed her strength, she abandoned this idea. The route is designed for 2-4 hours, in my case it may be more. And the day is not rubber)
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Ang Ka Nature Trail is a rain forest trail. The humidity is incredible. A variety of mosses cover the trees and the swamp. And even handrails. Mosses turn this trail into a fairytale forest. Just half an hour we go on a circular route.
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Mosses of different colors and textures.
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The trees don't even look like trees. As if fairy-tale monsters walked and walked through the forest and stopped.
There is a small branch in the route, there we find a small altar, I think some military man is buried here. The place is dark.
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There are dry patches in places. It seems that the magic has ended here. But then again, moss-moss. I've never seen anything like it.
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The next point of our route is king and queen pagodas. The Great Holy Relics Pagoda Nabhapolbhumisiri.
The car must be parked. Next comes the songteo. This is included in the cost of visiting the pagodas, 40 baht.
Songteo is a very interesting Thai transport. I would say that this is a truck for transporting people. Translated into Russian, Songteo (Songthaew) means "Two benches" and in the back there are really two parallel benches for passengers. You need to hold tight) There are no doors or seat belts. Sometimes passengers just hang on the rear footrest. It seemed to me that in Thailand people are more often transported by trucks than by cars)
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When I looked at photos of pagodas on the Internet, I really wanted to see all this with my own eyes.
photo from the internet.
In reality, there is no such vantage point to see exactly as in the picture. In addition, the flower beds were nondescript, completely gray.
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I wandered there for a long time, looked at everything, tried to penetrate.
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But no. This place was my disappointment.
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Even the mountains did not save the situation. Haze and the bright sun opposite smeared the picture.
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To be fair, I really liked the cabbage in the flower beds)
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And the artificial waterfall was pretty cute.
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But Siriphum waterfall was a discovery. The waterfall itself is quite modest, it is in two tiers and the upper one is very poorly visible, the distance is too large, and the lower one is very small.
It probably cannot compete with other waterfalls. Too far to the top tier. I'm trying to get as close as possible to the photo.
But the road to it!
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This is an absolutely incredible trail! As if we were back in a fairy tale forest, only from another fairy tale.
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And not a single person! This is exactly what I wanted to get from the national park - deserted, beautiful places)
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We sit in the gazebo for a long time, then wander around the territory, we really like it here, but acclimatization gives its own. We are tired.
A tired tourist has no moral right to go sightseeing and be disappointed) Therefore, we are going to look for a hotel. We did not book anything, but we marked on the map the place that was interesting to us.
https://www. google. com. ua/maps/place/Ma. . . 98.5491235
The time is approaching 5 pm. Mae Klang Luang Village. Hotel???????????????????? ? . There is no reception. There is a small cafe-shop and a reservation book. The girl has been looking for us in this book for a long time. Doesn't speak English.
I run to our driver. He understands my broken, broken English and explains to the girl what we want from her.
We are settled and promised dinner. Just in case, I repeat to her in three languages:
May pet! (in Thai)
Boo la! (in Chinese)
But sleep! (in English)
Thais often understand Chinese, especially where they do not understand English. And my Thai may not be understood. In any case, these cherished words Mai pet (not sharp) are worth remembering.
The small hotel on the rice terraces cost a lot of money and didn't have much amenities.
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Why then did we choose it?
And look at this view! ) And maybe you will understand me)
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I ran among these fields until dark)
I have already seen enough rice terraces. In Bali, in Tegallalang, when rice was just planted. In China, when the terraces of the Dragon Ridge, in Dazhai, were flooded with water. And now - in Thailand, in the Doi Inthanon National Park, when the rice has already been harvested. These terraces are not like the lace I have seen before, but still the rice terraces are amazing even in such a small volume.
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One more question may visit you - why spend the night in the national park if the city of Chiang Mai is very close? You will know the answer to this question tomorrow)
