After his death in 1897, King “Chao Inthavichayanon” ‘ s daughter took his ashes and buried them in the heart of the tropical forest, where her late father’s passion resided; the forest up the highest mountain in Chiang Mai Province, Northern Thailand. The princess took the stringent hike up the mountain only to burry the ashes and pile up rocks on top of each other to form a small stupa (a Buddhist tower structure marking a grave). Ever since the place was called Doi Inthanon in memory of the tropical forest loving, deceased King of Chiang Mai.

A couple of centuries later, rising in the early morning with backpacks and sleeping bags strapped to the back we are herded to the starting point of our long hike up Doi Inthanon, the roof of Thailand as they call it. As part of the Himalayas range originating in Nepal, its highest point in Thailand reaches 2,565 m.

At the foothill you can see the clouds covering the tip of the mountain all year round, providing moisture and dew to the tropical rainforest. Hidden in the evergreen forest of Inthanon is "Ang-Ka", a pond that provides an important food source and habitat for local animal life.

Doi Inthanon has been announced a National park to cover an area of 1000 km2 of varying ranges of altitude, which eventually allow for a great range of diversity in flora and fauna. In the wintertime, when I was there temperature went as cold as negative 8 Centigrade at night.

The highlands provide a sanctuary for 382 different species of birds. Endemic to the Himalayas in general and to Doi Inthanon National Park in specific are: Ashy-throated Warbler: http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/Ash-throatedWarbler(SC).jpg, and the green-tailed Sunbird: http://www.kttr.in.th/Tum-Bird.com/photogallery/photo14880/Green-tailed-Sunbird-OBP.jpg

Hiking up the mountain your sight is hindered by the density of teak and mountain pine trees. Those teak trees with their long slender trunks are used for making Chiang Mai’s / Thailand’s world famous wooden artifacts. Finally finding the hidden, long heard cool waterfalls, after a good couple of hours of hiking, refresh your every living cell, a lifetime experience. The valleys of Doi Inthanon with vast rice meadows, where the bells of white cows ring through the air give you an astounding feeling of serenity. We crossed small streams, primitive log bridges, moss-covered soils, and climbed up many sharp cornered boulders.

We spent the night at the house of a the local hill tribe “ Karen”, whose main economic activities are rice and chili growing, cloth weaving by women and basket making by men. They are believed to have immigrated from Burma (Myanmar) and are now spread throughout the Thai- Burmese region. The Karen hill tribe is one of Chiang Mai’s six main local hill tribes. They have their own Sino -Tibetan dialect, and religion.

Their married women dress in sarongs mostly in red, while their young single women dress in wide long white dresses of colorful embroidery. The women fix their hair with long clips and the married wear a colorful head wrap. They believe in the ancestors’ spirits, the spirit of the house, the spirit of the jungle and others, sometimes along with Buddhism.

In comparison to other hill tribes in the area the Karen are considered to live at not so high altitudes and do not move often for search for better land. Instead, they practice agric rights, rotation, and have learned to leave fallow land for recovery. It is known that the women of the tribe do most of the work, they work all day long in the field, with the rice, pets and in the household. The men are known to be rather lazy.

Entering the village we saw the young girl separating the crust from the rice by pounding a wooden instrument, the married women cooking and feeding the pigs, the kids playing with a homemade toy made of available material. No sight of local men was there until it was time for green tea after dinner, where they played a guitar-like ethnic string instrument around the campfire.