We were only staying at the river house hotel for one night before heading east to Chiang Mai province and town.

On our way out of Mae Sariang we visited “chom tawny” (I couldn’t find anything online so the name is probably wrong) and Chom Thong temples.  Chom Thong is high up above the city and you walk up a long stairway with dragons on the other side.  When you get to the top you’re greeted with a long flat level with a view of the valley below and a gigantic golden buddha on your right.

Again, insects everywhere and there was a big snail on the dragon steps.

We ate rambutan purchased the previous night on the way to our next destination.

We then stopped at Sawan Noi waterfall before lunch.   Because of all the rain the water in the waterfall was red from the mud.  The last bit of the road was washed out as well, so we had to walk down.  We ended up only having time to go down two levels of the seven level waterfall.  The video below shows some of what it is like, but not during the rainy season.

Below is a photo of Sam’s brother-in-law’s trusty Toyota Fortuner, a truck based four wheel drive SUV that isn’t available in America.

It got us through muddy spots like in the photo below that would have forced a car like mine to turn around with its tail between its legs.

The path down to the washed out road that leads to the waterfall:

and finally some waterfall pics:

By the bathroom I almost walked right into this nasty specimen (who apparently has had a rough life from the looks of it’s legs):

I looked and looked but couldn’t find any info on this spider except for a reference from one other Thailand visitor calling it the “Death’s Head” spider.  CLEARLY the same spider.  However, “death’s head spider” brings up a different spider in google search that is more bulbous with a much less “skull” looking image on the back.  Below is a photo taken when walking back up past the rice paddies cultivated from the stream that feeds the waterfall.

Getting back on the main road.  Note the photo of the king and queen again.

We stopped at a roadside fruit stand so I could try this orange colored fruit.  I didn’t like it much.

These skinny cows would be the closest I’d get to a cheeseburger in Thailand.

But I didn’t mind because all the chicken and fish was great.

We entered Ob Luang National Park and ate at a restaurant in the park.

After lunch we hiked up and down through the granite forest.  We saw a lot of bugs, came to a few high viewpoints and lost our way a few times.

What is that little dot on the bridge in the photo below?  That’s me.

After hours hiking up and down the hills along the rushing river we headed to Chiang Mai.

We checked into Baan Gong Khan hotel.  The hotel has a Koi pond that you can walk over to get to your room.

Once in the rooms we discovered that our rooms had a “hidden” creepy attic room.

We would stay here for three nights and on the last night heavy rains produced a nasty leak next to our bed. After checking in we walked along the streets in search of dinner, which wasn’t these frogs on a stick:

Nor did we eat at Pink Pussy (I’m not even going to bother trying to google that for a link!).

I saw G-Long, but nobody else wanted to eat there.

We went instead to Monkey Club because, you know, when you feel up, it’s Monkey Club.

The menu had a Ron English painting that I’m sure was authorized by the artist…right?

Next, Sam wanted to stop in at D Milk Cafe for dessert.  This place makes drinks that are a mix of milk and/or chocolate and/or coffee including boba and topped with everything from gummy bears to candy to cereal (you get three included).

Then we headed to the famous weekend night street market on Nimmanhaemin Road.  The giant street market had lots of interesting food and trinkets on display.

This was my first look at fried insects.  Unfortunately they only had cockroaches and grubs – no fried scorpion.  I’ll try scorpion, I won’t eat the cockroach I saw running through the bathroom earlier.  These were the big gray roaches too that looked like the aliens from independence day.

We had actually already eaten a large dinner and didn’t get to try any of the food.  I did however try a dragon fruit juice cup – which was very cheap and very good.  10BHT = about 33 cents USD.

A band of blind boys.

We ended up getting a lot of souvenirs at the night market.  Something we didn’t get, but we thought would make for nice photos were these fake flowers with lights inside.