Travel with Kevin and Ruth: Merry Christmas from Thailand!

Sunday, December 24, 2023

Merry Christmas from Thailand!

It's Christmas morning as I write this here in Thailand. And Christmas Eve in all of North America where the majority of our readers are located. Millions of kiddies will wake up with excitement and big smiles on their faces in the morning!

From the weather reports, it's looking like a green Christmas in our hometown of Ottawa. Not that rare of an event, as there have been about 15 of them since the 1950's. And it's most certainly a green Christmas here in Thailand!

It was a perfect day yesterday to get out and do the hike up the Monk's Trail into the mountains west of the city. While we've been doing a lot of walking, it's been all flat. This trail is very steep at times!

We walked through the central area, then took a Grab taxi to the trailhead.

It's a popular trail, but didn't really seem that busy to us.

Crossing a stream.

There are a lot of uphill sections!

The trail climbs about 620 meters (2000') over 3.3 kms (2 miles) so it's quite steep. We made it to the first temple, where we stopped for a rest. A couple of mid twenties girls came up behind us, and they stopped for a rest as well and we got to chatting. Linda and Anna are friends from Germany, and on a three week holiday together. We ended up hiking with them the rest of the way.

Ruth found a friend.

Huge banana tree!

Lots of greenery.

Buddhas everywhere.

Starting to get a view looking back at the city.

There are three different temple complexes along the way.

All of them can also be driven to, so there were quite a few people around.

Another Buddha.

It is a tradition to sprinkle water from the good luck well onto your head.

No bare shoulders or shorts above the knee allowed at the temples.

Pretty butterfly.

Cool tree!

Another view.

Linda took a photo of us together.

More greenery.

And another temple monument.

Made it to the top!

It's actually not the top, but it's as high as we wanted to go. You can continue another 8 kms (5 miles) to the highest point in the area at Doi Pui, but it's a lot more altitude and we're feeling a bit out of shape having not done very much climbing lately.

Chiang Mai airport.

Can you see the plane taking off?

The Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep temple complex has a lot to see.

Ussie with the German girls, Anna and Linda.

Neat statue!

The main stupa is under renovation.

At least they colored the scaffolding gold to make it sort of fit in!

The four of us decided to take the local transportation back down. We were getting hungry, and Linda had told us of a vegetarian place that makes gluten free pizza (she has a wheat allergy) so we all decided to go to the restaurant together.

The public transportation system in Chiang Mai consists of these pickup trucks that seat about a dozen people in the back. Our ride back to the city cost 50 baht ($1.45 USD, $1.90 CAD) each.