Another year another place

12 Dec 2014

I wasn’t going to write a blog this year – I felt it was a bit old hat, I can’t go on drivelling on about sunsets, forests and mountains – but then I remembered that I do have friends and family who don’t use Facebook and who would like to see a few photos of our winter home so here we are again. And you don’t have to read the words ...

We’ve been here in Chiang Dao, northern Thailand, for just over a week now, having set out from St Johns on the bus to Heathrow on Monday 1^st December. We chose Chiang Dao because it ticked the “quiet, peaceful, natural with good climate” checkboxes and because two sets of friends had said it was so beautiful and they thought we’d like it, with the caveat that “there’s nothing much to do there”. Sounds good!

Wat Pha Phrong - at the top of 500 steps.

Temple caves are popular round here

Amazing flowers.

Chiang Dao itself is a small, undistinguished town about 90 minutes north of Chiang Mai. Nothing much to recommend it, but 7 km to the east a small cluster of tourist “resorts” has developed at the foot of Doi Chiang Dao – the second highest mountain in Thailand. The mountain’s vertical limestone cliffs rise dramatically from the flat plains and the steep green tree-covered slopes are a haven for wildlife. This is the main attraction for the foreign visitors – birdwatchers and twitchers come here from all over the world.

A dickie bird.

It is a stunningly beautiful area. I’m sitting here in the garden at Malee’s Nature Lovers’ Bungalows, in the early morning sunlight, surrounded by flowers, fruit and trees with a background of birdsong with the occasional boom of a distant temple gong. No traffic sounds at all!

Malee's garden - view from terrace.

Malee was the first person to build a bungalow resort in this area (there are dozens here now). She came here from Bangkok 20 years ago and has gradually built up her business. There are 11 bungalows in the garden – all different shapes, sizes and construction materials. Malee lives here with her German husband, Kurt, who is a keen orchid collector. He has 800 of the 1000 Thai species so far. Malee and Kurt’s 12-year-old son Peter is away at school in Chiang Mai but comes back at weekends.

Orchids

More orchids

Malee is a wonderful cook and goes down to the local market every morning at 6 o’clock to collect the food for our evening meal. She says I can go with her any time I want – but I haven’t made it yet!

I did, however, manage to get up early yesterday (on my own!) to climb the 500 steps to the local temple to watch the mist rising in the valley below. The view is spectacular with forest as far as the eye can see and distant craggy mountains. The photos don’t do it justice unfortunately.

The only problem is that – as Trevann had anticipated -  the sun disappears behind the mountain at about 4 o’clock every day. In fact it disappears behind a cloud that sits on top of the mountain at about 3 o’clock! No sunsets to enjoy with a beer or two!

We were worried for the first day or two and wondering whether we had made a mistake. What was our Plan B?

However, after a while you learn how to work round these circumstances. There are so many plus factors here we can adapt to a couple of minus ones.

Spirit houses

The answer primarily is to adapt our daily routine. After breakfast we decamp to the “terrace” which is a lovely sun-drenched rooftop area overlooking the garden. Nobody else uses it (they’re all off twitching I suppose) so we have it all to ourselves. Trevann can draw while I read or look at the birds and butterflies. Then when the sun goes behind the cloud at 3 we set off for a walk. A few hundred meters down the valley the land is bathed in sunlight again so we wander along, exploring the villages and pathways between the woods and fields, visiting temples and practising our Thai greetings on the passers-by.

Problem solved – and a week later we’re very content here, settled in and happy to spend the next few weeks just gently living.

The village

OK that’s probably enough for now. There’s a tiny tiny yellow bird with a long curved bill feeding on the flowers just over there. I think it might be a spidereater. I must see if I can get a photo. Oh dear, perhaps this twitching business is contagious ...

That amazing butterfly again.

I'd better learn some flower names I suppose.