Trekking the Tallest Mountains in Thailand: Chiang Mai, Part 3

This third and final post of the Chiang Mai series documents my day trekking in Doi Inthanon National Park, which contains the tallest mountains in the entire country of Thailand.  I got to visit the highest point in Thailand, dip in the frigid Himalayan river, and acquaint with the culture of the remote mountain villages.  Let's take a journey together through the foothills of the Himalayas in Chiang Mai, Thailand!

Reading time: 8 minutes

Doi Inthanon is about 70 km outside of Chiang Mai city, so it is pretty standard to get a tour group if you don't have access to a car or motorbike to get all that way yourself.  I went with Chiang Mai Good Tour, and they were awesome!  I got picked up at 7 AM and had such a lovely group of 11 other travellers to spend the day with.  After a couple hours of driving up windy mountain roads, we arrived at our first stop: Wachirathan Waterfall.

Our tour guide Tommy informed us that for the last few weeks, every day had been overcast and rainy.  But today, we were so lucky to have completely blue skies.  As a result, this huge waterfall had a surprise in store for us...

...a vivid, natural rainbow.

This waterfall is 40 meters tall, the same height as a 13 story building.

I climbed the side stairs to get close to top of the waterfall and look all the way down.  The mist from the waterfall covered everything, including me!  It felt so nice and refreshing.

I then carefully descended the slippery stairs all the way to the bottom.

The arch of the rainbow changed as I shifted elevations.  Do you see where it is, in this photo?

This waterfall was an awe-inspiring way to start out the day.  We moved on from here to our next stop: the top of Thailand!

At 2,565 meters (8,415 feet), Doi Inthanon is the highest mountain in the country.  Doi Inthanon is technically part of the Himalayan mountain range, which stretches from Afghanistan through India, Nepal, and Bhutan, and ends in foothills in Southeast Asia, namely, Northern Thailand. 

Due to the elevation here, Doi Inthanon is the coldest place in all of Thailand.  It never gets cold enough to snow, but it was the middle of the day when we were here and it was only 15° C - that's 59° F!  At 6 AM, as this sign records, it was a chilly 6° C / 43° F.  For reference, I have rarely felt anything cooler than 21° C / 70° F in the depths of nighttime during my entire year in Thailand!  On this day, at this time, in the city of Chiang Mai, it was 33° C / 91° F.  Doi Inthanon is clearly the place to be!

This site is the location of the only Rhododendron forest in Thailand.  It is the one place that is suitable for these trees in the whole country.

Brr!!

We hiked through the forest and happened upon a memorial site.  This was built to honor Thai soldiers who passed away in a helicopter crash here about 50 years ago.

After our hike, we were off to the King and Queen Chedis.

I ascended the stairs to the King Pagoda first, built to honor the late king in 1987.  The view in the photo above is of the Queen Pagoda, built to honor the queen in 1992.

These chedis are 5 km south of the main Doi Inthanon summit, so the view from them is quite spectacular.

The mountains peaked out through the fast moving clouds under the glorious sunshine.

It is easy to understand why the chedis were built at this location; what better way to honor beloved royalty?

Inside the King Chedi were statues and reliefs of the Buddha.

Reliefs on the walls depicted the Four Holy Places of Buddhism.  The one above is where the Buddha was born.

This is where Buddha attained enlightenment.

This is where Buddha gave his first sermon and gained his first disciples.

This is where Buddha passed into final nirvana.

On to the Queen Chedi!

The Buddha and murals inside were different from any I have ever seen, and I have been to a lot of Buddhist temples.  The posture of this statue reminded me of something out of Christian, or perhaps Egyptian, imagery; do you see it, too?

My favorite part of the Queen Chedi was the garden outside.

It was so quaint and peaceful here.

Also, watching the clouds and mountains dance from the garden was magnificent.

The garden provided a great view of the two pagodas together. 

We carried on now to the Hmong Market, run by locals living in the rural mountain villages.

There were rows and rows of goods here, including tons of dried fruits, spices, jams, nuts...

...and wines!  The vendor running this wine stand gave us so many samples of her wide variety of wines.  This one was the blueberry wine, it tasted like blueberry candy!  My favorite was the lychee wine.

Mildly tipsy and tickled by the amount of dried fruit and wine samples that I got for not buying anything (the others bought things, don't worry!), it was time to go have lunch.

The tour company took such good care of the four vegetarians in the group (myself included)!  We got so many veggie and tofu dishes, plus a dessert of fruit.

Now that we were nourished, it was time for a two hour mountain trek!

We saw beautiful plantlife everywhere, especially the bamboo.  Tommy told us that, although it takes trees decades to grow this tall, bamboo can grow to the height shown in the picture above in a matter of weeks! 

The trek was a combination of mountainous jungle and rushing river.

Every angle of the environment was beautiful, and it was cool enough to really enjoy doing physical activity!

Whenever we started to feel warm, going into the mist of the cool waterfalls felt so nice.

One of my tour group members caught a photo of me here, in my element on the (slippery) rocks.

We hiked on a little further and arrived at a swimming hole!  This butterfly greeted us as we approached.

I didn't bring a swimsuit (and the water was SO COLD), but I happily took off my shoes and perched myself on a rock for a foot dip.

From where I sat, it felt like it was just me, the waterfall, and the refreshing 10° C (50° F) river.

After a nice break at the swim hole, we continued our trek down the mountain.

Many of the staircases, handrails, and bridges were built out of a combination of wood and bamboo.

It was cool to realize that the bamboo used to build these bridges regenerated in the forest so quickly, due to the speed at which bamboo grows (almost 1 meter, or 3 feet, per day!).  

Wonderful waterfall views awaited us at every turn.

I have never been somewhere quite like this.  Jungle and river...

...and then, suddenly, expansive terraces growing rice, marigolds, and strawberries.

These terraces are sustained by the river (see the rusty water running through the channel on the right?) and provide a livelihood for many people living in the rustic mountain villages.

This is a pepper bush!  Our guide Tommy picked two peppers.  He gave one to us to try (he suggested we put our finger on the broken part of the pepper and then to our tongue, NOT putting the pepper directly in our mouths), and he kept the other one for himself.  This was so spicy.  I was glad he encouraged us to try the pepper in this way.  What did he do with his pepper, you ask?  He popped it right into his mouth.  His face and ears turned red and he began to sweat.  He grew up in these mountains, so he knew what he was getting himself into!  He enjoys the spice and said it keeps him healthy.

Glorious terraces, glorious day, happy hiker.

We hiked down to where they grow the marigolds.

This is an example of the huts in which the marigolds are collected and prepared to sell to temples.  This little girl was the cutest marigold preparer I have ever seen!  I spoke with her in Thai for a little while - the conversation went, "Hello!  How old are you?" / *giggle* /"Are you three years old?  Are you five years old?  Are you one hundred years old?" / *massive giggle* "No" *held up four fingers* "I am four years old" / "Not one hundred?  Are you sure?" / *MASSIVE giggle*

We got to see rice terraces up close as we descended further.

We went back into jungle, and to our delight, we found wild coffee plants!

One of the major livelihoods of the mountain villages is making locally sourced coffee.  More on this shortly.

We found little nuts on the ground, which Tommy informed us were edible!  He opened one for me to try.  It was unlike any nut I've ever had.  I liked it!

The wonderful views continued as we wound through the trails.

We were surprised and joyed to find a sweet little green viper snake having a rest on some dry bamboo.  He is harmless, so it was safe to take pictures as we walked past.  Do you see his head?  It is tucked just behind the bamboo stalk he is wrapped around.

Finally, we reached our last destination: a village dedicated to making coffee!

Tommy brought over some raw coffee beans, as well as a trough of the freshly ground coffee.

I tried eating one of these.  It was very tough and took a lot of chewing.  I don't recommend it, but I did not dislike it!

The actual coffee was much preferable to the raw beans.  They serve it in these tiny cups because it is about as strong as a shot of espresso.  The coffee was a bit bitter, very potent, and very delicious.

It was such a treat to have local coffee, made from the plants we had just seen on our trek through the jungle.  Some of our group members bought sacks of coffee beans and grounds from the villagers, and we were on our way.

This was the last stop on our day of trekking.  We had walked a total of 10 kilometers, visited the tallest point in Thailand, seen half a dozen waterfalls, enjoyed locally made coffee and wine, and immersed in the temperate mountainous jungle.  It was a perfect way to spend my last day in Chiang Mai.

Thank you for joining on my trek through Doi Inthanon National Park!  It has been a delight sharing my time in Chiang Mai with you.  May you be well!  Love from Thailand.

⛰️