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| Submission date: 2007-03-03 - Date of Stay: February 2007 |
| Submitted by: Rolf - From: Germany |
| Type of Traveller: Mature Couple - Age Group: 51 - 60 |
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| Lovely location, most enjoyable stay, |
| We (two) stayed at Chiang Dao Nest 2 for five days in February 2007, interrupted only by a 3 days / 2 nights rafting trekking tour that we had booked from Stuart, owner and manager of Chiang Dao Nest.
We enjoyed our stay in Nest 2 very much: it is a lovely location, just outside of the small village. The cabins are at a basic but fully satisfactory level, being equipped with a clean, large bed, and with a (simple) bathroom with western toilet and a shower with hot running water. The air temperatures at night were just about fine in the nights, so that we did not miss an AC system.
Sitting on the small terrace of the cabin or on the terrace of the small restaurant, one would overlook the nicely planted garden space in between the cabins, and look onto the flanks of the high rising mountains in maybe 500 m distance.
We loved the Thai food of Nest 2, that was available at reasonable prices, and we enjoyed the friendliness of Ooo (the managing lady) and of the other girls of her staff.
In the evenings, a fire was set up at one side of the restaurant terrace where one could sit before or after dinner and talk with other guests and enjoy the lovely night with the many stars above.
During days one could either go to a nicely situated Wat, at the flank of a mountain, or to the Chiang Dao cave, just 5 min from Nest 2, or inquire the little village (self-drawn map provided by Oo).
As mentioned above, we had also booked a trekking/ rafting tour from Stuart (the owner of the Nest resorts). On the first day, there was quite some walking involved, down into a valley on a dusty and steep dirtroad, a hike to a remotely situated cave that we went into with our two guides (fortunately with hard hats as a protection), a hike to a small waterfall, which we did not think especially worthwhile, and later, unfortunately, a hike up that dusty, steep road again (one hour) – in the heat of the afternoon – followed by another 30 min walk on a concrete road until we reached the small Lisu settlement where we stayed for the first night. That stay with that Lisu family was most enjoyable, lovely view over a valley and on the high mountains. Nice sitting place where dinner and breakfast were served. The landlady, dressed in her Lisu way, would feed the pigs and hen, so one could see some of their daily life.
On the second day we were picked up by car and driven over a large distance even further into the mountains, ending at a village on the Mae Tang river. Here we would step on a small bamboo raft, sit on low bamboo seats, our luggage (rucksacks) and the food supplies being fastened to a bamboo tripod, well above the water level. We had two guides who were steering the raft, one at the front, one at the rear of the raft. Although we had only expected a smooth and slow rafting, there were quite some narrow places where our “pilots” had to steer through rocks and over small rapids. Alltogether the rafting took almost 5 hours on the first day and another 1 and a half hours on the second day. The Mae Tang river would take us through a remote valley, mostly with hill flanks on either sides, with dense vegetation, mostly no people, and definitely no tourists except ourselves; no other rafts either. We stayed in a lovely Karen village by the river, and enjoyed very much looking at the Karen people tending their buffalo, pigs and chickens. Although the accomodation was very basic here (cabin dormitory style, but we were the only guests in that night), it was quite acceptable: we received clean sleeping bags and had a mosquito net above our sleeping place. What we missed here, was a wash basin or shower, but for one night it was quite ok. On the third day, the second of the rafting tour, we would start with a hike through nice vegetation, accompanied by one of our guides, while the other one directed our raft with our luggage and supplies further down the river. After about 1 hour we would arrive at a small settlement, to which an elephant was brought for us. We would have an enjoyable ride on that elephant along and several times right across the Mae Taeng river. At the end of this ride, we met with our raft and our “pilots” again. After Lunch at that place, we would go onto the last stretch of the rafting tour (1 ˝ hours), which ended at a location where quite some touristic activities with respect to white water rafting were offered and practiced. From there we were picked up by car and taken back to Chiang Dao.
Alltogether, we enjoyed the rafting tour very much, also the two overnight stays at the Lisu village and the Karen village, respectively, the only exception being the “hiking” on roads during the first day which we did not enjoy. (Stuart told us, he is thinking about improvements). The tour was very well organized, with the full supplies (the food supplies, the drinking water in bottles, and even rolls of toilet paper) having been provided by Nest 1 and taken along by the guide(s) for the whole tour.
Certainly a highlight of our stay in Thailand! Thank you very much! |
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