Doi Suthep

The hike starts near a barrier which blocks the road to the top of Doi Pui. The barrier is at an altitude of about 1540 meter, while the top of Doi Pui is at 1675 meter, so the first 1.2 kilometers we will have to climb about 135 meters. Most of the rest of this 13.5 km long hike is downhill.

The summit of Doi Pui is covered with trees, so there is no good view from the top, but don’t worry, there will be good views on our way down.

From the summit we take a trail north, which soon starts following a ridge with steep slopes on both sides. This ridge offers several times excellent views; at some point you will look down on the tribal village which we will be passing later on this hike. The ridge descends quite rapidly; over the first kilometer we descend more than 200 meters.

At about 2.2 km from the summit of Doi Pui this trail ends on a road near a T-junction. The road to the right is actually the road on which we started the hike (near the barrier). We will first follow this road for about 600 meters to a coffee shop. The coffee shop looks out over a valley with a coffee plantation and serves fresh coffee. It’s a good place for a short rest and a cup of coffee.

We then walk the same 600 meter back to the T-junction where we now turn right. The road soon brings us into a tribal village where we probably can see how the villagers are drying their coffee harvest.

When we leave the village we have only covered 5 km, so we have another 8.5 km to go, mainly through lush evergreen forest. There are several junctions and crossings, so it is easy to take a wrong turn (the picture of the hike shows how we took a wrong turn which took us to a small orchard).

About 3.3 km from the tribal village we reach a point which is known as the “5-way junction”. Here we turn right. The forest in this area is very green with lots of huge trees. Eventually the trail will end near the entrance of the Doi Suthep temple, which is worth a visit if you still have the enregy to do it.

The entire hike is about 13.5 kilometers long. We started at 1540 meter and reached the highest point (Doi Pui) at 1675 meter. From there it went downhill most of the time (except in the last 2 km) and we end our hike at an elevation of about 1030 meter. Depending on your speed and how long you rest at the coffeeshop and other places, the hike will take about 5 to 5.5 hours.