Hey, would you look at that, more Wats and Waterfalls to fall in love with, more great Thai mountainous scenery, this time more hills, more cliff-faces, more farms cut into the above. Today was our turn to get out of town a bit, heading South towards the Doi Inthanon National Park, a sprawling area that includes a half dozen waterfalls, quite a few temples, including the most notable "Twin Royal Pagodas" and some small towns.
The best part of the tour, in reality, was how stress free it was - so little time spent watching tradesmen do something for thirty seconds followed by some subtle pressures to buy anything, and so much time just spent in nature and in the heights of Thailand. As we were the only people on the tour, we were able to convince the company to start a few hours late, which both allowed us to sleep in a bit, and trade lunches from the tour planend one (which is not free, hence them being OK shifting it) to us hitting back Euang Kam Sai for the second straight day. I usually don't like repeating restaurants, but the food was too good and the menu too extensive, meaning there was so much of it we hadn't yet seen. We split about six things, the best probably being a chicken thigh, lemongrass and other spice mash type thing steamed just perfectly inside banana leaf. That or today's alternative to Khao Soi, which was a soup with various pork pieces, from blood to belly to fried crackling to mince, along with a pure, tart broth. On the whole, I really can't recommend Euang Kam Sai enough.
From lunch (which we had between 11:15 - 12:00, so lunch is a bit of a incorrect name here...) we left for Doi Inthanon. The great part starts with the drive out of the city, which on the downside has too many traffic lights (which almost always run in like 90-second segments on each side), but on the plus-side, and outweighing the minus, was kilometer after kilometer of somethign of interest in the landing between the two sides of traffic, be it lovely, colorful flowers of various purples, red and yellows, or later on makeshift little temple-like buildings over a canal. The road quality and roadside beauty, in this part of Thailand is just excellent.
It takes about 75-90 minutes from central Chiang Mai to reach the entrance of Doi Inthanon park, which at its entrance is already a bit elevated, and therefore significantly lower temperature, which was sorely needed after 72 hours of 100+. The first stop is about 30 minutes into the park, with lovely views on winding roads and switchbacks, and that is the Wachitaran Waterfall, the largest waterfall in the park and one of the more accessible ones. I say accessible because while there are a good 6-10 waterfalls in the park itself, most are either too small, or quite far from the main road requiring a hike that isn't impossible, but takes too much time. If I return to Chiang Mai (or more likely at this point "when I return"), spending a longer day roaming the hiking trails of Doi Inthanon would be a must do, but for today we "settle" on the one large waterfall that isn't a far distance from the main road.
In fact, it's basically right at the road, but there's about 20-30 minutes of walking trails to see the waterfall from various vantage points. It is a stunning waterfall, not the biggest but so picturesque, such a perfect balance of size, power and placement to just fall perfectly off the cliff, with just a ton of great sightlines. There's a makeshift bridge in front of it giving kind of the classic head-on view of the waterfall. Then there's a path of stone stairs on the left side that rises about two-thirds the way up the fall for a great side view, and then a series of steps downward from the bridge that get to the bottom fo the waterfall wading pool and creek running downwards. All of it is serene.
The waterfall was a nice entry into Doi Inthanon, with the next stop being at the high point of the park, another 20-30 minutes of winding roads leading to the top. When we got there, the temperature was at 20 celsius, a good 21 degrees color than the weather back in Chiang Mai. The elevation sits around 8000 feet, and you can feel it, but the cool air felt better. The high point is interesting because it isn't actually a viewpoint, it is just the peak up a gradual slope and covered in trees - the walk to tget there and around is lovely, about a 30-40 minute walk through teh hills and forests. It's serene, beautiful but the one downside is there is no real view. There are of course other viewpoints scattered around the park, which we did go and visit, which gave us the pictures of vastness we wanted.
The next stop was probably the centerpice of a visit to Doi Inthanon, the Twin Royal Pagodas, which you can see the very tops of from a distance sitting near the edge of a mountain, but whose true beauty is fairly hidden. You park in one area and then take these little rikshaw/jeeps from the parking lot to the main area of the two temples - the ride takes five minutes, the last two of which are just splendid as you head up towards the pagodas and see flowers, beauty and sharpness everywhere.
The twin pagodas, named so with one being for the Queen, the other the King, sit up on a hill, reachable by escalators (you walk down steps, which I guess you could walk up...) are just stunning. They're fairly new, but so intricately ornate. Each on the outside have these sharp depictions of various gods, idols and tapestries carved in stone or wood on all sides of the 16-sided pagoda. Each area has two levels on the outside with this series of artwork. Those are great, but the insides so much more staggering. The queen pagoda inside is more traditional, with a large seated buddha, a giant lotus flower carved on teh roof, and frescoe artwork on each side. The king one more regal and new, with a large standing buddha in the middle and artwork on each side, with a mystical night sky like representation on teh ceiling. The pagodas are excellent, but arguably they aren't the star of the show here.
The star might be the greenery, the perfectly maintained gardens and flower at all levels - in the area where the shuttle jeep drops you off, on the slopes that you rise up on the escalator and then extending from teh pagodas. Sadly, the area near the King pagoda is being renovated (and if my understanding is correct, they are building a third pagoda), but the queen side had gardens of hydrangaes, roses adn other flowers, extending in two circles that also give you incredible views of the vast park and forest below you. It is a remarkable scene.
That was essentially our last bit of tourism in Doi Inthanon, with the only exception being a quick stop in a village at the edge of the park that had a nice coffee factory (ok, the one "salesy" aspect of the tour), but even that came with free coffee which was strong and needed. The drive back to Chiang Mai luckily didn't take too long, as we didn't have too much time between are round 6pm return, and needing to leave for dinner at 6:30 to Friend's Table - another showstopping tasting menu within Chiang Mai.
Friends Table sits about twenty minutes outside the city center, a large glass building at the base of a luxury hotel. It is truly a great spot and a great menu, 11 courses perfectly built, constructured, crafted and presented. There is one downside though, and one that was maybe more of a poor coincidence, than anything else, which is most of the dishes we had weren't really Thai. Now, most had Thai ingredients, local produce, etc., but the menu of the moment (the chef changes menus every 3-4 months or so) was if anything more Japanese in some of hte preparations. Now, it was excellent; like some of the dishes were truly stunning - from a small wagyu khao soi, to a brilliant play on a tostada, to a peking duck main that was just unreal. Friend's Table is an excellent restaurant and reasonably priced, but it was not the best representation of Chiang Mai cuisine.
The meal took an efficient two hours, and left us with some options for cocktails and night spots. The first was our last cocktail spot (or I should say my last - to be explained in tomorrow's piece) in Chiang Mai, a place called Bitter Truth, which sits right at the edge of old town, with a large glass facade, a sleek bar and some great drinks. Probably the sharpest, strongest cocktails of all of the spots (I guess that plays into the "bitter" name), if a bit small on the sizes, which I would say is more of a Chiang Mai thing, than specific to Bitter Truth. All in all, the one true standout cocktail spot in our time in Chiang Mai was probably Bar Not Found, but all were quite good.
The last spot was a bit of a random, but great, way to end the night. We had gone back towards the area where Gladwell sits, as that is one of teh two cocktail spots we found that close at 1am, the other being its sister spot (next door) Noir CMI, but sadly both were closed as their team was having a retreat - fun for them, not so much for us. Instead, we called an audible and went to a live music bar right next to it called Melodic CNX, which was packed on Friday when we came to Gladwell, and to our surprise nearly as packed today on a Sunday night. The music was loud, but good (mostly Asian language songs), the crowd was loving it, the drinks were decent and cheap and there were pool tables upstairs that we hovered around. All in all, for a place we / I put no effort into researching or finding, it was a great spot to end the night. "Sometimes, those spur of the moment places are just better"... says I, someone who meticulously plans trips to a degree they shouldn't be. Anyway, maybe just another reason to come back to Chiang Mai and just experience it all without any real fore-planning.
