Sunday, December 7, 2024
Sunday Hiking

A missed adventure turned into a new adventure. Another good day in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

For several years in my visits to Chiang Mai, I have heard about the Chiang Mai Hiking Club, an informal group of people who get together every Sunday for hikes in the general Chiang Mai area. I finally found their website and told Rudy about the group. Rudy is a friend from France whom I met at Wild Rose Yoga two years ago, and with whom I have made many hikes in the mountains just west of Chiang Mai. Rudy is taking five classes a week at Wild Rose, including some of the more advanced classes that are a little outside my capability. We were planning on hiking on Sunday, and although this would be a fairly short 5-kilometer hike, we thought it a good idea to meet this group and expand our knowledge of other hikers and hiking in the region. We met at Tha Phae Gate to get a ride to the place where we could ride with other hikers to the hike’s starting point.

That pickup place was the San Sai Noi ESSO filling station on Highway 118 northwest of central Chiang Mai. We arrived at 8:30 AM with the pickup scheduled for 8:50 AM and a departure of 9:00 AM.

The sign says “Bangchak” so I asked the attendant if this was indeed the San Sai Noi ESSO, and he told me an emphatic Yes. And this is where Google Maps directed us. The drive to the hike’s start at the Pink Doi Cafe in the mountains along the Chiang Mai-Lampang provincial border would take about 45 minutes. Having seen no other people by 9:00 AM, we looked online more and found that there was another ESSO filling station about 400 meters north on the same highway. We practically ran there, arriving at 9:10 AM, and we were too late. We now know this is the correct filling station, because (1) this one clearly is signed as ESSO, and (2) the description of the pickup point on the hiking club’s website mentions “San Sai Noi ESSO (previously SUSCO) filling station” and the sign here has “SUSCO” underneath the other name (I did not get a photo).

Back to the Monks Trail

Still wanting to hike, we got a Bolt ride to the Base Camp to start a hike up the familiar Monks Trail. Rudy just arrived in Chiang Mai and has not made this hike yet this winter. The weather was cloudy, not too hot, but very humid, and I was soon sweating as we made our way up the road and then into the jungle/forest on the trail. I have made this walk countless times over the years and always love it. Being on Google Maps now, the Monks Trail is very popular, and all skill-level hikers are on the trail.

The start of the Monks Trail is fairly steep and does not level off for a good while. It is nice to be in the jungle, away from the noise of traffic and the city.

The photos make it appear to be fairly flat, but it is not at all flat. Not as steep as the second part from Wat Phalad to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, but not flat.

Soon we came to the section of denser jungle/forest where it almost seemed we were walking through a tunnel.

After getting through the denser and flatter sections of the trail, we saw this new sign – it was not here when I made the walk less than a month ago:

Since we had never been to the Anagami Temple, and there was a branch off the main trail to that temple, we decided to go that way and see something new. The sign shows a person climbing, and indicates 30 minutes for 500 meters, suggesting a prolonged, steep climb. We turned left and immediately were going steeply uphill.

This trail is relentless in its continual steep uphill climb. Impressive, very tiring, sweaty,…all of that.

Notice in the photo on the right, there are bamboo railings to help climb up, and more likely to help prevent slipping when descending the steep trail. Sometimes, the bamboo railings were replaced with ropes. Coming down both will help – this trail is really steep, and slipping, especially with all the fallen leaves, is a real possibility.

Rude got a shot of me in a sunnier section of the steep uphill climb.

Anagami Temple

I did not check the time closely, and it was at least 20 minutes, possibly more of climbing from the Monks Trail deviation to the top and the Anagami Temple with the rather nice Naga along the stairway.

Up the stairs, I was a little surprised to see that the Anagami Temple viharn is open-air with a roof and no walls.

Directly opposite the Naga stairway, is a shorter stairway and entrance flanked with and guarded by two yaks (also known as yakshas). Yaks are not seen as much at temples in northern Thailand as they are in central and southern Thailand.

As I was coming back into the viharn, Rudy took a photo of a very tired-looking Jim. Tired, yes, and enjoying this interesting deviation from what we thought would be a familiar hike.

Walking down to Wat Phalad

The Anagam Temple is fairly close (150 meters or so) to the main road that goes to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. We decided to walk down along the road to avoid the steep, slow, and possibly dangerous descent back to the Monks Trail. All that steep climbing to the Anagami Temple put us well above Wat Phalad. After about a kilometer walking down along the main road, we passed the entrance across the road to the second half of the Monks Trail, that being from the back of Wat Phalad heading to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. From across the road, this is how the start of that trail appears – not well marked, but not terribly difficult to find.

Main Road Entrance to Wat Phalad

Instead of climbing over the guardrail and hiking down the steep 40 meters or more of the trail behind Wat Phalad, we continued down the road to the entrance to Wat Phalad on the main road. Because of new signage along the main road, there are more people than ever at the top part of the temple, and some even go down to the temple itself. There are two structures here, both very different and appear to be small viharns (worship halls).

This first structure is protected by two large Thep Norasri. A Thep Norasri is a mixed lion that has the upper body of a man and sometimes the lower body of a lion. Females are sometimes called Upsorn Srihas. These could be either as the gender is not apparent.

The second structure is quite different, protected by two large Sinha beasts and very colorful inside.

Main Entrance to Wat Phalad

We walked down the road to the actual entrance to Wat Phalad. It has been many, possibly eleven years since I entered this way. The entrance is not as dramatic as I remember, but memory is seldom accurate after so many years. I do remember the large singhas at the entrance.

Once on the temple grounds, I noticed what appeared to be Angel’s Trumpet flowers. Very nice blooms. Many people were getting their picture taken in front of these flowers.

We walked around the temple grounds a bit, and took more photos – I have posted many photos of Wat Phalad over the years, and earlier this year. We proceeded down the Monks Trail, passing many people heading up to Wat Phalad. We got back to the road and down to Base Camp. The total hiking and break time was about 2-1/2 hours, a good day of hiking.

Dinner at The Duke’s

We got a ride back to Tha Phae Gate and planned to meet at 6 PM to walk to The Duke’s for dinner. The Duke’s is a restaurant started by an American 18 years ago. It has a look inside that reminds me of a 1960s American steakhouse. They claim: No games… no claims… just great food. And they deliver on that. Here is a quote from their menu:

“The Duke’s is Chiang Mai’s original “scratch kitchen” serving down-to-earth cooking. We’ve always made our food fresh, cooked to order, using the best local and imported ingredients even before it became “trendy.” We create our homemade sauces, breads, soups, dressings, and cakes every day.”

The Duke’s is about quality, is more expensive than many places, but still cheaper than a similar meal in the U.S. I got a dinner salad (almost large enough to be a meal) with their house-made thousand-island dressing and a cheeseburger with fries. This is a photo from two years ago, the same meal. It is so, so good.

We walked back into the old city to our respective guest houses. A very good day in Chiang Mai.

Next: Visiting Lamphun