Park Day

One of our days in Chiang Mai was spent at Doi Inthanon National Park. We were fortunate to have a van drive us the 75 minutes. We were in air condition with a few seat belts, although not at every seat.  Not complaining - we were completely enclosed in the van, unlike our taxis and tuk tuks.

At any rate, this was a beautiful area of Thailand. The waterfalls were wonderful and the hiking easy but pretty. The trails were wooden pathways that were moss covered - I felt like I was in a fairy wood walking on these beautiful pathways.  

Then we stumbled upon this:

Apparently, it's a big deal at a wedding to have loads of portraits of the bride and groom, so they have many venues for these portraits before the big day, and then they are displayed at the actual wedding. 

Inside this park is the highest mountain in Thailand at 2565 meters (working on living in meters and centimeters), which is around 8,000 feet. It was actually cool at this point and I had to wear a long sleeve shirt - I haven't felt cool outside in months.

Also within this national park is a village that has recently allowed visitors to come in and buy the things they weave.  Besides the villagers, we were the only people there.  We walked around in the rice fields and around the homes while our driver described the life, the plants, the farming, etc. We went into the store and watched the woman work but it was such an odd feeling because we kind of felt like we were invisible. 

Thailand is only 1% Christian, but this village had a mission and a Christian church. 

They also had a "rice bank" where villagers could borrow rice when they had no food and then return rice when they were able to get it. 

This is one of the gazillion pictures I took of the moss covered railings. Beautiful! I want these for the cabin.