Nature Girls

Wednesday, Nov. 19 -- Karen is on the road to recovery, so what better activity than a little hiking? Doi Inthanon is a national park encompassing the highest peak in Thailand. Although we took a walk on a trail there, when we visited some royal chedis where various relics and ashes are stored, we couldn't see a thing because of fog. Pea soup!! And it was windy and cold, maybe 55-60 degrees, quite a switch from the heat and humidity that we haven't yet acclimated to. We'd brought fleece but didn't last too long up there. What we could see were people who were actually breaking up big rocks with sledgehammers, putting the rocks in baskets and dragging them up a hill, where they were building walls. Talk about backbreaking. You really see some pretty primitive stuff here. Further down the mountain, we had a picnic, courtesy of Patrick, who brought a bunch of Thai food we never would have tasted otherwise. Chicken green curry, pork green curry, fried pork and eggs stuffed with crab. We really liked kai palo, egg boiled with pork in a special sauce that turns the eggwhite brown. For dessert, he brought kanom sai, a mixture of coconut, sugar cane and rice flour wrapped in a banana leaf and then steamed. At a market on the road, Patrick, who apparently thought we were starving, bought us a bag of pudhsa, a fruit that's a cross between an apple and a pear. After lunch we walked along the Ang Ka (crow's pond) trail, which meanders through dense trees and brush. It's really like a jungle — dark, lots of moss hanging from the trees, the sounds of insects and lonely birds. It actually looks a lot like Adventureland.

Next was a stop at the Wachirathon waterfall, which gives Vernal Falls a run for its money. It flows all year and is huge. Hiking to the top was a bit like going up the mist trail, although when we got there, we discovered the main road. Could have driven!

Final stop, another wat. Omigod, do they never end? This one's name rolls off the tongue -- Wat Phra That Si Chom Thong Wora Wihan. Pithy, eh? It's allure is an actual piece of the right side of Buddha's head, supposedly the size of an ear of corn, kept inside a golden spire. More mosaics, more gold, more red, more serpents and buddhas. This is getting kinda "seen one, seen 'em all." One new thing was a huge bho tree, revered because Buddha achieved enlightenment under a bho, although not this particular one. The villagers prop up the branches with big supports that are carved and look like something from the south seas. Standing under the tree didn't seem to do much good for either of us . . .