We barely made it up to Doi Suthep before the sun set. From Wat Phra Singh we walked to Huay Kaew road that heads up to Doi Suthep. We had to cross the road (6 lanes) twice and it took about 10 minutes the first time just to get enough of a clearing to cross. Once on Huay Kaew road we took a local red sawngthaew for 20 baht per person to the bus stop near the Chiang Mai University for the sawngthaews that just make the trip up to Doi Suthep. The driver of the first sawngthaew would have taken us all the way up and back for 500 baht, but we didn’t want to pay that much. The sawngthaew up the hill is supposed to be 40 baht a person one-way, but since there weren’t 10 people to fill it up that late in the afternoon we paid 50 baht a piece each way and went with one other couple. Still a much better price than renting a taxi for 500 baht round trip. We got up to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep at around 5:20pm and the driver gave us an hour to spend there. We enjoyed looking around and liked it much better than Wat Phra Singh. It turned out to be cloudy though, so we couldn’t really see the sunset. It might have been better to visit earlier in the day when the titles and gold paint would have sparkled more. We were in such a hurry on the way to the entrance that we paid the admission fee (30 baht) and elevator fee (20 baht) without realizing we could have just taken the stairs up. So we took the elevator up and walked down when we left, so we could see the Naga (sea serpent) lined stairs.
