Doi Inthanon National Park

Friday, Feb. 22: The Doi Inthanon National Park is a living park. Many people live within the park and many monuments are within its bounds.
We stop first at two lovely waterfalls.

Wachiratharn Waterfall

Siritharn Waterfall

The Siritharn Waterfall is a favorite of the Queen.
We briefly stop to look at the weavers of the Hmong hill tribe and of course buy something.

Back strap looms are more portable, but weave simpler items  with a smaller width.

Up to the top of the mountain, but the air is misty obscuring the view.

White rhododendrons in bloom

The summit. Cool here but not cold. Just comfortable for us.

Just down from the summit are two gorgeous pagodas and flower gardens built by the Royal Air Force to honor the king and Queen on their respective 60th birthdays in 1989 and 1992. We loved this stop and it is delightfully cool.

We like the Queen's pagoda and flower garden best.
After lunch it is time for snacks. Tamarind again. The pods are delicious, but the seeds make them so dangerous. I don't know why they don't take out the seeds, then candy the pods.

Then on to the White Karen hill tribe village where we will spend the night.

The government has provided a lot of benefits to this tribe that lives here in the national park with a number of  goals in mind. Their agriculture is subsidized so they have no inclination to grow opium as they did in the past. The village has been electrified, provided with running water and sewer and many streets are paved to discourage them from moving from place to place as they used to. They are encouraged to make and sell handicrafts, flowers and their own shade grown coffee.  Also they are helped to build guest houses, which they live in at times, to rent to Thai tour companies in the home stay project.  We are spending the night with a family in the village.

We and our guide sleep in the big new house with the blue roof. the family sleeps in the  house  to the left.

Our guide cooks dinner for us in the family house over an open wood fire in a wok on a stone tripod. The fire pit is lined with brick. The rest of the house, walls and floor are made of split bamboo. The floors also have some bamboo mats. You can see through the walls and floor and the bamboo gives as you walk on it, a strange sensation. No furniture. They are used to sitting on the floor. And dinner is here on the floor. Delicious. No bugs, but one vegetable is some squash plant leaves and stems.  Our guide did cook us an omelet with some ant larvae in it one day. it was really good.

Our room is large but bare with a thin futon and blankets. We sleep on one of the comforters to add a bit  more cushioning. Old bones are not used to a thin pad on hard boards. The mosquito net is fun. But no mosquitoes now. The floor covering is contact paper. Our guide sleeps in a small room to the side.

Chickens run around the yard. The chickens have a house at night and they gather eggs as they need them and let the hens hatch others. The pig is off to the side not under the house. They used to always have the pig under the house, but this was too smelly for the home stay.  They have large individual and communal plots and some garden plots next to the houses.
Before and after dinner we have had time to walk through part of the town.

Remember when everyone just had to have one of these cute miniature furry pigs. 

cows and their guard/herd dog

baby pigs!

The White Karen have their own language which is unwritten. The adults usually speak some Thai, but usually only White Karen among themselves. The children often start school at 5 knowing only White Karen. They go to this school until they are 8 or 9 and learn to speak, read and write Thai. They continue school in the next town. Many adults did not have these educational opportunities.

They have a communal coffee shop which we will visit for breakfast in the morning.  They grow, pick and roast their own coffee. They drink a lot themselves and sell bags of beans, here and in the local market.

Saturday, Feb,. 23rd:  Our guide fixes us breakfast and brings it to us in the coffee shop

The workers going out to the fields pack their lunches of rice and egg folded up in a banana leaf package tied with a bamboo string.

 William plans his hike through the jungle with our guide and a jungle guide. I stay and visit with the ladies at the coffee shop and walk to a local weaver's house.
William in the jungle:

The jungle guide and William, tough men.

Our guide May fell behind the men.

A shade grown coffee plantation.

Me with the weavers; Since they knew no English and my Thai is limited to Thank You and Hello., we spoke by each other and I added a lot of gestures.

carding wool

spinning wool

They obtain wool and cotton from elsewhere and card, spin and dye their thread for weaving.
Heading back to Chiang Mai we have lunch at a stand that does BBQ. Thai BBQ. Fish stuffed with leaves and coated with salt, chicken and pork. all delicious.

Mostly Elephants

Although we begin the day at an orchid farm, we soon head to the elephants.

The Maesa Elephant Camp is great. Lots going on here.

Feeding elephants, playing and getting kisses

Then it was time for baths.

Showtime. first the parade, then tricks.

Yeah! Goal! Score one for the elephants.

Then the elephants get out their easels and paints and we watch them paint.

They paint things they know, flowers, trees, elephants and landscapes.

Of course I had to have a painting. I got one that reminded me of the orchids we saw earlier in the day.

 For a finale the elephants did a demonstration of elephant logging. They skidded some logs into the arena and stacked them up.

Then it was off to another place further in the forest for an hour long elephant ride. There were rides here, but just short ones and apparently, according to our guide there was some contention among people about there not being enough rides available.

We rode along a forest trail to a waterfall. Just us and the elephant and the mahout. Rock, rock, plod ,plod. You gradually get used to the rhythm  There were some high dollar looking places on the other side of the creek.  Elephants do like to eat and ours often was trying to grab foliage along the way, often getting sideways on the trail and leaning out over the edge, earning threats from the mahout.

Grabbing some bites.

Back on the trail.
After the elephant ride we drove to Tiger Kingdom for lunch. We had the opportunity, if we chose, to pay for petting a Bengal tiger and getting closeup photos.  We just watched other people. I noticed they were petting the but end of the tigers rather than the head.

These tigers just looked tired, but healthy.

Then off to a famous wat on top of the mountain overlooking Chang Mai, Doi Suthep.  A relic of Buddha is enshrined in a huge golden stupa.  We are blessed by the monk.

For dinner we went out to a cultural center for the dinner and dancing show.

 As usual at these kinds of events there was way too much food. More of this? More of that? No, no, no more. The inside show was very fancy dancing with exquisite hand motions and small shuffling steps. The fingernail dance. The silk reeling dance. Hard to take pictures of the dancing as the cameras do not like the bright light and dark contrast.

Outside for the hill-tribe cultural dancing. Flutes, drums and bright colors and children dancing along. William says it reminds him of the dancing at the World Eskimo Indian Olympics last summer.

We are headed to the hill tribes. Doubt they have wifi there.