Ratna writes

Today, we took a road trip from old town Chiang Mai to Doi Inthanon National Park and the Mae Klang Luang Village , about a 1.5-hour drive. Our first stop was the imposing Wachirathan Falls , whose source is the Mae Klang River. From there, we drove by car to the Ang Ka Nature Trail , a short and flat boardwalk stroll through cloud forest, that takes you to the summit of Doi Inthanon, at 2,565 meters high.  The trail featured a tangle of sphagnum moss, mushroom varieties, and rhododendron plants (which flower starting November.) It was my first time seeing a verdant wetland at such high elevation! Next, we visited Chiang Mai’s famous pagoda at Nabhapolbumisiri. The complex features twin pagodas, dedicated respectively to King Bhumibol and Queen Sirikit. This signature Chiang Mai view is stunning, and equally stunning was the fog that befell us while we shivered through the visit on this particular day. At lunch, an inviting green curry and tom yum soup at a local homestay thawed...

Hội An is an extremely charming town, preserved throughout as it looked in the 18th century, with the Thu Bon River winding through it, a river system used in the 10th century to trade with the Vietnamese highlands, Laos, and Thailand. The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and in the 18th century, Hội An was considered by Chinese and Japanese merchants to be the best destination for trading in all of Southeast Asia. Its importance as a port declined with the end of Nguyễn rule at the end of the 18th century, due to a turning away from foreign trade and silting of the river upstream. As its use for trade reduced, so did its contact with the rest of Vietnam. The 1990s saw efforts to revive and preserve the city by a Polish architect and conservator , responsible in part for the Hội An we were able to see this weekend. The beauty of the town lies in walking around and letting it saturate you, the bright mustard walls of each building adding a uniformity of joy to each of Hội A...