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Published: December 8th 2009
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Pai & Mae Hong Son
From the bustling city of Chang Mai, we headed up into the far north-western hills to a small town called Pai, famed for its relaxed atmosphere and live music scene. Arriving in the afternoon the place was still nice and cool thanks to its location up in the hills and a short walk along the street revealed that the town was well set up for tourists, being filled with bars, restaurants and cheap motorbike rentals. We found a small resort down next to the riverside which had several bamboo huts set amongst a tropical garden, filled with exotic plants and hammocks to lounge in.
The small main street becomes pedestrianised in the evening and is filled with market stalls and food carts serving delicious pad-thai noodles, amongst other things. There were mosquitoes around but not as many as youd expect given how rural the surrounding is so we could lounge safely in the hammocks that evening, listening to the sounds of the crickets in the night.
The following morning we picked up a motorbike and headed for the Tha Pai hot springs in the national park 11km to the south. The entry fee
for foreigners was a bit steep at 200baht, but inside was a well kept park with a network of hots springs emerging from the earth at 80 degrees Celsius. To our amazement, local women had bags of eggs on the end of sticks and were cooking them in the hot sulphury water of the springs. As the hot water ran down from the springs, it mixed with cooler water and was a fantastic bathing temperature at the pools lower down, so we spent several hours just laying in the water amongst the banana trees. The only thing missing from the picture were some cocktails with little umbrellas! In the afternoon we drove to a big waterfall and were amused to find a group of thai hippies sitting at the top playing guitars and bongo drums.
We got an early night ready for our big road trip the next day. We took the motorbike 45km north to a small town called Soppong, and a further 8km north to Lod Caves. The route was challenging going up steep roads with sharp corners to a fantastic viewpoint over the hills and valleys followed by a similar route down towards Soppong. Lonley Planet
describes the place as a bustling traveller spot but it was yet again lying to us as the place was small, with little to see. Further on at Lod Caves we teamed up with an older couple from Torquay to share a bamboo raft along the river running through the caves for a tour. We got into the boat and with our guide & lantern, descended into the huge dark cavern. It was a great ride, not dissimilar to being at Disneyland with the exception of being totally pitch black and having lots of places to bang your head or fall over. Stopping the raft twice, we got off and explored the huge caverns and impressive geological formations. On top of the natural wonders, there were also the remains of some coffins and some cave paintings from ancient tribes, although one of the most impressive things was being in the boat surrounded but dozens of huge carp that swam around, jumping and splashing as we threw in small pellets of fish food. The whole tour took a couple of hours and was really good.
After the long journey back, that evening we headed to one of the bars with
live music for some cans of Chang beer and some pretty decent blues covers. We got up early the next morning and caught the local bus further into the wilds to Mae Hong Son, one of the most north westerly towns in Thailand and not far from the border into Burma. The bus was stopped a few times at army checkpoints in order to make sure that there were no Burmese refuges on board.
Mae Hong Son was a quite place, bigger than Pai but much less touristy. We found a hotel next to the lake which for the first time since India, had a wifi connection for us to catch up on emails and life back home. The only disappointing thing was that the lake, which we had chosen to stay by for scenic virtue, was being drained and cleaned - not a pretty as we anticipated!
We decided to spent one full day here before headed eastward again for our long trip to the Laos border. First of all we climbed up a hill to a Buddhist temple for some fantastic views of the hills and the small town sitting down in the Valley. Following this,
we got a motorbike and headed to a small Karen hill tribe village further towards the border of Burma with the promise of meeting the so called long necked woman who wear a number of gold rings around their necks, resulting in, you guessed it, very long necks. Rather than extending the necks, these heavy rings actually have the effect of pushing the collar bone down and can be removed without the risk of injury as their necks could no longer support their heads (supposedly). The drive through the tropical forest was beautiful, going through fords and passing working elephants. Once reaching the village, you e obliged to pay a hefty 250baht donation to support the villagers with medical care etc. They were all nice people and were more than happy to pose for photographs but it all felt a bit awkward as each had a stall selling souvenirs, so we didn stay long.
We then took the bike and headed in completely the opposite direction to another attraction known as fish caves. It was much further away than the map had actually indicated but the drive was fun so we didn mind. The attraction itself was in an
immaculately kept park and was effectively a river with hundreds of huge carp that would crowd around an underwater entrance into a cave and swim against the current into the cave under the mountain. Dozens went in but only a few came out that lost the battle in the strong current. It was really weird and almost spooky to watch. Why they go in and where they go is just one of lifes anomalous mysteries :-)
Back along the road in Mae Hong Son, we had some fantastic green curry from one of the street stalls and then sat on the hotel balcony watching the monetary on the hill lit up in the night, looking like a UFO. People were up there setting of those miniature Chinese hot air balloons, which are sealed cylindrical paper kites with a candles inside, heating the air and propelling them high into the night. We watched dozens of them shoot upward, amazed at how high they were reaching in the still air of the night before the light became too faint to see. We think that this was being done in the run up to the kings birthday which was to be the
following day, and coincidently, the same day as Staceys.
The next morning we got up and headed for a celebratory breakfast at a local cafe, bags in tow, to begin what we hoped would be a day of little surprises and treats for Staceys birthday. Our plan was to travel back to Pai for the early afternoon to relax and spend the evening having a nice meal and a couple of drinks. Our plan, however, only succeeded as far as Pai...
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valda blewitt
non-member comment
hi
you realise of course that you won want to come home after all this travel and end up as beach bums. Still very envious of you both especially how slim stacey is looking, and you warren must need a belt to keep your trousers up as have lost your bellie. Im still working on mine. Keep up the good work. And your not getting a motorbike when you return home. Love Mum. AND A VERY VERY VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO STACEY