CHIANG MAI - CHIANG RAI 2005 Part 2

Hi, all!! Welcome to my another part. I hope you all like clips inserted in my last part. It takes me some more times to do the research on my visited place but I think that with pictures and video clips, you can be closer to what I want to describe. You can give your comments on video clips I put in my posts to help me do it better.

If you still do not read part 1, you may find it here.

**ONE NIGHT @ DOI MAE SALONG**

(source: TRIPTHAILAND)

Doi (in Thai: ดอย) is a Northern Thai word means "Mountain". So, Doi Mae SaLong means Mt. Mae SaLong. Doi Mae Salong is located in "Mae Fa Luang" District, Northwest of Chiang Rai province. The area is around 950 - 1,200 metres above sea level.

The name Mae Fa Luang was given by Princess Mother Srinagarindra, who was commonly known as "Mae Fa Luang" (lit. Royal Mother from the sky) by the hill tribe people of the area.(source: Wikipedia)

The slogan of the District (in Thai) is "พระตำหนักดอยตุงล้ำค่า สมเด็จย่าเป็นมิ่งขวัญ เผ่าพันธุ์หลากหลาย มากมายชาดี งามสดสีซากุระบาน". I'm so bad at translating these kinds of slogan to English...so...help me if you can.

After the great Wat Rong Khun, I and my family drove to Doi Mae SaLong where we'd planned to spend our night there if our rented car can get to the village. The road was not so bad even though it was still in the rainy season. The weather there is very fresh and the cool wind is breezy. The Santi Khiri village was small and peaceful. Most people in the village are immigrated from China during the Chinese Civil War period. The area around here is very famous in the old day as a great opium field but nowaday, there's none. Thanks to the King's mom and many people that worked so hard in changing villagers' agricultural system. Since 1980s, the Thai government integrated the villagers into Thai society and as part of the process introduced a policy of substituting opium production for growing tea. Currently, the areas around here produce a very well known quality tea, e.g. Oolong tea, Green tea.

Thanks to "ezytrip" to provide beautiful pics since my pics on Doi Mae Salong is lost T.T

In the village, you can buy excellent Tea; Local and Chinese, Tea sets, Chinese candies and fruits. The food in the restaurants is also good, among them I love mushroom with oyster sauce (Thai: เห็ดหอมสดผัดซอยหอยนางรม) the most.

(source: hflight)

The weather was getting cold when dusk came. There I've learnt how to prepare a good tea and how to drink a good tea from a shop owner who was very kind and ready to instruct even you buy nothing from her. The warm tea helped me a lot from the cold weather. It made me warm enough for night-walk but we didn't go too far since it was dark very quickly. So, we desired to go to back to our rooms.

Tomorrow, after exploring the local morning market, we drove to the great "Doi Tung Royal Villa", it's not far from Doi Mae Salong and is still in the Mae Fa Luang District. However, it's very beautiful place where I want to dedicate one whole part for it. So, it's better to stop here...until the next part.