Tham Lod Caves and Mae Hong Son

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Sunday 7 February
Woke a little sluggishly due to last night's beer and wine consumption, and slowly packed luggage for another travel day, new destination, Mae Hong Son. (Yes, we HAVE been through this town before on our way around this loop).However, we had arranged to use our time here in Pang Mapha as effectively as possible, hence, after breakast, we were on our way to visit the Tham Lod caves. We hiked the 9km along a good Tarmac road, through beautiful forests, cultivated terraced fields and arrived at the cave entrance two hours later. Setting off with a guide in long bamboo boats, we passed a very pleasant hour or so viewing the ancient stalactites and stalagmites and the interesting formations which resembled various things such as elephants, parrots, waterfalls and UFOs (or not). The River that runs through the caves was literally teaming with large Carp which appear to be almost blue and you are encouraged to buy fish food to feed them and the even larger Cat fish as you are punted along . Just as we were all caved out, the tour ended and we found ourselves back in glorious daylight, and perfectly timed, along came Toy, to drive us back along the 9kms to our parked and packed car. Time to get on the road and eat up the 60 km+ to our next destination. Alf and Leo shared the driving. Although not a huge distance, nevertheless, great concentration is required on these roads as there are many hairpin bends, and crazy, crazy drivers. There were one or two close calls....... We located our hotel, checked in and while Leo had a quick nap, Paula made some amendments to our itinerary for later in the month. Left our room and strolled around the local lake, viewing the spectacular temples at the water's edge. Many of the statues had apparently been taken as war trophies from Burmah. Leo decided not to go on an evening trek to a hillside temple to watch the Sunset preferring to relax with a beer and complete our blog, Paula stayed too, leaving our intrepid companions Alf and Marilyn to battle their way up there alone, we will meet this evening for dinner.

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