Birthday Trip: 5D4N Chiangmai-Chiangrai (part 3/4)

Day 3: Watching sunrise on the summit of Doi Inthanon

4am.. Woke up to the freezing temperatures of around 4 degrees Celcius, the water was too cold to shower so all we did was just to wash up and freshen up, had a quick bite, and then drove off to the summit at 5.30am..

When we reached around 6am, there was already a long queue of cars and scores of people scrambling for the best spot to catch the first Thai sunlight..

6am - Still dark but in the horizon, the ray of the first sunlight

Slowly  but surely

The crowd, when it was bright enough for photo

Just before the first sunlight

And the sun

Here's the timelapse videos:

Once the sun is up and bright, we make our way down to Phra Maha Dhatu, the twin pagodas built to commemorate the 60th birthday of the Thai King and Queen.. 

Shhhh I am meditating

The twin pagodas facing each other, taken from the parking lot

It's windy and freezing still, overlooking the mountain range

Another shot of the mountain range, the Himalayans end here

After this, we left the national park for Chiangrai, from here it's a 4.5 hours drive, mostly along mountainous terrains, except for the flat 20 mins bypassing Chiangmai city.. 

Half way to Chiangrai, I gave up driving as it was too tiring and too sleepy for me to drive the entire way, so I pulled over and had a friend take over the wheel for the rest of the day in Chiangrai, while I catch up on some rest and sleep in the backseat.. 

We reached Chiangrai around 2.30pm and for a quick lunch before visiting the White Temple and Blue Temple..

The front of the White Temple, before the entrance booth

I guess it looks good on pictures only but nothing great in real life

Legends has it that one must never backtrack or reverse as they cross the bridge

Pretty right?

Entrance of Blue Temple

The pagoda behind the main hall

After visiting the temples, we adjourned for dinner in Chivit Thamma Da (or as I pronounced it, Chivit tamada).. It is a huge complex in a series of bungalows that depict different areas..

It need a signboard!

At the courtyard of the main dining hall.. It's a very Victorian style kinda building..

Part of the dining hall

The verandah where we were seated, overlooking the river

And this is where my friends celebrated my birthday dinner here.. 

I chose a chocolate mousse cake, cos I love chocolate cake, served on a Victorian styled plate

After dinner, we drove back to Chiangmai, a distance of 200km and takes 3 hours across the mountain range, often a single lane highway which is Highway 118, notoriously dangerous and all those deaths and accidents that happened between Chiangmai-Chiangrai that we read in the papers, all happened on this highway.. 

Highway 118 is so bending and winding that you need 200% concentration and full alert when driving this road.. You cannot see much ahead of you due to the darkness and sharp bends every corner, definitely not for someone who's not used to driving Genting or the old Cameron route, and multiply that difficulty by 10.