Maybe I should mention…/ Doi Suthep

I believe my stance on nature has always been: it’s nice to know it’s there but I don’t need to spend any actual time in it. Windy’s phrase is that she doesn’t need to roll around in it. I don’t hike, I don’t bike, I hate camping; my idea of roughing it is no room service, I don’t play outdoor sports, heck I don’t play indoor sports, I don’t sweat, I don’t exert. My natural state is inertia. So when we were asked to hike up Doi Suthep (maybe I should mention it’s the tallest mountain peak around Chiang Mai) in an environmental “save the mountain” sort of thing I said yes. I mean, how hard can it be to climb a mountain in Thailand? Maybe I should mention we had to get up at 5:30 to get to the meeting site to start the hike by 7:00. Maybe I should mention there was a cool t-shirt involved which said “You can break my (heart symbol) but don’t hurt Doi Suthep”. Maybe I should mention we hiked halfway up on a highway and then we were directed to a muddy path. Maybe I should mention it was 100% chance of rain between 6:00 and 8:00am and 50% chance of storms for the rest of the afternoon. Maybe I should mention the path was obviously created by mountain goats sometime in the late 14th century. Maybe I should mention that we passed out of the rain only long enough to walk head-first into clouds. Maybe I should mention that there is a point where you are so wet from the clouds and so sweaty from the humidity that you actually start to get chills. I think we hiked approximately 11km. Which is like 7 miles. Maybe I should mention the last 2km where vertical. Maybe I should mention they were vertical, muddy, ropes hanging down the slope to help you up kilometers. At the top of Doi Suthep is a Wat (Buddhist temple) Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. Maybe I should mention that after 11km there are an additional 306 steps up to the Wat. There is also a lift. Some people felt that if they had just climbed a mountain then they were going to walk the last 306 steps. I took the lift. Because after climbing a mountain I should be carried on the shoulders of a crowd dammit! I’m told the view from the Wat is gorgeous- but since I couldn’t see it because of the cloud I was standing in I will have to take someone’s word for it. Thinking about hiring a red truck, (maybe I should mention red trucks- basically like covered pick-up trucks that are sort of like taxis but you have to negotiate your price before you get in them and if there isn’t enough room for all of the group then you get to hang off the back, which is my favorite part of the red truck although if it’s raining it’s less fun and the traffic pollution is pretty gross but no worse than Los Angeles in my opinion), to go back up and get a picture on a clear day. Last night I saw lights up at the top of the mountain that I assume were the Wat and it was very very tiny from my hostel perspective (perhaps I mean hostile☺) Maybe I should mention that about 10,000 Buddhists a year make a pilgrimage to the Wat, passing three other Wats on the way each wat representing a different Buddhist virtue and the path getting progressively harder as each virtue is harder to achieve. Maybe I should mention that they do it night. Maybe I should mention they do it on their knees. Did I mention they do it on their knees?