Being awake literally before the birds? It's my normal but rarely do I feel such a pull to get out of my warm snuggly bed and into the morning.
I'm staying at a small Nature Lovers Retreat in a tiny village called Chiang Dao. It's a sacred area in the mountains near the Burmese border, about 1.5 hours drive north-west of Chiang Mai. The name Chiang Dao means "mountain of the stars" in pasaa nuea, the northern language, and the area has been a famous pilgrimage site for Buddhist monks for well over 2,000 years. There are quite a few mummies enshrined in the temples here - monks who went deep into meditation on Doi Chiang Dao and simply left their bodies behind.
Waking this morning into a chilly, barely light morning, I felt the itch to see the sun rise. And so off I hurried. Mist is a rare phenomena in sub-tropical Thailand and tourists head up north for this brief, cool season, winter tourism. While some of the mountain tops around Chiang Mai are log-jammed with bis loads of tourists from Singapore, Malaysia, Bangkok etc, Chiang Dao is off the beaten track, thankfully doesn't boast many hotels with enough creature comforts so it remains relatively local and unspoiled.
The birdsong echoing in the misty morning was beautiful. Tall teaks and Yang Noeng trees bore witness to my footsteps breaking the silence.
It was a decent walk from my Nature Retreat - about 3km each way, and steep. The waning moon was still high in the sky.
It wasn't much to look at as one panted up the last part of the hill, the cool, damp air rather a shock to my tropically-acclimated lungs.
But the view from the steps back across the valley showed how high I'd climbed.
The sound of monks chanting, the gentle swishing of them silently sweeping with twig brooms, the birds, the fragrance of incense.... and the intensity of colour as the sun broke through onto the chedi.
What an exhilarating start to the day!
Best part was it was just me and the monks, whom I greeted silently. No tourists, no noisy merit making, just plain old silence and the warmth of the sun lifting the mists.
If you're in Chiang Dao, Samnagsong Doi Chiang Dao isn't marked on the maps etc in English. There's one solitary English language sign, opposite the Cave Temple turnoff.
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