Camping at Doi Khuntan

It was wonderful having my good friend Ginny here in Thailand while I volunteered at Grace International this spring for not only the opportunities to connect with her but to be able to integrate easily into her already-established group of friends. The GIS staff are a warm-hearted and fun group of people who I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know in a variety of settings this spring.

Aside from sharing birthdays, rides to church and heading around town together, we were able to travel to various parts of Thailand together! One weekend venture took us into elevated mountain portions of Thailand in Doi Khuntan National Park while another week was spent in the southern tropical beaches of Koh Lanta near the Malaysian border. Hiking and camping in the mountains was definitely one trip I will remember for a long time.

Doi is Thai for ‘mountain’ while Khuntan refers to the numerous flowing rivers, all of which we witnessed during our stay in the park.

But I didn’t realize that Doi Khuntan has quite a history. Besides it being the 14th national park in Thailand that stretches some 255 square km, one of its distinguishing features is the longest railroad tunnel in the country at over 1300 meters (almost one mile) as located on the right side of the park map. Apparently building this tunnel during the days of World War I did not come cheap for records show that over 1,000 workers died during construction while those who survived were paid for their labor in opium as well as currency. Sadly, the term ‘drug money’ applies here quite literally.

Our trek to Doi Khuntan started with a bumpy 90 minute ride in the back of a songtaew (covered pickup truck) from Chiang Mai to the front gates of the park. After sending the bulk of our supplies via motorbike we started our own 1.5 km journey up the mountain to our destination camp site called Yaw 3. I didn't realize at the time, but this camp site was a Christian retreat area built by missionaries during construction of the tunnel around 1918.

You see some of the most interesting huts and vegetation while hiking this part of Thailand. For instance, imagine poinsettia plants in the wild among over-sized palms, bamboo and other flowering trees – a lot of vegetation you definitely don’t see while hiking the Rockies or in the back woods of Ontario.

To say our camp site was beautifully rustic is understating the fact - aside from the views and camp fires, we got to experience everything from bucket showers and open windows in our hut to the animal-proof food lockers in the kitchen.

I suppose the daily temperature variance shouldn’t have been as much a surprise to me as it was since we were at higher elevations. Quite the difference from wanting cold showers after hiking during the day to needing extra layers once the sun went down in the evenings. Good thing I brought my sweater even though it went against everything in me, given the high temps in the city when packing for the trip =)

The Streets of Chiang Mai

Now that the international schools are on spring break, I decided to play tourist and see some of the sites in Chiang Mai while I’m still here. Ginny had the same thought so we decided to head to the downtown historic area where we could visit the Three Kings Monument and then a nearby museum. FYI: this monument represents the founder of Chiang Mai (King Mengrai) and his two friends from neighboring states (King Ramkamhaeng and King Ngam Muang) who worked together to lay out the city. Consequently, this statue has become something of an iconic image representing Chiang Mai.

Little did we know how long it would take to walk the 10-12 blocks to get to the monument. Turns out we walked by (and had to visit of course) at least seven temples on our way. There was some amazing architecture along this one street alone! But what surprised me is the number of temples in this one small area of the downtown, until I learned these temples are only seven among a total of 40,717 temples in Thailand with 33,902 still in use!

In walking through these temples and doing a little research, I discovered some interesting facts regarding their design, purpose and classification. For instance, each temple is an enclosed monastery where the wall surrounding the grounds keeps it separated from the outside secular world. Within these walls the buildings are divided into two areas: one area dedicated to Buddha with buildings containing the principle Buddha, relics, scripture and ceremony, while the other section dedicated to the living quarters for the monks.

Typical of most Thai temples are the multiple tiered roof with its significance more functional than spiritual. For instance, while temple roofs are designed to ward off evil spirits in Korea, it seems the temple roof design in Thailand is more ornamental to signify the importance of the building and functional to cover the large interior spaces. Whatever their ultimate purpose, they sure make some incredible visual displays of architecture!

One of the northern region temples we encountered is Wat Chedi Luang or "Pillar of the City" originally constructed in 1401. It has some striking architecture visible from the street which drew us in to see what the rest of the temple was like...

When all was said and done, we finally did make it to the Three Kings Monument but it was too late in the afternoon to visit the adjoining museum. Another time, another day. Nothing lost, though, for we still got to experience daily life in the streets of Chiang Mai.