Readme.me - "Mon Chong" No Try, No Gain

"Mon Chong" No Try, No Gain | Kepkrapao

This winter...let's go to the forest, to hike, and to be with our mother nature.

But the point is....where should we go? I want to go north where mountain and forest are there.

Finally, I made up my decision, let's go to "Mon Chong" for this winter :)

Today, I'd like to take you guys to tour this place.

Mon Chong is located in Omkoi Wildlife Sanctuary, Chiang Mai Province.

It takes about 4-5 hours from downtown Chiang Mai which is quite far.

This trip is super lucky me where I have a photographer gang of 4 guys and 2 girls so I got lots of cool photos.

This trip also features a very unseen view that we can't find it elsewhere.

If you want to know, read until the end and take a good look at every photo and you will scream out >\\<

We start from downtown Chiang Mai. We drive our private car and pay for the petrol together. We leave at 05.00 a.m. and reach Lahu People Forest Protection Unit at 09.30 a.m. In total, it takes about four and a half hours. Try to reach here before 14.00 otherwise, the staff wouldn't want you to walk up because it will be too late once you reach the top. From there, you need to take a 4WD car of the local up with the fare of about 2,500-3,000 THB.

Let's drive up to the village.

OMG, there're way too many people. Oh well, we come here during the 3 days long holiday, I guess it's like 40 groups of tourists.

And here is our Lukhap gang of today. It costs 300 THB/day (if you don't want to hire them, you must carry your own stuff up). The tour guide fee is 300 THB/day (the tour guide might not be enough during the holidays, so we must walk together). There's a walkway and footstep along the way. The way is fairly easy and we won't get lost for sure. Also, there's fee of 20 THB/ person and the tenting fee is 50 THB/tent. Mon Chong can accommodate about 60 guests/night. It's best to come here as a 2 days 1 night trip. But you can also do a one day trip if you are strong enough.

After that, we take a 4WD car into the wood which has both pine trees and other type of trees along two sides. The road started from the concrete one before eventually turning into the rough bumpy one.

It's super dusty. Do not forget to find a mask. I'm having a headache a bit while the other hand is strongly holding tide onto the handrail of the car.

It takes about 2 hours to reach the walking point. Oh wait...so we spent about 6 hours from downtown Chiang Mai to here? Oh wow, that's so long. But oh well, we chose to come here ourselves, haha!! Meanwhile, Lukhap start to arrange our stuff in order to help us carrying up. We must say that our group's stuff is quite light except the camera bags which are quite heavy.

While waiting, we enjoy our sticky rice with salted pork, boiled eggs, and water.

After that, we walk up immediately. Usually, people take about 3-4 hours to reach the top. Mon Chong allows tourists to go up during November until mid of February only. After that, many of the wild elephants would be out which is quite dangerous. The summer is easy to catch a wildfire so it's also not allowed.

Now for dating, you don't need to take a girl to watch a movie or shopping. Let's take her back to the nature. Let's date in a difficult situation to see....if he can take care of us... or if he's ready to go together....How many people would make each step of our journey so worthy knowing that we will always be here for each other...

Here is me, Mai, and Miw, yay!

Along the way, we will walk pass the important landmark of Mon Chong, "Phu Hin Cho" which is a big rock. You can either climb over it or walk around it. But for us, to make the most of it, we try both, haha.

Here is what you are going to see standing on this Phu Hin Cho rock.

After walking down from Phu Hin Cho, we walk for another 40 minutes to reach Noen Ma Hop (literally means dog's exhausting hill).

Well, just by looking at the name, I'm already scared. I will show you picture later of how it looks. The wind is not so flowing, it's quite hot and humid. But there's a resting area where the wind is nicely blowing and we can sit down to enjoy a sip of water...wow...what a happy moment!

After walking for a while, now we see the second landmark, "Noen Ma Hop" which is very steep. We take rest for every 10 steps we walk. I really feel so exhausted just like the name suggests, haha.

And here is how it looks like up here.

Let's look back down there....

Just rest when you are tired

After that, we move on.

Well, let's take a look at the way, it's making a 45 degree angle with the hill.

We have people walk hand in hand in front of us, I'm so envious ><

After this hill, the route is fairly easy. We will only see the endless beautiful mountains view.

Our Lukhap uncle reach here the same time with us!!! I give all my respect to him.

Upon keep walking, we will see the third landmark "Peak of Mon Chong" which looks like a lion's head so we call this point a lion's head. We can walk all the way up to the peak which is about 1,929 meter above the sea level.

Along the way, there's a way towards two tenting areas of which you must walk down. Here, there's no airflow which makes the weather is nice and not too cold. Also, there's no restroom, shower room, shops, or the tent renting services. We must carry everything up here ourselves.

And here is our bags.

We are helping one another to set up the tent. We have two tents and it's enough for 6 of us.

In addition to male Lukhap, there's also female Lukhap and they are going to sleep outside with the fire without any tent, OMG!

After setting up the tent, we go around to enjoy the beautiful view. In addition to the 3 highlights I have told you guys earlier, another highlight of coming to Mon Chong is to enjoy the sunset. Seeing the last light to the day is just so great. The weather starts to get chill and cold and there's also a fog floating around the lion's head at this time, it's just so beautiful.

Look! The fog is coming.

When the clouds are covering the sun that is about to fall, it gives us this scene, I personally love it so much.

Here is how the sky and stars look like at the lion's head.

Tomorrow morning, I'm going to take you guys to enjoy the sea fog and more importantly, Mon Chong is going to have the most unseen thing of the year, please stay in tune. Good night :)

What you can't miss out in the morning is to wake up and enjoy the sea fog. Since some trees are blocking the view of the sun, the sun is not so vivid to us. It is about 6-8 degree Celsius this morning.

Hoar frost is also here.

When looking at the lion's head, we will see the sun rising from the left but it's blocked by a large Azalea tree. If you come here in January, you would see the red flowers fully blossom all over Mon Chong. Now, I see clouds and sea fog, so cool.

The color of the sky is so beautiful ^^

Sometimes, I just want to simply sit there, let the cold breeze hit my face while looking at something green, that's all.

The morning light is just so beautiful.

Isn't it cool?

Like I said earlier, this trip is so special as it comes with a big surprise. It is more unseen than watching the sunset and the sea fog. It is so special because we get to see 160 monks carrying their bags and walking with bare feet to 299 km across three provinces in the north from Sopmei District, Mae Hong Son Province towards Tha Song Yang District, Tak Province and finally to Omkoi District, Chiang Mai Province (information from monk Dr. Arunmethi P.)

Mon Chong is along the way of that walking route. I don't know how many times I need to come up here again in order to see this scene. I think it's such a great fortune. Although my camera's battery has died, all of my friends have their cameras so we could capture some atmosphere here.

This scene took place at about 08.00 a.m. on Sunday, 11th December 2016 :)

Let's go see them together...

This trip is so worthy for 2 hours and 40 minutes hike from below to Mon Chong. The driving time which is quite long is excluded. Anyhow, it's such a super fun trip. Thank you so much, Wit, Miw, Drive, Au and Jo for joining this trip. Thank you again to the photos taken by the four men where several of them have been posted here.

If you want to see more photos of these 4 amazing guys, please click:

Wit https://www.facebook.com/Akangggs

Drive: https://www.facebook.com/hadrive

Jo: https://www.facebook.com/nathapongjojo

Au : https://www.facebook.com/auaua.p

For those who want to travel to Mon Chong, you can ask P'Sombat, Onsa-at, the chief of Lahu People Forest Protection Unit, for more information at 085-7087441.

P.S. I think it's quite easy walking up to Mon Chong. I think it's similar to Kiw Mae Pan's hike but just a bit longer. I think the girls would make it just fine. For Mon Chong, the toughest route would be at "Noen Ma Hop" where the road is very steep. After you pass this point, it's very easy ^^

For more information at : http://www.doimonjong.com