Day 3 of our travels brought us out of the old city of Chiang Mai and into the beautiful Doi Inthanon National Park in the Himalayan foothills, a 90 minute drive from our hostel.

Accompanied by our chipper driver and tour guide Oud (pronounced “oo-d”), we left the hostel around 7am after most of us woke up still earlier, jet-lagged from traveling. We stopped by a waterfall near the park’s entrance, but the real first attraction were the Phra Mahathat Napha Methanidon and Phra Mahathat Naphaphon Bhumisiri pagodas, also known as the King and Queen’s pagodas as they were constructed to commemorate the former royals of the province. They were both beautiful structures on two nearby mountain peaks surrounded by incredible blooming gardens. At first both were completely obscured by fog and couldn’t be seen from further than 300 feet, but after 45 minutes the fog cleared, revealing tremendous views. As with every stop on our trip, we continued the tradition of buying a local snack, this time pad thai and marmalade crackers.

Next we arrived at the summit of Doi Inthanon, the highest peak in Thailand standing at 2565 meters above sea level. The summit was much cooler, sitting around 65 degrees with a cool breeze. We then went down the mountain a little to start a 3 km, 2-hour hike through the “cloud forest,” named because of the fog that passes through it in the morning, and eventually into an alpine meadow that gave spectacular views of the valley below and of the pagodas on a nearby peak.

After lunch, we finished the afternoon with a trip to the Wachirathan Waterfall, a thunderous cascade falling 80 meters. As the afternoon rain started, we could think of no better way to enjoy nature than to hop into the river and swim upstream to the base of the falls. It was the first, and probably last, time that we actually felt chilly in Thailand.

Everyone fell asleep during the drive home and we arrived back at the hostel in time to rally for dinner. Our evening activity was a trip to a Muay Thai fight, a Thai style of boxing. We sat ringside at the stadium we visited, giving an up close and personal view of the six fights during the eventing. We each picked different teams to back, and even lost a little money betting on fights with some locals. The night ended with a taxi ride home, a final meal, and sleep.