Sunday, August 06, 2006

chiangrai 2005 - 08 more Phu Chi Fa

[131205] sunrise....

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....which revealed e presence of Thai Royal Border Police personnel keeping watch among us. not far from here is e Rom Fa Thai Border Police Base, & we were all standing on territory disputed by Laos.

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photos by YK

& you wonder what lies beneath e fog:

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cliff starts to empty out as most flee e biting chill after taking e requisite photos:

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with e friendly bunch from Khon Kaen & Bangkok whom we met at Rai Phu Fa:

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man & kids in Hmong costume hoping to earn money by posing for/with tourists:

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e trail down:

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curious about e people standing there....

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we took this path leading off e main trail:

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& found this view of Phu Chi Fa itself:

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happy cat =)) dream of seeing this place has come true!!

on e way down:

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kids manning souvenir stands at e trailhead - postcards for e family were bought here:

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photo by YK

start of e trail:

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where enterprising Hmong run stalls selling instant porridge & noodles with thermos flasks of hot water & coffee....

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& rent Hmong costumes to tourists for photo-ops:

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[ filed under: thewanderingstraycat + chiangrai_2005 + thai1 + nature1 ]

chiangrai 2005 - 07 Phu Chi Fa sunrise

[131205] at 0430AM we squeezed into & onto a truck that would bring us up to e Phu Chi Fa trailhead. e cat had to sit on YK's lap in e front passenger seat >_<

joined what seemed like hundreds of people in e trek up e cliff in pitch darkness. e temperature can drop to 4'C & our breath condensed in white puffs. found a spot to stake out e sunrise at e top of e cliff - e better you are as a mountain goat, e further you can get away from e crowds, but at e risk of tumbling a long way down into Laos:

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unfortunately there can be quite a lot of noise - blaring radios, loud singing, ringing cellphones....discovered that shining a Maglite at e offending source of noise can bring an instant end to e disturbance *evil cat* =P

first light, with Venus(?) in e centre just above e clouds:

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might have to clean your monitor/LCD in order to distinguish it from dust =P

e ทะเลเมฆ thalay maek (sea of clouds) that this place is famous for:

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e view before us:

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click here for larger version

what do you do with e crowds?

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try to shake them off! =P

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#%*?&!^@* doesn't seem to work >_<

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two fat kurogoma (black sesame) dumplings:

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finally, e sun! =))

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more photos coming up....

[ filed under: thewanderingstraycat + chiangrai_2005 + thai1 + nature1 ]

chiangrai 2005 - 06 Phu Chi Fa

[121205] at platform 1 in Chiangrai bus station, waiting for e bus that didn't turn out to be a bus:

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some days later we would find ourselves back here waiting for a real bus to Chiang Kham.

e kinda bus we were expecting, where people would load everything from canvas bags full of clothing to gunny sacks of cement/rice/maize into & onto e bus:

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but this (below left) showed up instead:

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longest 'bus' tickets ever (above right) - 10 X 10 baht sections that add up to e length of e cat's forearm (below):

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winding journey southwest to Thoeng, & then north from Pang Kha junction to Tap Tao. from there e van climbed along HWY 1093 up into e Phi Pan Nam mountain range that straddles e Thai-Lao border until we came to e first military checkpoint of this trip....a reminder that our seemingly innocuous itinerary went quite near places known for border incursions complete with occasional stray artillery fire 'airflown' in from Myanmar, plus drug & human trafficking. is this why we have to produce our passports before boarding domestic flights at Chiangrai International Airport? & does this need for documentation prevent stateless hilltribe people from travelling out of e province by air?

e driver dropped us right inside Rai Phu Fa:

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we were welcomed by Phi Daeng, who takes care of e day-to-day operations of this place while Khun J manages e bookings from Bangkok.

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photo by YK

e grounds are full of 'trumpet flowers' - same species that e cat came across in many places in Kyoto:

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photo by YK

accomodation is either in tents on bamboo platforms, or rooms that sleep up to 6 on a platform:

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photo by YK

500 baht/person/night for e rooms, inclusive of dinner & breakfast - think rates go up on cool season weekends & public holidays (King's birthday, Constitution Day) & 31 Dec, when people flock here to welcome e first sunrise of e year atop Phu Chi Fa.

mats for guests to lay on e floor of e corridor outside e rooms:

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photo by YK

which is just what YK & e cat did. sat down to read & enjoy e view, & spied someone riding a motorbike towards some reddish foliage at e turn in e road leading to Ban Pha Tang:

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photo by YK

decided to take a walk to that turning....

view of deforested slopes:

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there will always be burning especially during e dry season, but this is nothing compared to smoke from lowland post-harvest rice fields & land-clearing on plantation-scale....

looking back at Rai Phu Fa resort:

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e reddish foliage turned out to be this:

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Euphorbia pulcherrima poinsettia flowers:

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photo by YK

which reminded us of Homer Simpson:

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photo by YK

after all e trouble of getting here by 'bus', we discovered that Rai Phu Fa is accessible by helicopter....!

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heading back to Rai Phu Fa:

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grasses:

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silvery in e sunshine, tossed asunder in e wind:

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cool season up in e highlands of Thailand with an uncooperative gas-fired water heater & no heating, so we fell back into e 'Ban Apa routine' of bathing in e late afternoon while e sun was still up. sometimes it gets so cold here that plants will be covered by frost in e morning.

all rooms here sleep 6 pax, & e amount of food we were served for dinner seemed enough to feed 6:

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more food came after e photo was taken!

after dinner, we huddled with a fun bunch of Thais from Khon Kaen & Bangkok around a bonfire under e stars....they'd all been to university & could manage a bit of English, & so we got by in a mix of English & Thai =)

[ filed under: thewanderingstraycat + thai1 + chiangrai_2005 ]