Trip to Chiang Muan to visit Narin

Sawadee Khrap

Last weekend I took a 2 day trip to visit Narin in Chiang Muan – almost to Nan in the upper North above Lampang.  Beautiful country and sites.  Narin had made accommodations for me at the “Ma See Ma’l”  – extremely quiet, clean and nice.  500 Baht night.  reasonable too.IMG_2138IMG_2137

First thing we did was to go see the local waterfall at the Doi Phu Nang National Park

IMG_2197-EditIMG_2143That is Narin on the right and several of his friends who went with us.    The above panoramic was created using 30 full size shots to capture the whole scene – making this almost a 2Gb file – almost a  6ft x 3ft mural when printed at 300 dpi -look closely and you can see Narin and friends in the center on the far left side of the image.

After the waterfall and on the way back we stopped at a temple on a hill with a commanding view of the Chiang Maun valley – which I am told the locals are fighting to stop the Gov’t’s IMG_2256plans to dam the area and turn this into a water reservoir  running all the people out  – present population is about 18,000.  The Monk here has been working   -making statues to go around the outside of the temple grounds – he can pour one a day – so he’s half done now and thinks it will take another year to complete  –  he uses a concrete mold and pours each day – 

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Then to Chiang Muan’s  Grand Canyon for outside dinner in the evening – They bought a lot of food and set up at the table in the park – this huge cliff face is really high  – look closely you can see the monks on the top right side – close up shows them better – Several new friends joined us and we had a cozy dinner and drinks –  amazing – this is the first time I saw stars in the night sky – milky way – dark enough here to get a great view.  then off to bed.IMG_2334

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That’s Narin in the center right – If you would like to join Narin for a weekend visit to Chiang Muan you can reach him at 098-782-5939 – you can contact him as Narinrat Khamlue  In Facebook for more info’. 

The next morning we got up and the boys started to prepare for a Ladyboy dance they would preform for a small village festival, close by – Narin is the leader of the troupe.   I stayed with 4 of IMG_2452them as they prepared – Narin and another 3 were at a different beauty shop getting dressed so my photos are limited – but before the show could go on it was cancelled –

I had to leave to get back to Chiang Mai and wanted to make sure I did not have to drive in the evening – so I took my leave.    Maybe I’ll be able to catch all the excitement on the next visit.   It’s a nice relaxing 3.5 hr drive from Chiang Mai to Chiang Muan. 

Check it out when you visit Chiang Mai.

Ciao