Northern Thailand

First stop in Northern Thailand is Chiang Mai, the former capital of the Lanna Empire. It's known as a city full of Wats and for some great walking markets. It's also a great place to organize trips into the highlands for trekking and visiting the Thai Hill Tribes. I arrived early in the morning from the night train and fortunately my hotel let me check in early for a much needed shower. I then head out to explore the many Wats (temples) in town. That night, my awesome Med Hat dive buddy Cindy and we planned a day exploring the highlands by scooter (really the only way to ride in South East Asia). We did the 100km Samoeng Loop, north West of Chiang Mai. We saw waterfalls, temples, detoured through Hmong villages, stopped at a Botanical gardens and got soaked in the rain. But it was an awesome day, and a wonderful way to see the countryside.

Stupa at the Oldest Wat in Chiang Mai

Sunday night market in Chiang Mai. I spent 2 hours roaming the streets, shopping, eating and listerning to a ton of music.

Beautiful scenery on the Samoeng Loop

Driving down a secondary road through farmland and Hmong villages

At the crossroads

Viewpoint near Samoeng

Taking a break along the Samoeng Loop

Orchids!

Cindy at the Botanical Gardens

The next day we decided we really couldn't get enough of the scooters and the independence of seeing the countryside. We drove up the mountain near town towards Wat Suthep, famous for.... It was the same story as the previous day, saw some Wats, great viewpoints, ruins and then got absolutely dumped rain on. Haha! At least we were getting used to riding in the rain!

Wat Suthep - a famous Wat near Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai from a little rest stop

Buddha - an emaciated image from a beautiful forest Wat

Forest Wat - Umong

Onward to the next destination, Chiang Rai. I decided to do a few day trips from this area. First, I booked a daytrip to the "Golden Triangle", the area around the Mekong River that forms the border of Thailand, Burma and Laos. It has a history as a famous trading center, but more recently as a hotbed for opium production. Governments in all countries have cracked down on the opium trade in this area (Afganistan is now the world leader in illegal opium trade), but there are still pockets in this area growing opium and it is still used by some hill tribe villagers.

Burma!!!

Black House - designed by a famous Thai artist

Crossing the Burmese border

Hill Tribe Village

The next day, I was joined by Cindy for a day trek to a Lisu and Akha Hill Tribe village. 14km up and down a mountain didn't sound that bad, but I should have been ready for all that humidity. Besides sweating more than I could drink, it was a great hike! Plus, we got some rain and a waterfall swim to cool us down. Our guide Praseet, is a hill tribe member himself (Karen), and we was a wealth of knowledge about the local people, customs, things around us in the nature. He was even kind enough to share some stories about growing up in the mountains. We had a wonderful day!

Hiking to the Hill Tribe Village

Amazing Northern Thailand countryside

Trooper - the baby owl we rescued from the village

I'm now in Laos and completely loving it here. The beauty, bounty and history of the Mekong River is amazing and I sometimes feel like I've been transported back in time 100 years....but more on Laos in my next post.