Doi Inthanon...

Took the 8 o'clock night train Saturday night to Chiang Mai. Trip was fairly uneventful. Got into Chiang Mai at about 10:30 and got rooms at the Royal Guesthouse. After renting a motorcycle I met up with the other GES teachers in town (Craig, Michelle, Kari (plus her friend and sister), Melisa, Kelly, Carmen, and Karen). I spent the afternoon cycling around by myself then met up with Kelly at 4 to go to church. She knows some people from back from BC that go Chiang Mai Community Church. They had their Christmas program which was some sort of variation on "A Christmas Carol." The church had a pretty large congregation and I was told that most of the congregation is up here on missions related work. After the service her friends took us out for supper. They also give us a tour of some sort of missions organization's office. They manage a guesthouse for missionaries and stuff. I can't remember the name of the organization but I guess this place acts as a base for missions into Laos, Burma, Thailand, and China. This morning I woke up at about 10 to 5 with Craig and we met up with Kelly to watch the sunrise. We went to a viewpoint on a nearby "mountain" but we were a bit too early since the sun doesn't rise till close to 7. When we got at the viewpoint at about 5:30 there were already 3 Thai guys there singing (one had a guitar) and drinking beer. Apparently they had been there for several hours. We hung out with them a bit and sang a few songs while waiting for the sunrise. The are 4th students at Chiang Mai University and have finals this week (instead of studying they were staying up all night drinking). But they were fun guys to talk to. After that the 3 of us headed for the breakfast buffet at Smile Guesthouse. We then headed south towards a mountain called Doi (Doi means mountain) Inthanon which is about 100 km south of Chinag Mai. On our way there (via motorcycle of course) we stopped at a couple of waterfalls (Mae Klang and Wachirathan Waterfalls) and had a pretty fun trip. On our way up towards Doi Inthanon we drove through the clouds. It was pretty fun standing by the side of the road and seeing clouds roll past you. Eventually we were on top of the clouds looking down on them which was quite a spectacular sight. As we drove we saw an unfinished tower of some sort near the side of the road so Craig and I decided to pee from the top of it (pictures coming soon). The peak of Doi Inthanon is the highest point in all of Thailand, and it was quite chilly. I was wearing a hoody and was quite cold and I could barely feel my fingers. We went straight back to Chiang Mai (about 2 hours and 15 minutes) and met up with the gang for supper. Tomorrow morning I plan to ride to Chiang Rai, which is around 200 km north I think. The rest are getting there by bus so I'll meet them there. I'll probably head back to Chiang Mai on Thursday. Before training back to Bangkok I'd like to check out the panda at the zoo and maybe take a Thai cooking course. Right now I'm at my guesthouse and it is about 16 degrees at just past midnight. Up on the mountain it had to be 8 degrees or less. Pretty cold when your used to lows of 25+.