Millie and I really wanted to get up north and luckily we had another long weekend because of Mother’s Day. We decided we wanted to check out Phu Chee Fah in the Chiang Rai province. When we got back from Ko Tao, we tried to book our tickets from a bus company right here in Chon Buri called Nakhonchai Air which would have been PERFECT. But apparently four days early was not early enough and they were already booked. We should have realized we might not be able to be as “we’ll figure it out when we get there” with this trip because of the holiday but, mai pen rai. So we ended up booking tickets on thaiticketmajor.com (which I would recommend if you need bus tickets but don’t want to wait until you arrive at the station and chance it). It was a 12 hour overnight bus that left Mo Chit around 8pm. It was actually really nice; nicer than the bus we took to Ko Tao. We had heard about Phu Chee Fah from another OEGer who taught at our school last semester. Her friends went to Chiang Rai, then took a bus up to Phu Chee Fah from there. That was our original plan, but since we procrastinated we couldn’t get a bus into the city of Chiang Rai like we had hoped. Instead we went to Thoeng, which is closer to Phu Chee Fah than Chiang Rai, but for some reason there were no buses running to where we needed to be. The nice thing about Thailand is that a) everyone is helpful and b) almost everyone knows someone, or knows someone who knows someone, who can help. When we asked the lady at the coffee shop we were at how we could get to Phu Chee Fah, she left, and came back 5 minutes saying that she has a friend who owns a resort there and there’s a man who could drive us for 500 baht. That was a lot more than we had hoped on spending, but we didn’t really have another choice. When we got to the town near Phu Chee Fah we were not very impressed. We were literally the only farang, and almost the only people in general. Where were all the cute shops and people that we had heard about? However, it was still early so we thought things might pick up. In the mean time with nothing else to do, we decided to hike up to Phu Chee Fah so that we would know what to expect in the morning. There is a road about 1.8km long that is driveable, and then an additional 20 minute hike to the very top. It was a HARD hike: very steep and curvy. We were hopeful that in the morning there would either be songthaews running or other people doing the same thing who could give us a ride. The view from the top was pretty cool. The peak overlooks Laos, and it was really cool to think that we were so close to another country. We were pretty excited for what the sunrise would be like, as we expected it to be epic.