This weekend my fellow foreign teachers and I ventured away from our home in San Pa Tong to Nan, Thailand’s Northeastern-most province, which borders Laos. Just a cozy 5-hour night-bus away from the city of Chiang Mai, Nan is a rural province that borders Laos and is known for its spectacular national parks, the most notable of which is Doi Phu Kha Natonal Park. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to visit Doi Phu Kha (which is about a 1-2 hour drive from the city of Nan) during our short weekend away, but the city of Nan, which lies in the center of the province, did not disappoint!
We arrived in Nan at about 5 AM and walked from the bus station to our hostel. Since this is Thailand and google isn’t exactly helpful here, we couldn’t find our hostel. Tired and grumpy, we called the contact number for Ban Himwat Hostel. Not only did Kwan, the host, answer the phone at 5am, but, in true Thailand friendly fashion, he rode his bicycle to meet us in town and guide us to the hostel. Ban Himwat Hostel is right next to Nan’s most famous temple, steps away from Nan’s famous walking street, and attached to a local art gallery, but the best part about it is the $12 USD/night price tag.
After a few hours of napping, we stopped for breakfast before heading off to hike at Tham Pha Tub Forest Park. It isn’t a huge park, but it is a short 10 km trip from the city and it has some cool caves, a lake, and a view of the countryside. We spent a few hours hiking through the jungle, surrounded by butterflies, exploring caves, including one that had a tomb and Buddha statue in it (!), and going on a VERY steep hike (steep as in the way back down was basically just sliding to the bottom) to a viewpoint overlooking some pretty farmland. I had been looking forward to hiking in the northern mountains of Thailand since before arriving, so this was some much-needed nature time for me. The only downside were the mosquitos that, quite literally, ate me alive. The lemon-eucalyptus bug spray that had been working fantastically in Chiang Mai was no match for the actual swarms of mosquitos we encountered on the mountain, so next time I hike in Thailand I will be sure to break out the Deet…
Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, the main street in Nan transforms into a lively night market, so after cooling off from our hike, we went to check it out. We enjoyed amazing food (I couldn’t tell you exactly what it was because I mostly just point at what looks good whenever I eat in Thailand), browsed stalls of traditional Thai clothing and gifts, and then sat down to enjoy live singing and dancing performances next to the temple. While the walking street night market is a weekly occurrence, the live performances were for the Lanna Cultural Festival that happened to be going on the weekend we visited! The Lanna Kingdom controlled northern Thailand from the 13th to 18th century, and northern Thai people are very proud of their Lanna heritage.
On our second day in Nan, we went to Wat Phra That Khao Noi, a Buddhist temple built in the 13th century. The temple is accompanied by a massive Buddha statue, the blessing Buddha, that overlooks the city.
After trekking back down the many stairs that lead up to the temple, we headed back into the heart of the city for our last excursion before catching our bus back home. We visited the famous temple of Wat Phumin. The exterior of the temple is stunning and built to look as if it were sitting on the back of two gigantic snakes. Perhaps even more impressive than the outside of the temple are the beautiful murals covering the walls inside. The most famous of the paintings is the “Whispering Lovers”.
These pictures were absolutely stunning… And the photos that had you in them not only made us happy, but they gave us a wonderful sense of the scale of just how big these places were! Great job once again! So glad you are enjoying your adventure there!
😀