Doi Inthanon, Rice Terraces and Hill Tribes...

Today has been amazing. We went on a tour to Doi Inthanon, about two hours to the west with a few other people. It started off in the normal fashion with half an hour at a huge waterfall, and then back in the minibus and up to the highest mountain in Thailand. It was quite cold and misty and all the Thai people were shivering although we found it quite mild. Our minibus driver was a lunatic and did some really doggy blind bend style overtakes but the roads were just about wide enough for three cars to pass! It was very scary though. The roads themselves were in good condition and no horrible sheer drops too close to the road.

We saw the King and Queen Pagodas which were each based upon a mountain with jungle in the surrounding area. It was very beautiful. After this we went to a village for lunch and had lovely Thai food. They brought out lots of nicely flavoured meat and vegetable dishes which we shared, followed by slices of fresh pineapple and melon.

Our next destination was The Royal Project, which was an agricultural place, with a pond, good view, pretty waterfalls and funnel web spiders webs on the trees! I wandered off ahead and saw several monks in bright orange robes gathered around one of the viewpoints, so I walked up and asked if they could take their picture too. After which they pointed me to a stone to sit on and gathered around asking if I could be in theirs! One of the monks was given four digital cameras and proceeded to take the photos. I found this so amusing. They were from a fairly remote part nearby and I suppose they didn’t see many white girls with curly hair!

Finally we got back into the minibus and drove to a Hilltribe village. We saw some girls weaving and they were selling beautiful scarves and drapes. I thought this was a really positive thing, as they were selling their products directly, which would encourage the local people not to grow opium if they could make money by other means. So I bought a gorgeous woven scalf. At this point I started chatting to an Australian lady on our tour, and we walked around the village.

The huts looked like wooden tree houses, except with TVs. We saw a path out into a rice field which was amazing. We asked the guide what time we were due back and he said it was the last stop and as long as we wanted, so we walked probably for fifteen minutes along the paddy fields, and said hello to the local people working on the land. They were polite but it’s hard to know what they thought of foreigners. I don’t think they cared too much. The paddy fields were huge, and we walked along raised areas with small sections of rice below and then followed a trail along the hill. Forested mountains covered the background and it was an incredible experience to see. I have really enjoyed today. Only a few times have I rememberd that its Christmas. Anyway we have a night train in a few hours and will be in Ayuttaya tomorrow morning, followed by Bangkok in the evening.