Doi Inthanon: Take 2

A second attempt to make it to the highest mountain in Thailand was a success. This time, Pia and her family were kind enough to drive us out to Doi Inthanon for a day trip. It was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the snacks that Pia's mom woke up at 3am (!) to make for us. She put sticky rice and coconut milk in hollowed out bamboo and burned it until cooked. You have to peel away the bamboo to break of a piece of delicious sticky rice log.

We went to the top of the mountain and it was the first time that I felt cold in Thailand. Turns out it was about 60 degrees, which in my Minnesota born and raised brain should never ever be considered cold... maybe I'm turning into one of those people. Or maybe it was just the moisture and the wind; the fact that we were hanging out in the middle of a cloud. My hair was getting wet as the day went by, and for the first time it wasn't from sweating. It actually reminded me a lot of home during autumn, and I started to crave hot chocolate and pumpkin pie. Weird.

Unfortunately because of the fog, we couldn't see 20 meters in front of us. No spectacular view. It was interesting to see the posters in the souvenir shop saying out loud "That's where we are?" You can see in the pictures that it's so foggy and where a breathtaking view should be, it's just a cloud of white. Oh well.

We stopped for breakfast at a restaurant on the mountain road where the breakfast special was a side splitting plate of eggs and toast with butt and jam. I laughed for an inappropriate amount of time at that one. Afterwards we stopped at the pair of temples that were built for the king and queen. Since the king temple was under construction, we saw the queen's temple and her garden. It was beautiful enough to make me wish for a moment that I was a queen and had my own temple. Just kidding, but I really loved the tile artwork on the sides of her temple. The hydrangeas in the garden were absolutely huge. Grandma, you'd be impressed. They were as big as my head.

We had lunch near a gorgeous waterfall, shopped around a hill tribe village, and trekked a bit through a nature trail. Overall not a bad day. It only took two tries to get there, but it was worth the wait.