Doi Inthanon National Park
Besides its fame of being the location for the peak of Thailand’s highest mountain, Doi Inthanon, the Wild Rose is also an important bird-watching site. Many beautiful mountain birds roam the area, flying boldly for tourists to see. Some of the birds around the Yod Doi Coffeehouse cannot be photographed, even with a 300 mm. long lens. This doesn’t mean that the birds are too far away, it is actually that the birds are so close up, only a wide angle lens can be used if you want to capture them on film.
Also, the Wild Rose is a great place to admire the many flora and fauna of the Hill evergreen forest, where the massive trees are blanketed by fuzzy green moss. In the right season, like between January and March, you may find various species of wild flowers in bloom: wild roses, red and white. You may find these especially at tourist view points, such as Ang Ka Luang and Kew Mae Paan. The most intriguing of spots, however, is the area of the peak called Pa Ngam, where wild roses and a staggering cliff come together to form a beautiful and breathtaking view.
For this trip to Doi Inthanon, a sleek black five-door Chevrolet Optra was our vehicle of choice. With its gorgeous look and 1,600 piston benzene engine with an automatic transmission, when we rolled in to change the air in its tires to nitrogen (its favourite), it had the owner of the car service station patting her hood and saying, "She’s a beauty."
From Bangkok to Chiang Mai, cruising fast and furious on the highway, it turns out that the fuel-guzzling rate of the car, which can run on gasohol or benzene 91, is normal. She does not use up more fuel than any other car out on the market. Her one unique feature that her company makes a point of advertising is her steady and strong nature. When you combine that with the newly changed nitrogen-filled tires, whenever we hit a speed bump or potholes, we barely ever felt it. I tried putting a blindfold on my female colleague like in the commercial and when I finally took it off, the little lady said, "Oh my gosh, what are we doing around here? It’s too isolated."
And so, the luxurious Chevy Optra got us to Chiang Mai in about 7 hours. We checked into the Baan Sing Kham, near the Sing Kham Palace. It is located right along the Ping River and is an attractive little boutique resort, designed in a Lanna style motif. However, the accommodation was not a large traditional Lanna bungalow, but an actual house where the old people of Chiang Mai used to live.
The bathroom inside the cottage is worthy of notice because it is always ready to be converted into a spa, it is truly wonderful - but you cannot just take my word for it, you must go see for yourself!
The next morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn and tested out the car by driving the Optra up Thailand’s highest mountain or Doi. The ride was so quiet and peaceful, coupled with the comfort provided by the car seats, that time just flew and before I knew it, we were at the Office of the National Park on Kilometre 31. This ride felt so much shorter and faster than any of the others I had taken up here before. I don’t know if it was actually faster or if it was just my imagination, but it sure was fast.
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Doi Inthanon |
The Doi Inthanon National Park covers approximately 482.5 square kilometers (or 301,500 rai) of land. Within the grounds is Doi Inthanon Peak, which is 2,565 metres above sea level and is the highest mountain peak in all of Thailand. The park is communal ground for all kinds of plants and animals. For the plants portion, there are 3 different types of forest found at different heights of the mountain: the Deciduous Dipterocarp Forest located at the foot, the Mixed Deciduous Rain Forest around the middle, and the Dry Evergreen Forest at the mountain top. Many interesting wild orchids and wild flowers can be found here and some cannot be found anywhere else in Thailand.
For the animal portion, there are not that many types of animals found here because of the tribal and mountain people living off the land. However, some of the interesting animals that do live in the area are various types of birds, the Big-headed turtle, salamanders, and the most exciting animal find here; the Goral, an animal that was assumed extinct from this mountain, but nevertheless has returned to its habitat.
We drove the Chevy Optra onward to pick up our guide at the meeting point and then took her up to the highest point on the mountain with ease. It was a pity we had to leave the air conditioner on. We tried to let in the fresh mountain breeze but black smoke and burnt brake smells coming from other generic brand cars was preventing us from doing so. We practically couldn’t roll the windows up fast enough.
At the top of Doi Inthanon were many tourists but none of them were taking the same road as we were. The six of us cut through small walk lanes beside garbage cans, giving off the scent of urine. The Park ought to have put up some signs to give directions. Instead, they put a garbage can with an appalling odor in the middle of the pathway. However, this did not discourage our group. We pinched our noses and walked past the offending odor and down, around the radar tower, until we reached the large hollow Rubber tree, a direction marker which guided us to the right and down the mountain. After 30 minutes of walking, the guide told us to keep going downhill which indicated for a very challenging walk back to our car later on.
Finally, we reached Pa Ngam, after trekking downhill for over an hour. The first sight we saw was a white wild orchid proudly displaying itself on a tree branch. Next, we saw many R. Arboreum Smith bushes and then quickly spotted their vibrant red roses that were the size of the palm of my hand. The beautiful flowers were spread all along the edge of the cliff and on the base of the flowers were little green tassels that flew with the breeze, making the scene of the red roses by the cliff even more precious.
The R. Arboreum Smith roses belong in the Rhododrendron family. The bush is very tall while its stalk is large. The flowers or roses are red and they bloom in February, all the way to the start of March. These flowers are a source of nectar for various birds, therefore these bushes are a place where they love to congregate, especially birds that are in the Nectariniidae family. The tassels of the flower are a kind of lichen - they are a moustache-like fringe, usually green or brown in colour, and they cling to tree branches and blow and fly with the wind.
It was truly beautiful. The beauty of that scene just cannot be described as clearly with words than with the pictures posted on this month’s column. After having witnessed the splendor that is the red roses of Pa Ngam, we almost forgot everything with only the thought of documenting the exquisiteness of the location left in our minds.
When we looked at the image of Pa Ngam through the View Finder, we found that the problem with the picture was that the sky was a rather murky colour, with clouds rolling around the cliff. There is still thick fog around the area but it does not make for too bad a photograph - just be sure to never point the camera towards the sky.
And so we waited for the sky to turn blue. While waiting, we took other photographs, trying hard to not get too much of the sky in the background, anticipating the moment when nature would cooperate with us and we could all snap away, the sound of our cameras going off loud and quick like multiple bullets cutting through air. We waited and waited until half the day had gone by and the sky was still a shadowy grey. We waited some more until we finally lost hope and, sulking, we made our way out of Pa Ngam. The walk to the cliff took only an hour but the way back was an uphill hike so instead of an hour of travel, it took us three hours to get back to our car.
Once we got back to the top of the mountain, to the parking lot, we were all looking rather weary and worn out. The tourists that just came into the parking lot, about to make their way to Ang Ka Luang, all stared at us, probably wondering, "What the heck did these people do to look like that?"
On the way down from Doi Inthanon’s peak, the Chevrolet Optra ran so smoothly and gracefully that many of our tired selves drifted off to sleep without having to wear blindfolds to block out the sun. En route to the Office of the National Park, I asked Mr. A, our chauffeur, if we should pull over and stop to take a break, to rest for a while. He said, "Nah… We’ve been driving downhill a long time now and we haven’t taken a brake yet. I wonder if it’s the car or the driver that’s so great."
Once we got back to Chiang Mai, Mr. A got some sleep and I took the wheel to drive us back to Bangkok that evening. At Karmpangpetch, Mr. A woke up and the first words out of his mouth were, "The seats in this car really are comfortable. The design is kind of flat and plane, I thought they were going to be hard but, it turns out, they are really comfortable to nap on. You drive on to Bangkok, I’m going to get some shut eye." And in a flash, once his back hit the backrest, he was snoozing away, snoring for all in the car to hear.
As for me, I brought my trusty Chevy Optra back to BKK, safe and sound, at around three a.m.
Tourism Information
Doi Inthanon National Park
To travel by car from Chiang Mai to the Doi Inthanon National Park, starting at the Chiang Mai Airport Junction, take route 108 past the district or Umphur of Hangdong-SaanPatong. Near the Kilometer 57 marker, before arriving at Umphur Chomthong, there will be a right exit - route 1008. After driving on for about 8 kilometres, you will find another junction. Here, turn right towards Check Point 1 of the Doi Inthanon National Park.
The Park provides a housing service and has different types of accommodations to choose from, depending on the number of people taking up residence, whether it is two or ten people. Cost of accommodation ranges from 1,000 to 2,500 baht. Also, there is also a tent renting service, as well as space for pitching tents. The fee for tent rentals is no more than 100 baht.
To contact the Doi Inthanon National Park, call 0 5331 1608
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