Chiang Mai - Wednesday

The Thai people are so nice.  Whether this is an Asian/Buddhist thing or not we will have to wait and see. But they are lovely, laid back, polite and so welcoming. Always there with a smile for you. The do everything to help, and they are so interested in you as well. It's a lovely place to be.

Today we played tourists and caught a tourist bus up into the DOA Inthanon National Park which is about and hour and a half away.  Our first stop was at the highest point. It was early  and 17 degrees when we left Chiang Mai, and 10 when we jumped out of the bus brrrrr.

The second stop was a lovely waterfall, I expect there are hundreds of them in these valleys, and then on to the Twin Padogas built by the current King and Queen of Thailand. The Pagodas face each one representing the King the other, the Queen. They are surrounded by gardens and look out across the mountains. Unfortunately it wasn't a very clear day.

We had a great time. We kept being stopped by monks and being asked whether they could have their picture taken with us. A strange experience being on the other side for a change. I think they were trainee monks really and some of them had pretty meaty cameras. I did get a few images of them as well.

From there it was on to a White Karen. Village. A little bit grubby but interesting to see the village women weaving and find out a little about their lives. They grow rice and coffee in the village.

It was a nice day out, nothing particularly spectacular, but great. On the bus was a couple from Oman, some Thai girls and a Canadian couple. We all sat around talking at lunchtime and got onto how the Thai's love their sugar, everything tastes sweet, and they add sugar to everything including savoury dishes. We we told they had a huge diabetes issues, and were surprised to hear the Omani couple agree and say that in Oman it is currently 40% of the population.