Chiang Mai: More on our first day; then tour of Doi Inthanon National Park on 9/25.

Just realized I hadn't included some other information/thoughts and photos about our first day (9/24) in CM when I posted yesterday so here they are.

One other thing to always get used to when moving to another country of course is dealing with the new currency and especially knowing the exchange rate.
Shortly after arriving from China, when we were on our all day tout to Doin Inthanon National Park, I wanted to buy a postcard for Shirley Dobel's granddaughter; Shirley is also in Loving Hands, the knitting and crocheting group through our church, and she had asked me to buy postcards from all over for her granddaughter who collects them; I had seen some I liked but looked at the price, 10thb each, and was aghast at the price thinking it was $3.20! Of course, I was stupidly still thinking in Chinese yuan or remimbi, not yet in thb where the 10thb cost was only .32. Live and learn, right. Didn't make that same mistake too often luckily but we did have to stop and think the first few days in each country what that country's exchange rate was.
Also had language issues: hello is “saw wat dee” and how much is “tow lie” – got myself in trouble with the latter one though a number of times b/c then the vendor would tell me the price in Thai which left me stumped and did me a fat lot of good!
I found myself still constantly saying “ni how” and “shi shi”, the Chinese words for hello and thank you, after being in Thailand for 3 days!
We were thrilled being in Thailand after China as there was NO spitting - a very welcome relief, let me tell you.
Thai toilets away from our guesthouse were the same squat style we’d seen all over China but with a twist; there was no lever at the back to flush but rather a stone, rectangular shaped, small tub with a child’s size sand bucket or pail to fill with water from the tub and then flush the toilet; if the tub was empty, you first had to turn on the tap and fill the tub.
3 seasons in Thailand: rainy from July til October and that means low season vis-à-vis tourists; then either autumn or winter, depending on whom you speak to, from November til February – in CM, the morning temps are between 10 and 15 Celsius but 20-24 in the pm; then the dry season lasting from March thru June with the am temps are 20-24 and the pm temps are, to me, a brutally hot 34-36 and not infrequently way hotter than that too.
There are about 100 wats ( the Thai word for temple) just in CM alone and over 300 wats in CM province; as you can imagine you could only walk a block or so before discovering another wat – just mind boggling to us; just 7 of the wats in CM are financially supported by the king; the others are jointly supported by both the government and donations.
Thailand’s flag has five horizontal red, white and blue stripes: two red for the land and the people, two white for the specific type of Buddhism practiced in Thailand, and one blue, but double the width of the others, for the king.
CM is 720kms north of Bangkok.
7 Elevens are everywhere in CM, often two to a block or right across the street from each other and all seemed busy all the time too – wonder why and they caught on so well in Thailand? In addition to selling some groceries etc, they also sold tickets to all sorts of attractions and manner of transportation, sort of a one stop shop.
All traffic again in Thailand, as in Irkutsk, is on the "opposite" side of the road for us North Americans; so, as my mum would say, we had to be bloody careful when crossing the road each and every time to look right to make sure we wouldn't be mowed down!
CM is known as a 20 minute town b/c it only takes 20 minutes to get from one side of the town to another. We took a "songthaew" everywhere we were going any considerable distance in CM or if it was too dark to walk; the price for a ride is basically set depending on the number of passengers, not the distance.
They are converted, almost always red, small pick up trucks with a little open cabin on the back to accommodate passengers; they are NO good for tall people at all as you have to duck to get in from the back and the ceiling/roof is very short; absolutely useless for you, Mindy and Adam, I kept thinking; no seat belts either, you just hang on for dear life if the driver takes the corners quickly; the price is dependent on the number of passengers but generally just 40thb (about $1.30) for both of us.
One thing that was especially frustrating for Steven vis-a-vis the songthaews is that some of the drivers we had didn't know how to get around the city. Steven had to end up showing them on the map he always had with him but often that didn't help either; nor did the business card from the guesthouse showing their map and phone number. It didn't really matter to us as the price was set but it was a waste of time going around and around.
Haggling is normal and expected in CM; again the asking price can be up to 10 times the final price depending on the item and which store you're in; we made sure to always have a calculator handy as we were always asked to name our price once the vendor had stated an initial price; the haggling would go back and forth several times until either both sides were happy OR we left if not willing to pay the final price.
We really had no idea as to the either the quality or "real" cost of an item; again our modus operandi was to buy what we liked and wanted at a price we were comfortable with paying
In my previous blog post, I showed photos of CM's Flower and Night Markets; we were blown away by the spellbinding colors of the clothes, bags and everything else; far more vibrant than we'd seen in China.
The population of CM is about 185,000; the Old City, where our guesthouse was located, is a neat square surrounded by a moat and remnants of a medieval style wall built 700 years ago to defend against Burmese invaders.
Onto 9/25 now and our all day tour with Travel Hub Tours to Doi Inthanon National Park aka DI for the blog: DI is the highest peak in the country at 2565 meters and is located 56 kms SW of CM.
8 other passengers in our van: 4 young Chinese women, a couple from the UAE and Max and Mae, two lovely 29 year olds from CM in the back row with us .
Max works as the manager of a Thai restaurant in Adelaide, Australia, and Mae, his girlfriend of 10 years (that, I don't understand) has been working in CM since Max went to Australia about 8 years ago to study and then work. He finally proposed to her a week ago and they're getting married in a civil ceremony in 4 days so she can emigrate to Australia to be with him in a year or so once all her paperwork is completed; at some point though she has to learn English as she doesn't speak a word yet.
Max had 5 phones, including 3 Thai smart phones, on him – that just blew me away! They’re each used for separate functions, i.e. internet only, family only, friends only, etc; he said it’s normal for Thais to have as many as 3 at a time but he has the extra 2 as well.
Back to DI info now –DI is also known as the Roof of Thailand; it was very cloudy when we started our day trip in CM but not hazy due to pollution like we saw in China; DI is a “cloud forest” – a term I’d never heard of before – so it’s always raining at the summit; it was pouring cats and dogs when we got there so we all trooped out of the bus to buy ponchos for 40thb; the tiny store knew they had a captive audience so the poncho price was quite inflated.
8 waterfalls dive off the mountain; the park’s size is 1000 sq. meters and there are 2 monuments plus stupas or shrines erected in honor of the king and queen.
Along the road to the summit are terraced rice fields and covered greenhouses tended to by the local Hmong and Karen hill tribes; I had never seen rice growing before so I enjoyed seeing first hand where all the rice we eat comes from.
DI is one of the top destinations in SE Asia for naturalists and bird watchers; the mist shrouding the upper slopes helps to produce abundant orchids and support nearly 400 bird species; we saw flowers even I could identify like hydrangeas and trumpet flowers just growing wild along the road; wished you were there, Mindy, to help me identify all the others!
The park is also home to leaf and other monkeys and gibbons, barking deer and giant flying squirrels but we didn’t see any of them!
We both felt like voyeurs or peeping toms as everyone on the bus stood and walked around looking at (or gawking at?) the houses precariously built on stilts on the hill sides; the small Hmong village we saw had had electricity for only the last 5 or 6 years but quite a few of the homes now had satellite dishes, we noticed; everyone on the bus stopped at what appeared to be the only business in the very tiny village, a weaver's; we saw beautiful scarves being woven which were all sold at set prices, no bargaining.
Saw, in the village, Jasmine or “sticky rice” plants, i.e. a particular type of rice, which is very widely used in Thailand, plus coffee, mango and papaya trees and a small plant whose leaves would immediately close up after being touched.

A wonderful day tour - photo time now.

A songthaew.

You see these fish pedicures all over S.E. Asia - some controversy how "safe" they are to use but they sure look like fun!

Don't I look positively fetching in my new poncho! I obviously didn't get the memo, so to speak, about it's always raining cats and dogs at the summit from the tour company so I didn't bring along my snazzy LL Bean raincoat for the day!

r the

We went on a lovely hike at the top of DI - pretty much had the place to ourselves b/c of the rain.

This sign was at a very difficult angle to read but worth it, I thought, as it was about a Canadian man who had spent much of his life at DI before dying there.