Chiang Mai Revisited

Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep- Chiang Mai

The temple of Doi Suthep is a very sacred place for Thai people.  It is somewhat 'touristy' as they say, but it still offers a very impressive view of Chiang Mai.  The temple is about 15 km from the city of Chiang Mai, and it sits high in a mountain.  You have to climb 309 steps to get to the temple.  It's pretty cool.  I forgot to mention that in my highlights.  It only takes about 20 minutes to get there from the Song Tao stop outside Chiang Mai University, and driving up the mountain you pass many signs for waterfalls.  I definitely wanted to visit some of those after my trip to the temple. 

The song tao went back down the mountain and I got some lunch.  I was determined to hike back up that mountain to get to some of those waterfalls.  Yes it was uphill and pretty steep, and yes I could have taken a song tao and paid 50 baht or something- but dang it I wanted to hike!  It's not the best hiking- I was on a road the whole time, and many people stopped and offered to give me a ride- but I declined.  I would do this on my own!

The hike to the waterfall might have been around 5 miles from town, and man it felt tough in the afternoon heat and uphill the whole time.  But I made sure I had plenty of water so I was ok.  Once I got to the National Park Entrance I was bright red and the officials at the gate were kind of laughing at me, in a nice way like Thai people do when they see me bright red from running or being in the sun.

But when I made it to the waterfall it was worth it.  There were only a few other people there and it was a beautiful park.  I set my backpack down and hopped over some rocks to sit under the cold water.  It felt great.  Sitting there with the cool water rushing over my head giving me a big of a brain freeze I reflected on how great it was that I hiked for an hour or so and got to this- sit in a waterfall.  So wonderful.

After hopping back over the rocks to my bag I snapped some photos and saw a crab scurry away from me and back to the water. That was a bit startling, but when I saw it scurry away sideways as crabs do I just laughed outloud to myself.

On my hike back down I was very exuberant, especially when I passed the initial park office because I knew I was close to the base of the mountain- soon I would pass the Chiang Mai Aquarium and Zoo.  I was swinging my arms, I had a pep in my step and a smile on my face.  I was happy I made it to those waterfalls and accomplished a goal I set, and I was relieved to be nice and cool after being so blessed hot.  I saw a older monk across the road and I gave him a wai (a wai is a gesture that is done in greeting and to show respect.  it is bow done by bringing your hands together in front of your face and lowering your head and hands.  I'll explain more about the different wai's another time) which is polite to do when you see a monk.  Instead of simply returning my gesture with a smile and a little nod like I was expecting, he flashed me a big old thumbs up!  I was so ecstatic- once again I laughed outloud to myself, and I returned his thumbs up.  Perhaps my joy was so visible on my face- literally and figuratively- I do get really red and I'm sure I was flushed at the time from my hike- but perhaps it was just so obvious that I was happy and he knew it and recognized my delight with a thumbs up.  So cool.  I'll never forget my little encounter with the elderly thumbs up monk.