Si's Year Out! (Plus Europe! Plus Morocco!): Being Spiritual in Chiang Mai

After another less than enjoyable 12 hour bus ride we made it to Chiang Mai, the biggest city in the North of Thailand. That evening, while walking back from dinner, we came across an elephant just walking along the road! At night the handlers lead their elephants around and tourists pay to feed them sugar cane and bananas.

The next day we rented a motorbike and headed to Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand, to see some waterfalls on the way to the top. Unfortunately, it was ridiculously expensive to enter the national park (which was the whole mountain) so we bribed the ranger to let us visit the first (and most spectacular) waterfall, Mae Klang Waterfall, which was huge!

The following day we visited Wat U Mong, a Buddhist meditation temple comprising of long tunnels, built into a flat hill, that lead to meditation chambers. While we were walking around the grounds we could hear the monks chanting and praying!

Our final motorbike day saw us head up Doi Suthep, another big mountain. On the top is a temple complex which you reach by climbing 306 steps. The golden stupa on the top looked amazing shining in the sun and the views of Chiang Mai were spectacular. We then went a little down the other side of the mountain to visit a 'hill tribe'. Unfortunately it wasn't exactly the rustic old-style hill tribe we expected.... the huts had satellite dishes coming out the roofs! We did find one area that was quite authentic and met a guy making crossbows out of bamboo. I was able to fire arrows at an apple hanging about 20m away and hit it on my third try! On the way down the mountain we saw another two sets of waterfalls and a Buddhist pray area.

One of the things we really wanted to do was an elephant trek through the forest. All the treks in Chiang Mai only lasted for 1 hour and involved walking around an overgrown field. After consulting the Lonely Planet book we decided to head right up into the mountains to a place called Pai, where we could go elephant trekking for up to 3 hours!