Into the Mystic

Nothing is your except the essential things: air, sleep, dreams, sea, the sky - all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.

Phu Chi Fa is a mountain range just 2 hours west of Chiang Rai that rises near the border with Laos.

I randomly found out about it through a Google search and a bit of digging, and after seeing photos of the overlook, I just knew we had to see this hidden gem for ourselves. 

A few hesitations came to mind: First off, how would we get there? We could take the bus company we took to get to Chiang Rai, but we'd have to stay overnight somewhere in order to make it for the sunrise. The logistics of it all just seemed too daunting. Another option was to rent a car but that meant we'd have to drive ourselves in the dark without any wifi connection. So I decided to talk to the concierge at our hotel and they were able to arrange a private car/driver for us! The only other caveat was that since it was "off season", we were told that we would not be able to see the fog, sunrise or much of a view at all. Kiel was indifferent, I was discouraged, but I decided that we should take the chance anyway. 

On Thursday our alarms went off at 2:30am, and we met our driver outside our hotel at 3am. A very sleepy (me, not the driver) and curvy ride later, we arrived at the carpark area of Phu Chi Fa at 5am. 

Kiel and I hiked a short, yet challenging 750 meters up the mountain in the pitch dark, only to be guided by Kiel's (battery dying) headlamp, my cell phone flashlight, and the starry sky. Once we made it to the top, we huddled by a post and waited on top of the windy and chilly mountain.

I am not sure how we got so fortunate that morning. From most of the photos I saw of random bloggers and what I read about their experiences, either the visibility wasn't as great, or they were surrounded by hundreds of other people also trying to catch the sunrise. Kiel and I were the only ones on top of that mountain with the exception of three other people who arrived 45 minutes after us and just after the sun had risen.

I don't care how cliche it sounds, the view was magical and absolutely breathtaking. It was one of the most rare, unspoiled, and beautiful experiences we've ever encountered on this trip, if not in this lifetime. 

Even after all this time, the Sun never says to the Earth, "You owe me." Look what happens with a love like that, it lights up the whole sky.