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Hello all,
During our time in Northern Thailand (before Songcran) we decided to rent a car for 4 days and go on a 700Km road trip. So we headed off with our guide book, a car full of goodies and a rough route planned.
Our first stop was a small town named Pai. This was a 4 hour journey with a few sightseeing stops on the way. The weather was good, the roads were empty and we saw a few funny travellers on route. We took our time taking in the lovely scenerary stopping along the way which was the main reason we hired a car rather than taking the bus as you often miss some of the best bits when travelling by bus. Once we got to the mountains we couldnt believe how winding the roads became. Our first stop, 2 hours in, was a National park, where we went for a wander complete with our hiking trainers. We discovered a natural hot water geyser which was impressive. The park was beautiful, we walked for about an hour and came across what was meant to be the hot springs which ended up being a bit of a grubby
swimming pool, needless to say we gave that a miss 😊. After leaving we saw a monk in the middle of knowhere hitchhiking, so we pulled over and gave him a lift. We spoke as much Thai as he did English, so it made for an interesting 45 minutes ;0). After that time he signaled to pull over and before he got out he gave us two little Buddhist charms and we gave him a small donation ourselves. Sarah managed to get a photo too!;0)
We headed on and eventually got to Pai which is a little town, beautifull and laid back, a great way to relax. We found somewhere to stay which had parking and so we took what we needed out of the boot instead of lugging our heavy bags!! A massive perk of driving!! We headed out for the evening, ate from food stalls and went to a couple of bars. We had an early start the following day so it was early to bed.
We contiuned further North to visit the Karen Long Neck Hill Tribe. We had mixed feelings about visiting these people as we understood they were forced to leave Burma due
to the wearing of the rings around the neck being 'barbaric'. We decided to head anyhow to check it out for ourselves and a tourist information guide said to perhaps take something for the children, mainly sweets... Along the route we saw lots of anti crop burning posters, its message trying to encourage farmers to stop clearing areas in such a way. There was plenty of it still going on, particularly in the areas we visited in Laos.
So we arrvied at the 'authentic Karen Long Neck Tribe Village', paid our 500 Baht each (ten pounds each-which is a lot in Thailand, our rooms cost that much!). We walked down a market lane, 10 or so stalls all selling the same touristy crap, nothing unique to the tribe and far from being a village! What still makes us laugh, is that there were signs on the main road, for this 'authentic tribe.' After speaking with one of the long necked ladies (there were about 5 in total) she said that it was something of beauty almost like a fashion accessory and not something which is forced. The whole thing was a joke really, all geared up for the tourists
visting, "Would you like a picture?, Here, try on the rings!'' Snap, snap, snap, for a donation of course... They're weren't many children so we asked the same lady we spoke with earlier if she had any children, she had three, so we gave her the bags of sweets, and to top it off, when we walked back on our way out, they were for sale on her stall. Priceless... Haha... We we're both relaly cynical about it after and wished we hadn't gone, I very much doubt whether the wearing of rings would continue if tourists stopped going.
As we left the village we drove past a man in desperate need of a push out of a stream (his car, not himself), we stopped, we helped, so it wasn't a wasted detour afterall.
We then headed on to Mae Hong Son and on the way stopped at Than Lot, a large limestone cave with impressive stalagmites and ‘coffin caves’ and a wide stream running through it. This was noted in our guide book as something which you could pay for a guide to show you through the caves. However, when we got there the place was really
run down and deserted, with no guide to give you any infomation or show you where to go. We walked through the bushes and followed what used to be the path and roped steps leading up to the caves. We thought that it had perhaps been damaged by previous floods... Nethertheless, it was worth stopping and seeing the coffins, eerrie to say the least.
Back on the road, we saw a man with a dog on the back of his motor bike, quite happily taking in the scenery as his owner sped along. Not the last time we saw dogs on motorbikes...
We arrived in Mae Hong Son, eventually found a decent place to stay. We went exploring, visting a lake, several pagodas, and were luckily enough to see a festival celebrating children becoming novice monks. The children were dressed up and put on their fathers shoulders whilst dancing to local music. It was all night affair, with plenty of food on offer. It was great to experience something so personal and away from the tourist trail.
The following morning, we headed on to our last stop which was Mae Sariang. This was quite a big journey
so we stopped half way at Khun Yuam for some food and a break. This was only worthy of a food stop as it was so quite with only a handfull of locals to match the shops! We arrived in Mae Sariang at 6pm and this too was quite small and not very impressive. We found it really difficult to get cheap accomadation and after looking at a local map decided it wasnt really worth staying the night as there wasnt a lot to see in regards to sightseeing. So we got a large coffee, ate some more yummy Pad Thai and decided to head on a very long winding road back to Chiang Mai. We saw a really nice Pagoda on route and decided to stop and take photos. There was a group of Novice monks wandering around as we were snapping away and they came over and start talking to us. We assumed they were practicing their English so we stood and chatted for a while and gave them the remainder of our sweetie stash. They had a turn each at taking photos with our camera and after half an hour we said our goodbyes and drove on.
6 hours later we were back in Chiang Mai tired and in well need of a late beer and bed!
Hope you enjoy and are well.
xxx
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Susan chapman
non-member comment
Looking Good!!
Hi guys, Everything looks amazing, very interesting places and people! Yous both look well and very chilled!! Yous are now starting to look like your at home!! ha Make the most of it all and take care. Love Sue xxxxxxxxxxxxxx