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  Monday 5th of June 2017 and time for yet another flight I don't wish for. But I must get on the flight in order to get to Chiang Mai and Doi Inthanon National Park. Well, there are other means of  transportation. Some people are calling me a “snob” because I refuse to go by buss. I would love to go by buss or train.
But I will not set foot on a bus in Thailand if it is not absolutely necessary. Busses built in the jungle and you choose what brand you want. Voilà, a VOLVO sticker and you have a brand new VOLVO. Amazing attitude towards safety on the roads here in Thailand. So yes, I stay off the roads as much as I can. And if I need to go far I can always take a taxi. Not much safer, but at least I have a feeling that I can control the driver and keep an eye out from the back seat. Anyway, All Thailand Experiences have send me an itinerary for my adventure in Doi Inthanon National Park. And it looks to be exciting.  But before we can start with the excitement, I will have to squeeze down in the seat on board the  plane. OK, a week of boxing and health food, so I might have gone from 2.8 to 2.79 between the back pockets, but it is still way too much space between the  back pockets. On my trousers that is!
Well, it is only one hour 10 minutes so I will  hopefully survive. Sitting in the back of the plane, last row so I will hopefully be alone. Even though it is a short flight I don't like to fly  “cattle” class.
But after a few more months at Chaiyasit Muay Thai Gym and my food boxes I will most likely  slide down in the seat with no problem.
Now we're looking forward to some huffin' and puffin' to get down in the seat. And the humiliation, the “extension” belt Anyway, a taxi and we made it to the airport in a jiff. The driver dropped me at gate 2, the domestic gate and I had soon checked in. Security was pretty quick and I was soon in the Thai Airways lounge enjoying water (2 glasses) and the smallest of snacks.    On the way to the lounge
 Thai Airways domestic lounge
 Thai Airways domestic lounge
Time passed quite quickly and it was soon time to go to gate A5 to board flight TG 110 bound for Chiang Mai. And I expect to be in my stream side bungalow in Doi Inthanon National Park where I  hope I will see my first bird after not very long. Maybe a Kingfisher fishing in the  stream outside my window, QUALITY TIME! Cannot wait to put this flight behind me.
Lo and behold, boarding had started when I arrived to gate A5. Not often boarding to a Thai Airways flight start in time. But I was among the last to board as I was at the end of the line. My seat was in the last row and as soon as we were taxi out to the runway I made a mental note to never sit here again. I could see the full length of the plane and it was very clear to me how the plane was twisting and bending. Yeah! Just what I wanted to see. To see this did exactly noting to boost my confidence in flying. Well, the plane will hopefully not fall apart before arrival to Chiang Mai and I have my luggage in my hand.
 This is the machine that is going to take us to Chiang Mai
 Boarding Thai Airways flight TG 110
 On board Thai Airways flight TG 110
 Ooh yeah! I look forward to this flight
 Ooh yeah! I look forward to this flight
Coming on board and I see that they have a business class cabin, and almost empty. I didn't know that they had business class cabin on the domestic flight. OK, I can sit in the back for an hour. But I was disappointed with Thai Airways. Why had I not been upgraded? You hear about all these people getting upgrades, and that is even without being frequent flyers with Thai. And I have Thai gold card. So it must be because I'm too ugly for the biz cabinet. I cannot see any other reason, to have Porky sitting up front will scare away future customers. We took off and they were soon serving snacks, but I was asleep. Anyway, I would not have had any snacks. Better off to wait until we have arriving to Chiang Mai.  Snacks on wheel
 Snacks on wheel
 Snacks on wheel
 Snacks on wheel
  Arriving to Chiang Mai
 Arriving to Chiang Mai
 Arriving to Chiang Mai
One hour flight and bags of plastic garbage generated. Why do they have to eat and drink just because they sit on an airplane? What a waste of resources. We are killing ourselves slowly. The oceans are about to collapse due to plastic and toxic shit. We had some heavy turbulence approaching Chiang Mai but the flight was OK. But it was very nice to get off the plane. Quite a bit to walk to the luggage claim and when I arrived to the luggage  claim I just had to wait for 2 minutes before my bag came on the conveyor belt, second bag off the plane. So I was soon on my way out  from the terminal.
I have a wee bit of camera equipment in my back pack. My back pack is excellent, but a wee bit too small for the camera equipment. There is special camera back packs and I have decided to have a look for a good quality back pack for my lenses when I have the time. The equipment is unprotected in my back pack and I don't want to arrive with any broken equipment. Well, I took my bag from the conveyor belt. I extended the handle and I hang the back pack on the handle and I rolled my weekend bag behind me leaving the luggage claim area behind. I spotted a guy with my name on a paper and I stepped up to him. - Are you here to pick up the handsome guy?  Chiang Mai International Airport
 Chiang Mai International Airport
 Chiang Mai International Airport - Luggage claim
 Yes, he was here to pick up Aladdin. He took my bags and we stopped at the ATM so I could give him 12000 Baht. We were soon in a van and I asked if he could stop at a Family Mart so I could  buy some MAX.
We emptied the first ship, a Big-C Mini when we stopped to buy tea. They only have green tea at the hotel. I bought all their Pepsi MAX and we took off. My driver had not found any tea so we made a stop at a JIFFY Minimart. My driver found tea and I emptied the JIFFY and when we left there were no more MAX to be found in the Minimart. We were soon on our way again and we passed through a beautiful landscape, if it would not have been for all the garbage. I liked the driver, and I will have the same driver for the next 3 or 4 days. He was driving slowy and he was very interested in birds. And as he didn't spoke any English I had to refresh my Thai when we were discussing birds and bird watching. He had the same book in Thai as I had bought to my friend. And he had marked all the birds he had seen in yellow. So we had a good drive towards the hotel/ resort in Doi Inthanon National Park. We expect to be there around 5 o'clock in the afternoon.  Enjoying myself on the way to Doi Inthanon National Park
    We stop to look for a White-throated Kingfisher
 We stop to look for a White-throated Kingfisher
Suddenly, he stopped and put the van in reverse. He had spotted a White-throated kingfisher. I was just preparing my camera when the kingfisher took off. The Driver had a binocular and we went out to have a look for the bird. But the bird was too far away and we were soon on our way again. A really enjoyable ride. We stopped to buy provision at Lotus. We bought frit, but they didn't had any papaya so it will not be exactly as the fruit salad I eat at home. I also bought some bread and tuna to have in my cabin in the morning. Then I can sleep longer. Wake up at 5 thirty and we will take off at 6. From Lotus it was non-stop until we reached the entrance to the Doi Inthanon National Park. My driver went out to buy the ticket while I stretched my legs and I took the opportunity to take a few pictures of the gate.  Gate to Doi Inthanon National Park
And I was reminded why I avoid Thai Airways as much as possible.
Or why I buy as little MADE IN THAILAND as possible  Gate to Doi Inthanon National Park
 Driving along road #1009 through Doi Inthanon National Park
 We arrive to the hotel/ resort Doi Inthanon National Park
It took us maybe 20 minutes to reach the hotel/ resort driving along road # 1009 and we had rain falling. We left road # 1009 and we drove down a step road and we crossed a stream. The very  stream passing just outside my bungalow. It was quarter to 6 and we would have our dinner at 6 thirty. I was hungry but I wanted to have a look around before it was getting dark.
I sat up my IT-centre and then I left to walk along the stream and, well, millions of mosquitos and they were annoying even though I had sprayed myself in DDT. I spoke with my driver about the insects and it was soon 6 thirty and we went for our evening meal. I had two plates of fried rice and I was back in my room at 7 o'clock. Will I be able to sleep? I have been guaranteed that there is no snakes in the park. So, well, I will hopefully be alone in my room tonight. Imagine waking up being attacked by a snake. Well, I look forward to our tour in the park tomorrow. Now it is time to sleep.   My hotel/ resort
 My hotel/ resort
 My hotel/ resort
 My bungalow
 I live next to a stream
 I live next to a stream
 Our restaurant
 Pictures from the restaurant
 Pictures from the restaurant
 Dinner
 Our restaurant
Of course, it was impossible to fall asleep. The bed leaves a lot (very lot) to wish for. Well, the whole place leaves a lot to wish for. One thing is for sure, I will not come back, at least not if they charge the same price again. 500 Baht or less and I can think about it. At 2 o'clock in the morning I started to get worried. No sleep and the birding tour tomorrow won't be very fun. Click HERE to see how it turned out. You can easily find the bird watching trip reports “DAY BY DAY” below: First day of birding in Doi Inthanon National Park Second day of birding in Doi Inthanon National Park Bird watching at Huai Tueng Thao in Chiang Mai Bird watching at Doi Sutep, Chiang Mai Bird watching at Lanna Rama 9 Park, Chiang Mai
    
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To www.aladdin.st since December 2005
Visitors from different countries since 26th of September 2011
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