I’ve been dreaming of glistening rice paddies, families packed four to a motorbike, hillside villages overrun with cute children and mist covered mountain tops. They’re the fairy tale images I had of Thailand. And I discovered them all in Chiang Dao, a small town just an hour and half bus ride north of Chiang Mai. So beautiful this place was, we lingered an extra day.
We arrived in Chiang Dao around 11am, just in time to catch the tail end of the Tuesday morning market when hill tribes come to town to sell fruit and vegetables. We bought sliced durian fruit, mangosteens, rambutans, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers and a hulking avocado (later to be eaten like an apple!) before catching a taxi for the fifteen minute ride to our mountainside stay, Chiang Dao Nest.
As we rode, the trees got taller and the mist thicker. Tucked behind a curve in the road was a collection of thatched roof bungalows connected by gravel footpaths. We were greeted with fresh lemongrass juice and invited to drop our bags at a cozy little bungalow with a private porch and a large king sized bed dressed in hand-made tribal fabrics. It was raining heavily, so we found shelter beneath a large thatch roof covered platform with tons of colorful floor cushions. There we spent the afternoon reading and listening to the percussive song of a diversity of birds.
When the rain slowed, we grabbed umbrellas and ventured to Chiang Dao cave, a 10 minute walk away. The cave was filled with Buddhas and a pond with supposedly sacred fish, though that pond had become heavily flooded due to the non-stop rain. There were few people around and in the rain and mist, the area had a certain magical quality to it.
We wandered back for dinner at the restaurant at Nest. Chef Wicha has two restaurants within walking distance of one another. One serving inventive “western” food and the other offering creative Northern Thai cuisine all sourced from local organic ingredients. We started with the western restaurant, delighting with the taste of delicate pumpkin soup, crispy duck in sesame sauce and slow-cooked tender lamb. Click below to listen to the birds of Chiang Dao.
If we never get to Southeast Asia, we will have always felt that we had been there with your beautiful stories and photos. Just love the bird songs!
A hulking avocado sounds really good right about now. Great pics!
great! amazing photos! thanks for sharing
-grace
http://herumbrella.com
I want that drink. Great photos. Congrats on being Freshly Pressed.
So excited to see this on the freshly pressed! I am headed to Thailand in a few months, you have cultivated my excitement even more! I love the birds! Wonderful!
your post is so magical. Lovely scenery and even the sounds of the birds singing. I would love to be there. Thank you!
We happened across your blog on the home page of wordpress. Your pictures are stunning. We’re in Chiang Mai now, but we’re already making plans to go further north thanks to your post!
These are so beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing!
This was great information! My boyfriend and I are heading to SE Asia in February and we are trying to figure out exactly where we want to go. We are planning on Chiang Mai but we may have to check this out!
Great post!
Amanda
http://bullfrogsandbulldogs.wordpress.com/
Definitely check out Chiang Dao, it’s not far and a whole different world from
Chiang Mai.
What beautiful photos! The mist just makes everything look so mystical. Love your blog!
This is like a completely different realm to me. The taste, the sound, the view are so pleasantly different than what I am used to that it makes me curious. I also just replayed the video again. Love the birds of Chiang Dao!
Gorgeous photos! Thank you for sharing! 🙂
excellent photographs!
Wow, remarkable! I love the photos… thanks for letting us live vicariously. 🙂 It was nice to daydream to your photos for a few minutes and get away from my work-a-day! 😀
I have been to there twice. I love there.
These photos are breath taking. It feels like the journey of a life time!
Thank you so much for sharing, and congrats on being Freshly Pressed! Beautiful pictures =)
Mighty pretty pics. The mist lookss amazing. I’d love to go there myself some day. Thanks for sharing
That lemongrass drink made me thirsty! Those Dogs look like they have it all worked out! Hope you had lots of time to relax into the gentleness of lovely Thailand. c
Amazing photographs.. the one with the tree and the mist is just beautiful. Awesome post!
Edwin
Now I want to visit there.
I grew up in Thailand. Your post just gave me a little taste of home! Such beautiful pictures and so very Thai. 🙂
Beautiful photographs!
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The photos are gorgeous…makes me want to go over to Asia even more! The writing, itself, is pleasurable. Loved the video! Just a great article…
I like this ….. can be used as guides …
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It’s almost like I’m there already
Stunning images! Thanks for uploading these! 😀
Wow, I’d love to visit someday!
Thanks for your beautiful photo’s and words- I’m glad i stumbled across this blog!
Amie
P.S I just posted a travel article too if u are at all interested…
http://thelondonletters.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/havana-more-than-just-cars-and-cigars/
Thailand is so beautiful, everyone always knows only Bangkok, but the other more peaceful, country side of Thailand is amazing.. thanx for the great post.. 😀
Your photos make this look like a dream. I love seeing the world through a lens, though I wish I could experience Thailand for myself.
Seems like a really nice place. Quiet unlike Riyadh where I currently am 🙂
These pictures are breathtaking!!!!! I think the one of the fruit is my favorite!!!! Gorgeous.
Simply beautiful! Love the images!
So beautiful pictures!!
The place is awesome. I liked the photos. So beautiful.
Lovely pictures. Great post!
The picture of Rambutans and Mangosteen made my mouth water! Lovely post, it reminds me of the cherished time I spent in Thailand, it is a magical place.
Beautiful
Nice blogging here, great photos, for certain. Similar scenes uncovered in other places of Thailand, perhaps further north, Chiangrai and Chiangsaen. Thanks for sharing looking for more posts http://africasiaeuro.com/wordpress
So I guess fishing is out of the question in that cave?
Not sure what happened to the sacred fish once it flooded, perhaps only the dogs know.
Fairy tale indeed!
It looks so mystical. Lovely pics and nice storytelling. I’d love to go there based on just this one blog!
Thank you, you should go!
So many fruits I’ve never heard of … how limited my horizons really are.
You may be able to get some of them depending on where you live, search around. Rambutan are the easiest to try in terms of flavor.
What beautiful shots! The fruit and picture of the dogs are my favorites!
Stunning photos. I am going to Barcelona soon and would like to get a new camera. What do you use? Can you recommend a good yet affordable digital SLR?
We use a Panasonic Lumix GH1 and most of the photos were taken with a 20mm pancake lens, so it makes the camera look feel like a point and shoot. I see a lot of travelers toting around massive cameras and lenses and wonder how many times the camera gets left in the guest house when it gets burdensome or how many times the subjects get scared off by the long lens or how intimate the photos turn out if they aren’t getting close to their subjects. The lens isn’t great for landscape photography though so you might want to bring wide or telephoto lenses for that. In the end, a camera is just a tool and great pictures are about good light, patience and a practiced eye. Look into the micro 4/3rds system for high quality affordable cameras with interchangeable lenses.
Thank you. One feels your joy through your pictures.
Very enchanting place. I suggest you visit Sagada in the Philippines as well. You will find Sagada equally beautiful.
Gorgeous colors.
Really nice photos. Lovely
i love that lone tree! what a site! thank you for sharing!
The misty mountain photo is beautiful. Thanks for sharing.
The bird songs were amazing. I have been hankering to go to Thailand, but I need to figure out a way to pay the mortgage while I’m being a vagabond.
It’s very nice place!Looking forward to your more articles,come on!
http://2011fashionwatch.wordpress.com
Gorgeous photos!
lovely and beautiful
These pictures make me want to just pick up & travel with nothing but my camera by my side 🙂
Do it!
Loved this fairytale! And I want that lemongrass juice 🙂
Awesome photos! A really great view to a place I may never get to go 🙂
wow great pictures…i’ve always wanted to go to thailand!
Great pictures. I am loving Thailand. To see more pictures of Thailand you can find them on my blog http://allansjourney.wordpress.com – Kind regards…
Looks stunning! I’m going next month and can’t wait to soak up the loveliness 🙂
wow nice photos….. ^^
Hi ,I am Thai . your blog is very nice ^_^
Reminds me of my trip to Thailand on Dec.2007 during the SEA Games and the 80th birthday celebration of King Bhumibol Adulyadej or in English, King Rama IX. But I haven’t been to Chiang Dao, only Bangkok and Saraburi. But I can concur to it’s picturesque scenery.
Not, to demean, but my country, Philippines is far scenic =) who else wouldn’t be proud of his/her native land? I’ve eaten those fruits and there’s an abundance here! (sounds I’m promoting) Why not visit here?
Would love to visit the Phillipines but alas there’s only so much time! Next trip to SE Asia for sure!
I think the lychee-like fruit that you mean is lanzones. 🙂 Yum! We have a lanzones festival celebrated every October in Camiguin, Philippines. Great post, great pics!
Very nice… Let me know if you come to Hua Hin. thebikegypsy.com
I love the first picture… I still have to find a way to step out of my comfort zone to get pictures like that. The combination of the colours in the fruit picture is also fantastic 🙂
Thank you. It always helps if you buy something from them first!
. Just love the bird songs!
hmm… This looks absolutely exquisite 🙂
nice photos
Thailand really does look fantastic, its definately the place i want to go on holiday next year thanks for such a fantastic insight
http://www.sandbetweentoes.wordpress.com
The road to Chiang Dao cave was one of my favourite images from above! Wow. Incredibly beautiful.
Asia is such an incredibly inspiring place..
this woke up all kinds of wanderlust for me. beautiful photographs and lovely descriptions. thanks for sharing!
What beautiful pictures! I can not wait till it’s my turn to go to Thailand! Soon!
Wow! Something about those photos gives me such a mystical impression. It looks like such a beautiful place!
It really did feel mystical at times, the mist and clouds would just come so low and flow through the hills each day.
These photos are just beautiful! One of my customers was recently trying to convince my boyfriend and I to take a vacation to Thailand. He said that it’s a beautiful, hospitable place and an affordable trip as far as international travel goes. And I must admit, your pictures have sold his argument, at least in terms of beauty and hospitality. Chiang Dao looks like a dream!
Thank you! Glad we could entice you to go visit!
Great shots and post. I love Thailand.
John
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Pretty pictures!
Beautiful photos! So, I have to ask: Lemongrass juice. Yummy … or not so much?
Thank you! One of us loved it, the other not so much.
great photos! loved Thailand when we went a few years ago! we didn’t make it to Chiang Dao when we were in Chiang Mai, but it looks gorgeous! and the fruit looks amazing!
i lived in thailand from 2009 to early 2011. man these pictures make me miss the place, i can feel what it felt like to be there from your photos.
Thailand looks like such a mystical and beautiful place! Great photos.
beautiful! my friend and i plan to visit thailand in the next 5 years or so. it looks amazing. thanks for sharing!
Wow i really love it. It’s time to take my annual leave and travel.
Incredible bird songs! Did they keep you up? 🙂 Your descriptive tales of your adventures makes me feel like I am right there with you in my mind. I see a tour company in your future!
Thank you! The birds didn’t keep me up at all but there are these bugs that sometimes make it sound like you’re on a construction site!
ques la que eeeee
Awesome..many of these are seen in Indian sub content too.. But really amazing pics…
Love those photos! Especially with those fruits, my favorite!!
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it’s beautiful, I have no words..
Thank you!