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Published: February 21st 2007
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I'd been advised by several people to check out Mae Hong Son, as its mountainous countryside had turned it into a less crowded trekking option than Chiang Mai. Though I'd already decided that Nan would be my trekking site, I figured Mae Hong Son would be worth a visit regardless. It's certainly a tortuous place to access - the 300km trip via Mae Seriang was accomplished in 8 hours, with the return journey via Pai in a positively zippy 5. This snail-like pace was due to the serpentine road, rising and falling in steep curves as it wound its way up into the mountains.
At the designated lunch stopping spot on the way there, I was patting myself on the back at having ordered a chicken dish entirely in Thai, only to find it was actually chicken liver. Using similarly misplaced faith in my skills, I checked in to a guesthouse I was sure had been recommended in the RG, only to find the name was actually slight different and I was probably the first foreigner in years to patronise this place.
Mae Hong Son reminded me a little of Pushkar, with the lake being the focus of the
town and assorted accommodation, eating, and shopping options dotting the perimeter. It's not overrun with foreigners, as evidenced by the minority of white faces on the streets as well as the reactions of some of the local people on seeing me, e.g. as I was walking to the bus station on my last morning, an old guy on a moped saw me, his face split into a broad grin, and he literally punched the air while wishing me good morning in Thai, as though he'd just seen his favourite sportsman.
I've ridden, and fallen off, many bikes in my time, but motorised 2-wheeled transport has somehow never been on my list of experiences. Mae Hong Son, with its scenic views, general lack of traffic, and insured moped rental available at $8 per day, looked like a good place to break my duck so I splashed out on an automatic moped.
I was hooked immediately. You are part of the landscape and can experience all the sights, sounds and smells that you'd get if cycling, but have the opporutnity to cover ground much faster as though in a car. All the time you have the wind in your face
like a less extreme version of skydiving, and you can avoid all the traffic hindrances that a car is prey to. When I settle down, I will definitely be buying a moped or maybe something a bit more powerful, say a Ducati. The only downer was that being out in the sun all day, with the attendant wind burn, gave me a lobster-coloured nose. Yes, even after a year of travelling in hot and sunny countries, my nose is incapable of turning brown like the rest of me.
That aside, the scenery was fairly impressive, with the forested mountains providing a backdrop to rice paddies, farmworkers' huts, and other scenes of rural life. Specifically, I visited the waterfall at Pha Sua, which was nothing special but perhaps would have been during the rainy season, and Thampla, aka Fish Cave, containing a large number of crap (sic) fish, as per the unfortunate typo on the sign.
In Mae Hong Son itself, I visited Wat Phra That Doi Kong Moo, which offered panoramic views over the whole town, and a couple of temples beside the lake which paled by comparison with others I've seen elsewhere. However one of the lakeside
restaurants had a live band whose main English song was "Yesterday Once More", much to my delight.
I've noticed here that years are often quoted as BE (i.e. Buddhist Era) rather than AD, leading to dates that are 543 years further along than I'm used to. Though slightly disconcerting, this adds further to the exoticism of the country.
On leaving Mae Hong Son, I overnighted in Chiang Mai before continuing east to Nan.
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