Phu Chi Fah

Phu Chi Fah is a very sleepy mostly Hmong town on the Laos border. It’s claim to fame is the alluring sunrise over Laos above the clouds with mountains peaking through the clouds. The pictures are truly stunning. We really enjoyed our night here in our little bungalow! IT was really peaceful, scenic, and yet again…..the local food was out of this world!!! At 5 am, a local boy that we hired, showed up and guided us up the approx 1 km incline (not bad at all) to the summit of Phu Chi Fah. All of the local boys seem to have discovered this lucrative way to make some extra baht and were guiding others, as well! Heck, there was even coffee being sold at the foot of the path by Hmong villagers! Once at the top, we enjoyed the sunrise and got some awesome pics! Unfortunately for us, the scenery was not quite what it could have been due to the burning process in the local agriculture. Most crops have been harvested and dried and they have recently been burning the areas to clear them for the next crop. This has made most of northern Thailand quite hazy at times. Nevertheless, it was like nothing we’ve seen before!
Afterwards we headed out of there and stopped in the small town of Waeng Kaen and visited Ted’s cousin whom he hasn’t seen since he was 9 years old! It was fun to watch them catch up! We didn’t stay long, however and drove on in to Chiang Rai for the night. Driving through northern Thailand mountains and countryside has been a definite highlight of this trip! If we had to do it all over again, we would make sure it wasn’t the burn season, so our views could be a little clearer but it has still been incredible. The mountains are lined with flowers, banana, mango trees with rivers and rice fields below. Driving along the Mekong on the northern Laos/Thai border was also spectacular! We didn’t come across any more dirt roads, thankfully!