Chiang Dao

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Originally uploaded by theslaad.

A few years ago Chris used to work with a guy called Stuart who upped sticks with his Thai wife and set up home in Chiang Dao. They run a guesthouse & restaurant which we thought it would be rude not to visit!

It was easier than we thought to get to Chiang Dao. We caught a taxi to the bus station and then caught the local bus. When we arrived there were a couple of songthaews waiting to take people to wherever. We climbed in with a couple of Aussies and talked cricket for the 10 minute drive.

It is beautiful. A lot of people visit the Chiang Mai area with the purpose of going into the hills trekking. We weren't sure what we were going to do in Chiang Dao but the scenery was amazing.
Chiang Dao Nest is a lovely cluster of bungalows centred on the restaurant. We arrived on the Saturday so it was quite busy. Wicha & Stuart who own the guesthouse get a lot of trade from local expats getting away for the weekend. We mostly chilled out on our balcony for the afternoon, admiring the scenery before we went to Wicha's restaurant. People also travel from Chiang Mai just to eat there! We had a 3 course feast - homemade pate & fresh bread, roasted duck, tuna in sesame, white chocolate mousse & almond ice cream. Yum Yum! Not quite what were used to in Thailand and a little more than we've been paying, but excellent food & value.
We must mention that before we had dinner we had to go and get changed into our jeans, and put our fleeces on (for the first time on our trip) as it was a bit chilly! How marvellous!
We did some star gazing that night - the sky is so clear and there's no light pollution so you can see so many stars.

On Sunday we visited the local Monastry - Tham Pha Pong. It's a bit of a climb - 200 steps then a further gentler 300, but worth it. As you would expect the view from the top is incredible and it was quite a pretty temple in the entrance to a cave. We came back to the Nest for lunch - which was of course yummy - garlic bread and warm chicken salad.
Wicha & Stuart have a 5 year old son called Joseph who likes to play Uno. During the course of our stay we've played many hands with him (most of which he won), our first session was that afternoon.
After lunch we walked down the road to the local caves. They are very extensive. A few of the caves are accessible by yourself as they are quite high and electricaly lit, but once you've been through those ones a guide is offered to you. We weren't sure what to expect but paid our 100 baht (1.50) and followed a man with a kerosene lantern into the dark caves! They were stunning, he pointed out various formations to us - the chicken, the elephant ear, the lotus flowers, the illithid (or waterfall) etc. There were many different formations and some parts that were really sparkly. Around four times we had to literally crawl through to the next part of the cave system but generally as we were walking around we had a lot of head room. Definietly worth the visit.

When we got back we had a few beers with Wicha, played some more Uno with Joseph and then Stuart joined us. A local Lisu family turned up offering Stuart a chance to watch some Thai boxing. I wasn't really sure but Stuart explained that it was quite a festival and worth seeing - it was, and deserves a blog all of it's own!