PHOTO-A-DAY CHALLENGE
Exploring the Wilderness and Raw Beauty of Northern Thailand
Week 82 of the photographic documentary of my daily life
There are places on earth that remain hidden from modern-style crowds and over-tourism. And that is good. It should stay like that. Local hill tribes speak still nothing but their mother tongue and burgers aren’t available for miles and miles.
Those are the kind of regions I’m looking for when planning the next vacation. The problem is because they are so hidden from the rest of the world you can’t find them so easily. When looking for remote places on earth you are served bits and pieces of information that lets you guess about the actual appearance of a place.
Halfway through our holiday, we came to a point where we realized there wasn’t more to explore. At least not with our limited understanding of Thai and the inaccessibility of most of the area.
At that moment we decided to move on the next morning. But we didn't know if we should go north, south, east, or west. We were still far off the beaten track of Thailand’s mass tourism.
I dedicated a few hours that afternoon to searching the world wide web. I didn’t find much. But I told my husband we’d go further north.
“North?”
He asked sounding very surprised knowing we were already in the upper north of the country. Yes North, I replied. And that was the end of the conversation.
I must admit, I’m very lucky like that. He trusts me blindly when it comes to holidays (and maybe some other things as well). He doesn’t do much research when we go on holiday. Sometimes he picks a country or region. But from then on the planning goes to me.
And the best part of it is: he never complains.
Whatever it is I drag him into or wherever I take him — he rolls with it. He deals with the consequences and makes the best out of any destination. I might say he’s easy to please. But don’t forget — he’s African. He had a very different upbringing and had very different standards. We often clash, on lots of different levels. But that is what keeps our relationship and travels so interesting.
Enough chit-chatting, let’s get to the point.
Day one of this week was somewhere in the middle of our vacation. We left the national park because we couldn’t find any more hiking trails or written-out routes we could explore.
Getting down to the valley we walked up a waterline following a river. Despite the dry season, the river was carrying water and even some small waterfalls could be seen along the way. But the hike didn’t last long. Eventually, it just ended somewhere between the water and the dense forest.
We turned around and decided to follow a small trail leading at the edge of the forest overlooking the farmlands. This was surely a place where foreigners wouldn’t be seen on a daily basis. Locals looked surprised but greeted us with a big smile.
After finding a cute bungalow in the countryside of rural northern Thailand and falling in love with the place, we decided to stay another night.
On day two we planned to relax and just enjoy the place but ended up going for a small walk across the fields which turned into a 3-hour walk in the midday heat.
We walked past lone-standing cows and single workers on small farmlands. Despite being in dry season lots of farming was going on and I enjoyed inspecting their watering systems.
Surely one of a kind.
Another hike possible in the park of Doi Phu Kha National Park was the climb of its tallest mountain with the same name (Doi Phu Kha). But it was also another hiking trail I did not find any information on.
Despite the fact it would take you 3 days and two nights to get there I couldn’t find anything on it. While I would have loved to take on the adventure, we didn’t have the equipment or knowledge. I didn’t even find out where the hike would start.
Steering at maps and zooming into the GPS system of my phone I selected a place where I thought this trail could start which would mean we had a hiking path we could follow for a few hours before turning back to the valley.
Believe it or not but after some difficulties of getting started and fighting through the dense jungle, we did find a trail or something that appeared it could have been a hiking trail a few years back and followed it.
As long as we followed it, we didn’t come out of the forest. The heat was unbearable and the altitude was another challenge in itself. We turned around eventually. We anyway had to, we weren’t equipped for an overnight stay and didn’t want to get stuck in the dark in some untouched forest.
After three lovely nights in the bungalow on the farmlands of northern Thailand, we decided to move on and headed further north. A 4-hour-drive over some mountainous and partly dangerous roads, we arrived on the border of Laos.
Not like there was an official border crossing but the mountain ridge up here builds the border between Laos and Thailand. And that exact ridge is where some trails were laid out on. Trails that offered more than just spectacular views.
On one side are the hills of Thailand and on the other side are the untouched mountains of Laos up to the riverbank of the mighty Mekong River. The views were slightly hazy due to the smog that is common at this time of the year up here but that didn’t damp our experience at all.
I couldn’t stop taking in those views and loved the panoramic function of the iPhone to capture the beauty of the moment.
The next morning I got my husband to get up in the dark and start hiking up a mountain in the dark. Equipped with flashlights we headed to the mountain ridge waiting for the sun to rise above the valley of the Mekong River.
Layers of fog in the valleys below made the scene appear magical and somewhat unreal. Despite the haze and smog in the air we truly enjoyed being up there while the first rays of sunshine appeared on the horizon.
Another day in the mountains was another day of hiking along the ridge between Laos and Thailand.
More stunning views and more moments that left us speechless. I absolutely fell in love with this place.
This has been my week in photographs. 7 days. 7 photographs. Anyone can join. Once. Or weekly. It doesn’t matter. We welcome everyone! Dennett was the one starting this photography challenge in summer 2020 and many have participated ever since.
Erika / Eileen / K. Barrett / Juan / David / Mia / Susan / LensAfield / Kim / Barbara / Diana / Barb / Sandra / Shruthi / Ellie / Pene / Olive / Gustavo / Jane / Penny
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