Pai & Mae Hong Son- the far north-

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From Chiang Mai we took a mini van over the mountains (gorgeous scenery) to- what we had been led to believe was- a small village called Pai. In actual fact (and much to my disappointment) Pai turned out to be quite a large and modern town that more resembled a tourist resort (i.e VERY gentrified) and was decidedly un-Thai.

The huge plus side was that we booked into these amazing little bamboo huts accross a river and a little bit outside of town. We had to cross, literally, the most rickety bridge ever made to get there and back and the huts had a lovely view of the mountains on one side and a rice paddy on another. It was really nice to wake up and feel like we were in the middle of nowhere, yet still be able to wander into town for delicious food and drinks!

So anyway, I wasn't very impressed with the town itself so we rented scooters for two days and headed off over the mountains to visit some more rural towns and some local attractions. We checked out a pretty cool cave (although it was nothing compared to the cave that is yet to come!!) and we visited some natural hot springs nearby. The hot springs were very cool. I had never seen anything like those before. At some points the water was over 80*C and we were able to boil eggs and eat them! At other points the pools were cooler and we could get in and have mineral baths. We also checked out a nearby canyon and another couple of waterfalls!

The food was really excellent in Pai and the nightlife wasn't bad either but I was looking forward to moving on to Mae Hong Son.

The journey to Mae Hong Son was a little bit stomach-churning but really beautiful and the town is fabled for feeling like 'the end of the world'. It centers on a lake that has three impressive temples over-looking it and the town sits in a small valley surrounded by huge, jungle clad mountains. Each morning it is shroudd in mist and it really does feel like you're a million miles away from the rest of the country!
Our hotel had a gorgeous view of the lakes and it's temples, which was great because we were there for the King's birthday and there was a really big fireworks display there. There was also a cool night market where you could buy the most authentically Thai food we've come accross so far...so we're talking fish entrails, fried pig's intestines...

The best thing about our time spent in Mae Hong Son was our caving experience. We booked the trip (which cost only E6!) as soon as we arrived and we were not a hundred percent sure what to expect. There was seven of us on the trip and we were all surprised by what greeted us...

The cave is actually a Buddhist shrine dedicated to a man who attained enlightenment there before passing away in the depths of the cave. The entrance has a number of alters and statues and there were monks and nuns present, meditating and maintaining the area. So far so good.

We entered the cave and very quickly realised that this was going to be a little bit more physically demanding than we expecting!! To begin, there was no path or trail to speak of- we were climbing over boulders and crawling through tiny tunnels, through the mud and little streams, from the start. We had really been hoping that it would be 'hardcore' but we hadn't actually thought it would be!

There were snakes inhabiting the cave that are known locally for their venom and for their aggression (our guide told us numerous stories of people accidently stepping on the snakes' tails and, the snakes following them hundreds of yards to bite them!) so we were very respectful towards the three that we encountered! And these were not small snakes, they were a good 6-8ft long a piece. There were also cave spiders that were bigger than my hand in terms of leg span and horrible! We spent nearly 3hrs inside the cave making our way- slowly- to the site where the Buddhist man passed away and at some sections we had to use ropes to climb up and down very steep "cliffs" and accross really narrow ledges. It was like something you would see on tv and I could not believe I was in there, in the pitch black, with bats flying over my head, pulling myself up steep, muddy, stalacmites!!

It was amazing and it was definitely the best thing I've done since leaving Ireland!!

We exited the cave covered in clay, sweating (it's surprisingly warm inside) and picking spiders out of our hair... but amazed.

And all for E6.

We rented scooters again in Mae Hong Son and visited another waterfall (honestly we just keep ending up at them!) and visited a local tribe.

Mae Hong Son is probably my favourite town so far because it just feels so Thai and looks so (stereotypically) oriental. The town and it's markets are frequented by loads of local hill tribes, so even just people-watching is more interesting and entertaining.

Our next stop is back to Chiang Mai where we are going to start looking into heading over to Laos....
....so next stop: maybe Luang Prabang?!?!?.....

(Photos of the cave and those spiders to follow!!!)

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Comments

[anonymous]

oh.my.good.god...spiders n snakes!! there NO WAY id have gon within a mile of that cave!!!