Published on Jan, 2025
Minty met us in the Marriott lobby at 8:30 and we rolled out of Chiang Mai through a rush hour far less daunting than Bangkok’s.
Minty is a very well informed and personable guide who gave us a brief and clear account of the absorption of the Chiang Mai’s Lanna kingdom into modern Thailand under Rama V and its development as a tourist destination and agricultural center.
Minty is also an excellent photographer whose pictures never fail to capture the captivating beauty of the tour and the happy faces of her clients.
The countryside was lush except where dried rice stubble awaiting burning. The air was acrid with smoke until we started ascending the foothills of the Thanon Thong Chai mountains toward the Doi Suthep-Pui National park.
Along the way to the park, we stopped at the Wachirathai waterfall, an 80 meter cascade that drew hordes of awestruck tourists and made a beautiful rainbow at its base. The views from both vantage points were spectacular; from the upper one, the torrent seemingly just beyond arm’s reach. ,
We entered the park and visited the Rama IX and Queen pagodas, built on gorgeous twin peaks to commemorate the 60th birthday of the beloved late king Bhumibol and the 25th anniversary of his reign. They are serene and shapely, and surrounded by dreamlike mountains and valleys thinly veiled with mists, but breezy and cool, interspersed with gorgeous gardens filled with blooming snapdragons. Inside the queen’s pagoda has frescoes depicting the life of Buddha, and the king’s bas reliefs of the holiest places and moments of Buddha’s life: his birth, enlightenment, first sermon, and death.
We drove to Thailand’s highest point, and the crypt of the last King of Chiang Mai. Beside the chedi is a rounded brass plate on which visitors are invited to balance a coin. After watching a succession of coins tilt and fall, I succeeded, and my secret wish will soon be granted.
We celebrated with lunch at a Hmong restaurant Romphoti, where we a had the best tilapia ever.
After lunch, we stopped at viewpoint overlooking a verdant valley where flowers and vegetables, perhaps including those we’d just lunched on, are grown beneath canopies. We drove to the entrance of the Dai Inthanon park, collected bamboo walking sticks, end set off into the forest led by Minty and assisted by a local guide, Miu, a young Karen girl. Rainforest trees towered above us, We trekked downhill near a river whose roaring cascades filled the forest with soothing sound and delighted the eyes with their beauty, so close it seemed possible to touch the whitewater as it raced by. We crossed a wobbly bamboo bridge backdropped by a torrent of falling water, then hiked past coffee trees, some with ripened red beans, growing in the shade of the forest canopy.
We reached a Karen village where Miu left our group and stayed with a group of elder Karen women looming the textiles for which they are famous. Then Monty returned us to Chiang Mai just after sunset.
