After the busy Chiang Mai, it was time to take things a bit slower, so we headed further north. Mae Hong Son is in the northwest of Thailand on the border with Myanmar. It is close to national parks, "genuine" tribal villages and amazing scenery. There are t-shirts in Mae Hong Son that read "Mae Hong Son 1864 curves from Chiang Mai" This means there are 1864 bends on the road and we felt every one of them during the 6 hour minivan journey. The destination and the scenery along the way were well worth the nausea. We had made a reservation in a place out of town, it backed on to rice fields and had stunning views of the hills beyond. It was, however, extremely run down and dirty and also a 30 minute walk into town. The walk into town involved racing past packs of aggressive barking dogs too - not fun. We searched out a restaurant in town which was top on tripadvisor. Saween River view restaurant was great, tasty, cheap Thai food and a chance to swap stories and tips with other travellers. This town was mainly frequented by people in their 50s and 60s. We met a lovely couple, Sherry and Steve who were out travelling with their son Elias. They gave us a tip off that a nearby guesthouse was the same price as ours but was in a prime central location and it even had a pool. We switched the next day. Piya guesthouse (700 Baht, £14) per night is located on the edge of the lake in the centre of Mae Hong Son; it is next door to an extensive Buddhist temple and there is also a night street food market outside every evening. This little town is a gem, it is surrounded by hills and very quiet. The main places of interest are a good drive outside of town, so we hired a scooter for a few days. Our first day out was to Ban Rak Thai, a Chinese tea village, known for its Feng Shui layout and design. It was also set on a lake and so a must from a photography point. Ban Rak Thai was 44km north of Mae Hong son. We had to negotiate a good few of the 1864 curves on the way out there so we needed the 125CC scooter to get up the hills. It was a tiring ride, we had to stop regularly as we were a bit saddle sore. Thankfully with waterfalls, viewpoints and a lovely coffee shop on the way it wasn't too bad. Ban Rak Thai is a bit commercialised but being early in the week it wasn't too busy - peak season and at the weekend there will often be tens of vans and coaches full of tourists stopping there. The town is set in the tea plantation hills. Houses, tea shops and guesthouses are dotted around the lake - very beautiful. Each of the tea shops has a round doorway and is decorated with red lanterns. We had a stroll around the village and had a slightly overpriced lunch at one of the restaurants. We then did a bit of exploring. We headed down a dirt track towards the Myanmar border and after around 800m we came to a razor wire fence and a sign that said Myanmar. There were no guards in the little sentry hut.
We later checked the GPS location from the photos and Google Maps showed us as being in Myanmar at that point.
The next day we got up at 4:50am and headed out to Pang Ung reservoir (a couple of hours from Mae Hong Son) to see the spectacular sunrise. It was pretty cool at that time of the morning. Luckily we were prepared with our North Face jackets. There is a little town on the edge of this tourist trap. It sells coffee and breakfast to the morning tourists. There were about 30 people already there waiting for the sunrise. At sunrise there is a golden mist on the water that rises. Well, that is if it isn't cloudy, which it was on this occasion. The tourists eventually got bored and got back into their minivans and left. We stayed on and had breakfast (coffee, croissant-like buns and chicken satay sticks) before exploring the area. We walked round the lake to watch the black swans swimming and doing little head-nodding dances. We then took the bridge over to the island in the middle of the lake and did an hour long nature trek. It was clear from the path that it wasn't used very often. No views of the surrounding areas, however. We took a leisurely drive back and stopped at the little villages that we had raced past in the dark. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the swimming pool and stuffing our faces at our favourite restaurant. We met a German couple Klaus and Gabby who had taken early retirement and had sold their house in order to travel most of each year. They told us about a viewpoint and coffee stop south of Mae Hong Son at Phabong. Pha Bong was only around 15kms away, but it was a climb on the scooter. The viewpoint was of a weaving gorge between distant hills with a weir at the base. I ordered tea, and was presented with a tiny childsize tea set and Paul ordered a latte and spooned in some ant infested sugar - the view was nice though. Paul investigated Google Maps and saw that there was a road marked through the gorge so we traced back to an earlier part in the main road and followed a path. The path ran alongside a waterway heading for a hydro-electric plant. When we got to the end of the path a couple of kilometres in we realised that the road/valley had previously been flooded and there was now a dam and a weir funneling the water to the power station. Not so exciting an adventure after all. We headed back towards town and were lured by a turn off into the hills. The road was quiet and part way up there was a guard on duty who let us pass. The road was very patchy, some parts had crumbled and only a dirt track was left. We climbed and climbed and the views, albeit partially blocked by the trees, gave us glimpses of distant valleys and plains. Finally after a fairly treacherous and steep drive, we arrived at a viewpoint pagoda. See photos, we could see for miles in every direction. They were probably the best views of our trip. It was a slippy drive back down and the constant hammering of the brakes meant that they overheated and stopped working. Thankfully we were not going fast. We stopped for a short while and luckily they started working again. We survived another adventure! Paul will now fill you in on another adventure....
Always a tricky one - weighing up tourism vs. exploitation. We wanted to visit a Karen (long-neck) tribe as their look is unique and striking, but the Chiang Mai (CM) 'trips' included a visit at 500b (£10) per person! We took a scooter 20km or so outside CM to be confronted with a dozen or so A/C vans and a formal entry hut with tickets.. not our thing, we declined. Mae Hong Son provided us with more authentic tribal village experiences. We researched on google some possible tribe-days and decided on one around 18km from MHS. Scooter hire was 150b a day (£3) for a beat-up honda 50. This was OK, not requiring a 125cc as it was a 'relatively' flat ride along the valley floor adjacent to Pai River flowing down from Myanmar. We set off around 9am after a sumptuous breakfast replete with water, camera and helmets. We took road 108 south until we reached Mae Sakeut turn and took the snappily titled 'O Bo To Mae Song 3062 road'. The views, as ever in N.Thailand were exotic and stunning, although the road was not as flat as we had researched. On occasion we chugged up the hills at 10km or less as our steel-steed struggled on 91 octane gas... The downhills were refreshing, with the biting cool air in the shade taking our breath away. We followed Pai River past Khi River and saw non-one, no vans, no cars, no tourists.. a good sign. Eventually we came across a sign 'kayan' and a very rough single track, which we took, slowly.. It was overgrown with a red, sandstone path well-worm from feet and motorbikes (the local vehicle of choice here). Around 800m down hill we saw Pai River and a couple of motorised long-boats. On the adjacent side of the river was the small Karen (Kayan) village of Huay Pu Keng. A rough sign in pigeon English said 200b entry and 20b boat trip (return). We dismounted and parked our bike in the makeshift local sheds and approached the river bank. The boatman, parked up on the opposite bank, fired up and slowly manoeuvred across the shallow, but fast-moving Burmese river towards us. We slipped into the long, narrow boat and he deftly got us across without incident and dry! We climbed the steep, dusty embankment to be greeted by a mother and daughter, daughter (maybe 6 or 7)wearing the Karen neck rings. She happily posed for my photos (using a D300 with 35mm F1.8 lens) and we thanked them and moved on. It was obvoiusly a working Karen village with several women weaving traditional cloths, people washing, living, but interspersed with 'tourist tat' or mementos if you wish... We declined the offers but picked up a few postcards from various vendors, or as we often say 'spreading the love'. At the hill top was the village school (mixed ages) all in wood. All the houses were the same, wooden, not concrete with leaf rooves. I got several amazing once-in -a-lifetime photos and in the 30 degree heat we took a seat in a 'coffee shop' (see the photo!) It was full of school children having lunch of noodles, chicken curry (from a huge pot) The kids then added chili, vinegar, sugar etc.. to taste. The smell was divine and we watched in awe as these kids - some only 4 or so devoured their feast! Their school teacher sat opposite us and supervised. We waited patiently until the Karen women were done, then ordered coffee. It was a flask of hot water and make-your-own, which we did. We just sat and relaxed as the only travelers here. Other Karen women joined us and took lunch from the pot. They laughed, chatted and ate. It was a lovely break and very natural. Done, we wandered slowly down to our waiting boatman, paid our dues and shimmied across the fast-flowing Pai. As we headed up the dusty single track we felt vindicated in our choice of Village but as ever you never know the impact of your actions and choices no matter how hard you research and discount. Human nature is the big unknown. Maybe in 10 years we will know, maybe never?