Doi Inthanon National Park

On the 15th July (I know..ages ago) we headed to Doi Inthanon National Park. We were geared up for a trek because we assumed to go to the peak of Thailand we would have to trek.

Instead of doing a tour we figured we could do the whole thing ourselves much cheaper so we caught a public bus to Chom Thong, got off where I thought was Chom Thong but we really had no idea! No problems though we had a man in a songtheau take charge and take us on a little tour! He didn't speak much english so kept reffering to a map and from what I could gather he was taking us to 2 waterfalls and then the peak.

Off we went uphill on this windy road, for quite some time, it started to get a bit cloudy (we couldnt see 5m infront), then a bit cold, then a bit misty. And we soon realised maybe we didnt have to hike to the top..this guy seems to be taking us the whole way! We didnt stop at any waterfalls and when we reached the peak it was absolutely freezing!! How ironic that we had been complaining about how hot it was in Chiang Mai and as soon as its cold we were complaining about that too.

Anyway we ran (to warm us up) in the direction the driver pointed and after a whole 50metres found a sign saying THE HIGHEST SPOT IN THAILAND. So there we were, on top of the world, and we couldn't see a thing!! However, the trees we could see around us were truely beautiful, it was like rainforest. And the air was quite possibly the cleanest and freshest I have ever breathed.



We were pretty thankful when we found the little souvenier shop offered hot milo :)

Then on the way back downhill we were taken to a buddhist temple which at first we thought was just a staircase to the clouds because we couldnt see any further. When we reached the top there was infact a beautiful temple there!

We then headed to 2 waterfalls which were good, just great scenery really! We headed back to Chom Thong and went to a Burmese style temple, we weren't sure whether to go in until we read that the actual right side of the Buddha's head lies in there so we had to look! Of course it was locked up very tightly in a magnificant golden statue. I've never seen so much detail even though I swear I've been to 100 temples!