Sawadee Khrap
Continued :
We had a very good breakfast (included in the room cost) and then headed out to the Thaton temple area again. Nestled on the slopes of the densely forested mountain range that separates the northernmost part of Chiang Mai province and neighbouring Burma, lies the Thai Yai or SHAN village of THATON. 100 years ago, the Mae Kok river used to be the border between Thailand & Burma and cut the city in half – Now the border is 2 km North and both sides of the river are Thailand. This is the view from the great Buddha statue, one of the 3 massive sculptures looking down on this valley.
This is a fairly large file so have patience to see the full size version – but such a incredible vista.
Here are shots of the 3 sculptures:
If you look closely at the photo above you can see two(black spots), massive wild bee hives in the Nagas or the Serpents – here is a close-up – these were over 6 ft. long and about 1 ft thick.
All 3 sculptures are situated on the side of mountain looking down on the valley – and they are very impressive to see as you drive by on the main highway through town.
Next we headed to the Hot Springs at Doi Pha Hom Pok National Park.When we got there we could not see any activity from the geysers. As you can see from the picture only a couple of small jets were alive and all of the creeks were empty.
Again this is a large file – please be patient if you want to see it full size.
We were told by the snack vendor that the geysers and springs were only active for about 40 min/day and as our luck would have it – this wasn’t the right 40 min. We got some water and snacks but decided not to wait around for the next activity – maybe next time – so in the car and headed back home.
Our next stop was at Tab Tao cave in Chai Pra Kan – now that’s a mouthful.
This is the entrance to the cave – too dark to get any good shots – we will have to bring several flashes to get any inside shots – maybe next time. These caves form a network – connecting together throughout the Chiang Dao Mountain Area. From here we headed back to Chiang Mai.
Ciao