Ban Doi Suthep

Found a great place for brunch, then went to a meeting place for a tour we booked to Doi Suthep Temple and the Wat Pha Lak Hike. We were watching for a typical van that has picked us up for every other tour we have done so far, which usually had nice captain chairs and cold A/C. However, we were picked up in a Songthaews, which is a truck taxi where you ride in the back on a bench, no A/C. 5 other people were on the tour with us, all nice people. After about a 30-minute drive, we hiked up to Wat Pha Lat, which was a 30-minute elevated hike to a hidden forest temple on Doi Suthep. This secret temple was a beautiful haven with nice gardens with beautiful statues. This area also has housing for monks. From there, we drove further up the mountain to see the Doi Suthep Temple one of Northern Thailands' most sacred temples, and there were great views of Chiang Mai. Unfortunately the main part of the temple had some hail damage a few weeks ago so they had scaffolding all around it and it is also the start of burning season, especially in neighboring Laos, so the views from the top were not very clear. After we came back down to Chiang Mai, we found an Italian restaurant that we tried and the the food was great, after dinner we stopped by a highly reviewed cookie shop to grab some dessert and met a lady there from the States who was praising the cookies and said she always came to get a cookie after a fight. Turns out she was fighting that night in a Muay Thai boxing match, so we went and watched. She won her match and came over after and thanked us for coming to watch. Long day, but there was lots of cool stuff.Read more