Chasin’ Waterfalls (Day 5)

Day 5: Doi Inthanon – Siriphum & Sirithan Waterfall- Chom Thong – Mae Ya Waterfall

There was nowhere to cook breakfast and it was our last day so we left bright and early to make the most of it. We checked out Siriphum waterfall and the garden near town then headed on Hwy 1009 to find more waterfalls to swim in and a place to cook breakfast. Both Siriphum and Sirithan waterfalls were big and beautiful but you couldn’t swim in them so we didn’t spend much time at each. Leaving Sirithan waterfall is where we realized our rear tire was completely flat and the integrity was gone!

With no cellphone on us to call the scooter rental place we headed about 5-6km back uphill to Doi Inthanon park. Luckily a local Thai man from Chom Thong village picked us up in his truck and loaded the scooter. He dropped us off at a place to fix the tire which ended up being overpriced at 970 THB and took about 2 hours. We gave the kind Thai man 220 THB; he was so grateful and insisted on only taking 100 THB but we wouldn’t let him.

From there we went to Mae Ya Waterfall which was a short hike and very beautiful. We swam and enjoyed our time there before heading back to Chiang Mai. When we showed the damaged tire and receipts to the scooter rental company she did not want to refund us any portion because our contract said that popped tires were the responsibility of the customer. After a little debate she returned 400 THB to us which we were satisfied with considering what we had put that poor scooter through. Although most of our kilometres were spent on highways, the majority of our time was spent dirt biking on back roads with this scooter. We definitely learned from this short adventure that we’ll need a different bike for our next scooter adventure!

Expenses: 960 THB = $35 CAD
Distance: 96 km (does not include the kilometres we were towed)

TOTAL EXPENSES for the trip: 5310 THB = $197 CAD
TOTAL DISTANCE for the trip: 825 km