We took the bus three hours north of Chiang Mai to the small town of Chiang Dao. When we told the locals we wanted to head up that way, invariably we got blank stares and were asked, “Why? There’s nothing there.” Which was exactly the point. It’s literally a stop on the side of the road, with not much else out there.
It was glorious. Stepping off the bus and walking to our huts was pretty hot, then we came across this thing:
Yeah, weird spot.
Then we got to the huts.
We got settled, rented some bikes, and started exploring.
It just so happened that the weekend we were visiting Chiang Dao was the same weekend of a Japanese hippy music festial, Shambala in your Heart. We arrived at the festival after the music had officially ended for the night, but it was a super chill scene. There was one guy raging on a harmonica with cockles tied to his ankles that was pretty cool. Sleeping arrancements for the festival were just camping out behind the stages. Someone had brought a teepee.
