THAILAND Visit October / November 2002.

This year two days were spent in the Mae Rim, Mae Sa area to the North of Chiang Mai, at the Botanic Residence, which was a convenient place from which to visit both the local Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens and the Mae Sa waterfalls.

The Gardens have pleasant walks, although to reach the glasshouse complex it is a long uphill trek ... but well worth the effort.

In addition to the large collections of of orchids and lotus, there are created rain forest climates and arid houses. All around are butterflies and birds.

A visit was made to the Mae Sa waterfalls ( a series of ten cascading waterfalls )

before returning to the Chiang Mai ( Huw Tung ) area, for a picnic by the side of a lake, sheltered from the sun by the lakeside huts.

Later, a khantoke meal in Chiang Mai .... before leaving the hills and going South.

A short stay was made at Sukhothai before going on, past Nakhon Sawan and the bat mountains of Khaonor-Khaokiew, to Ayutthaya.

It soon became clear why it had not been possible to go South earlier. There had been very bad flooding in this low lying land where the Ping and Nan rivers, already swollen by their tributaries, the Wang and the Yom, meet at Nakhon Sawan, forming the Chao Phraya river ( Chao Phya ) which runs South to Ayutthaya and Bangkok.

MORE THAILAND 2002... AYUTTHAYA ( Please click on this link )

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