Fresh air and pollution-free environment are hard to find in the city like Chiangmai, while several modern air-conditioned shopping malls are fast turning recreation centers. But people still need to get close to nature even if it’s for a short time.
  After a hard week’s work, I was thinking about a place to go and relax for a day. A friend recommended me a popular weekend recreation by a big lake where I could enjoy nature and cool breeze.
   “Huay Tueng Tao”is a very large man-made lake and public-park whose development was inspired by His Majesty the King following his visited to Chiang Mai in 1980. Conceived as an eco-tourism project, the reservoir contains 1.4 cubic meters of water and is managed by the 33^rd Military Circle.
  There wasn’t much traffic this Sunday as we travelled northwest of Chiang Mai city past the sports complex and Sri Nakarintra Hospital College on Klong Chonprathan Road on the way to Mae Rim.
  We kept looking for road signs and were a bit worried because we didn’t see any until we reached the bar-bridge, and that gave us a great sense of relief. It road sign was written in Thai and English, and thereafter the drive was a breeze
   I followed the unpaved road lined with big eucalyptus trees until we reached the park gate and then stopped to pay the entrance fee and make enquiries. The park seemed a perfect place for exercise and recreation. It had an asphalt-jogging track three meters wide and five kilometers long plus a cycling track for mountain bikers to pedal up and down hill. We were told it was the Thailand’s longest mountain biking track.

  The admission fee is 10 baht for adults and 5 baht for children. There is no public transport to the lake so a charter or hire transport service is the best way to get there if you are not driving down on your own.
  Driving into the park I was amazed by the size of the reservoir; it was much larger than I had expected. The layout was very impressive. You could swim in the lake, rent pedal boats and canoes, fish, eat and relax in extremely pleasant settings.
   We drove along the curved route around the hill from the entrance to the viewpoint on the western side of the lake close to Doi Suthep mountain ridge. From this vantage-point the landscape looked absolutely superb; you get a panoramic view of the lake surrounded by rolling mountains.
  A boy invited me to sit in a bamboo raft with thatched roof moored to the lake. To me it seemed more like a floating hut, square-shaped and 4x4 in size linked to the land via a makeshift bamboo bridge. There were several of them. I noticed, and most of them were occupied as park visitors sat in them enjoying their meals.
  There is a 10-baht cover charge per visitor if you want to sit in the floating huts. The huts serve food and drinks. You can also bring in your own meals but you still have to pay the cover charge.
  The smell of roasted chicken and fish being baked in a nearby kitchen made me feel all more hungry as I sat down and sampled the menu. I scanned down the page and saw more than 50 items on the list, most of them fish-based.

I spoke to an elderly woman, aunt Thong Kham, one of the early pioneers of her trade at the lake site. “Over ten years ago. Huay Tueng Thao looked like any rural village on army land. There were a lot of towering trees surrounding the lake, while the mountains formed a majestic background. Shortly afterward the park gradually became popular as a fishing and relaxing spot among military officers and their families based in the area”.
  “But tourists, most of whom are Thai, usually come on weekends. Occasionally, a tour company brings in foreign tourists and they stopover briefly at the lake for lunch. They eat in the floating huts and like it very much,” she told me.
  Most of the restaurants operating by the lake are run by local villagers under the supervision of the 33^rd Military Circle.
   It was afternoon and the sun shone brightly. Its reflection over the vast expanse of water enhanced the beauty of Huay Tueng Tao. A group of tourists carry windsurfing boards passed our raft and we exchanged greetings. The early winter breeze was very soothing to the senses and we took our time to do justice to the meal in the traditional carefree Thai style.
  Huay Tueng Thao is more than just a beautiful location; it’s strategically placed to feed the needs of the military and indigenous people of the countryside whose main occupation even today is farming.
  After meal I went out for a short walk along the track that leads to an earthen dam where park visitors converge for fishing. I saw several people armed with simple rods and pails sitting patiently under their umbrellas waiting for fish to take the bait.
   “I am not really here to catch a fish but I feel relaxed every time I hold a fishing rod and look into the water. Sometimes I’m lucky. I get a small fish at the end of a day’s wait,” said one of them.
  With the setting sun hung over the horizon it’s the best time to bask in the peacefulness of the lake, the surrounding landscape and recharge our batteries for the next week. I saw the simple lifestyle of the local people as families huddled in small groups under trees to prepare supper.
  Very soon the park management plans to set aside a camping site complete with parking area and related facilities so that adventure travellers seeking more action can pitch tents and spend the night there in truly natural surroundings.
  Footnote: Huay Tueng Thao translates into a brook with old plants. Huay means brook, Tueng is the name of the plant that grows by the brook, and Thao in the northern dialect means old.