Our hike up to Doi Suthep

One morning, after slipping in the shower and giving myself an ocular migraine, and then rehabbing with coffee, water, food, Advil, and rest, we took a two hour hike through the jungle up a mountain to a see a temple called Doi Suthep. The hike was pretty strenuous, especially the second half of it (at times it felt like we were climbing a ladder made out of the earth!), but it actually felt really good after finally feeling better from my morning. It was a little stressful because we were a bit underprepared water-wise and it was about 96F outside, but when we were nearly to the top (and nearly out of water), we found a plastic sack with six large, unopened water bottles. Amazing! We went ahead and assumed those were meant for any unprepared hikers walking by… Hopefully we didn’t steal someone else’s water!

Doi Suthep is a Buddhist place of worship dating back to the 13th century. I’ve never been especially interested in temples, but I actually found it more interesting than I had imagined. As Christians, observing the religious aspect of the temples doesn’t appeal to us, but we know it to be an important place culturally to the Thais and want our family to experience as much as we can, knowing that God is sovereign over all of it.

Private cars were banned on the mountain road that leads to Doi Suthep for the days around New Year’s Eve, in order to “relieve congestion on the seven dangerous days of the New Year’s period”. Therefore, only songthaews were allowed as transportation to and from the temple, a 60-minute drive each way; we wouldn’t be able to use our beloved Grab (Uber). 🙁 So the only way to get down the mountain (aside from hiking back down) on those most dangerous days of the year in the country with the second highest per capita auto fatality rate is in the back of a pickup truck without seatbelts and no back door.

But… We opted to take a songthaew anyway, got into the back of one, and waited for the benches to fill up with people ready to be carted down the mountain. After waiting for a few minutes, the driver came to the back and pointed to me and Keegan and told us to move up front. We complied and I put Keegan on my lap and put the passenger seatbelt around both of us. A few minutes later, the driver, still waiting for the back to fill up more, came and pointed to Keegan and told him to sit on the console between the seats (that was narrow and higher than the seats and without a seatbelt). I shook my head, smiled, and said, “No,” firmly, and he was kind enough and dropped it. A few minutes later, I heard him at the back again, and (some of this was now told to me by Michael because I couldn’t see back there) he was saying, “BABY, BABY” and pointing into the back of the car. Everyone back there was confused and looking around because Tate was the youngest child back there and, as he later pointed out, he hasn’t been a baby for about nine years. The driver, not getting his message across, then stepped up into the back of the vehicle and pulled on Tate’s arm and pulled him out of the truck. He lifted Tate up and carried him in his arms (like a baby!!) and brought him up to the front! I am still so sad to have missed seeing that — what a sight that must’ve been!! 😂 He prompted Tate to get into the front of the car, to sit on the middle console as he’d told Keegan to do, and, again, I smiled, shook my head, and said, “No,” firmly. (Again he was cooperative.)

Our 60-minute drive down the mountain and into town was possibly my least favorite 60 minutes of our last 7 months. Our driver was less interested in driving our full songthaew safely down the winding, dark, mountain road than he was playing with his phone, searching for music videos, and making phone calls (not to mention not driving in our own lane). I told him a few times to stop and to watch the road and he would listen…for a while…and then start up again. I was so relieved to reach our restaurant and get out and I bet he was just as relieved to get rid of me!