Pha Dok Sieo Waterfall trek

On Susanna's birthday, we woke up in a beautiful place after a night of being absolutely freezing! It gets cold for about a week a year in North Thailand, and we managed to experience it. The temperature went down to about 6°C at night. Our bamboo hut was beautiful, but air passed through the walls all night. Each of us slept in every piece of clothing we brought, and still struggled to stay warm 😂.

The next day, Nikul's dad drove us to a waterfall where we hiked with a Karen guide. It was quite busy with other tourists, but also beautiful. We saw a stingless bee hive (no honey). We tasted fresh cinnamon (wow!).

We ended the hike at a coffee roaster. The area specializes in shade grown coffee now. Previously, it was an opium growing area. Sounds like it was hard to transition the economy, and opium-addicted people, but it was overall quite successful.

As we drove through the area, it was humbling to see the intensive Karen agriculture in this mountainous area. Almost all the plowing, planting, weeding, harvesting, etc. has to be done by hand, using manual tools, due to the complexity of the terrain.

Lastly, we visited with the elephants one more time before heading back to the city. They are so cool.Read more