Mae Hong Son (2 nights)

People i met here who contributed to, and improved my trip: Julia (Russia)

This morning we were up quit early and desided to go back to Chiang Mai by plane. After packing our bags and picking up the laundry we went to the airport of Mae Hong Son. It's quit a big airport for such a small town. We bought two tickets at the desk of Thai Air. After 2 hours waiting the plane arrived and we could come on board. Were sitting in the front of the plane. Next to me there is an Italien girl who is I presume afraid of flying. From the moment the engine starts untill the moment the plane arrived, she was making sounds like a pig. What a fruitcake. 

The flight itself went well and after 50 minutes we were already in Chiang Mai.

This morning we were picked up at 8.30 by our tour guide. We (the 4 of us) toke place in the pickup car and drove out of Mae Hong Son into the beautifull countryside of northern Thailand. We drove for 20 minutes wenn we did our first stop to see some remains of the railway that was build just after WWII by locals for illigal Opium transport between Burma and Thailand.

We went further to the longneck village near the border with Burma. Next to the village was a asylum seeker camp for people from Burma and china. There seems to be over 60.000 people who live in that camp in huts and cann't get into Thailand. We were not allowed to take any photo's of it and soldiers at the gate were watching us as we walked by. I think it's a strange idea, that those people were escaped for their own savety or political ideas and now living in a camp that has the resemble of a military war camp. And there I was, the tourist from the netherlands, a land they never heard of, taking photo's of everything that I see and buying tourists stuff from the longnecks, that I never use at home. I don't feel comfortable about this place. The village of the longnecks is really a touristic thing, with stalls were you can buy all kinds off longneck stuff made in china. Okay I made some photo's of it because I have seen them, but this is such a commercial place. They are the thai who can speak different languages fauthless. It is low season, so half off the woman are working in the cities of having their day off. They nomaly wear the same clothes as us, I have seen it now. And as they saw us they vanies into their houses, becauce it's bad for bussines to see them like that. It's so double here and we just all want to leave this place. Our guide told us that she is feeling the same thing about this, but tourists are coming to this area to see longnecks. Then she smiled.

We drive away from the longnecks and go to one of the big waterfalls in the area. It's the Pha Seau Waterfall.  On the way to the waterfall we made different stops to see the scenery. It's so nice here. Our guide told us all kind off things about survivaling here in the wild. How you can make shelthers with bamboo and palm leaves, to how you can make a packet for rice and how you can cook and eat it. Great!! Just love to hear this kind of things. She also told us about her own village. She is also from the Karen tribe. Her arms are full with tattoo's who all are family and village symbols.

The waterfall was nice. You cann't swim in it, because the current is to dangarous and there are many rocks under the surface. But it's refreshing to feel the coolness of the water. Again she tells us all kind off things about the flora and fauna what is to see near the waterfall. Even small kinds of orchid's who are growing there in the wild. After a long stay near the waterfall, we went back to the car. She drove us to a very small town, where her friend lives and has a small restaurant. We went there for lunch. Our guide was tegether with her friend preparing our lunch. It tasted wunderfull. We even got some sticky rice with it. Yummie!! 

After the great lunch we went further to the Fishcave. What can I write about that. Yes, again some commercial tourists attraction. Not my thing. Bus loads of tourists come here to feed the carp fish who are trying to swim in to the cave. For the thai it's a holy place, even with some buddha statue's, but I've seen enough. The 2 canadians girls seems to enjoy the fish feeding, so we waited for them before we got back to Mae Hong Son.

Arround 4.30 in the afternoon we got back at the guesthouse. We talked a bit more with our guide and the owner of the guesthouse about the area. I personaly think, this is the most beautifull area of Thailand. The scenery is magnificent. The owner of the guesthouse thinks about it the same way. That's why he stayed in Mae Hong Son and didn't went back to England.  After a e-mail update towards home, we went into town. We had a nice foot massage. We bought some cookies and snacks and went back to the guesthouse. We thinking about leaving tomorrow, back to Chiang Mai.

Gisteravond hadden we besloten om toch maar heel vroeg de wekker te zetten om naar de Doi Kong Mu heuvel te gaan. We hadden gehoord en gelezen dat het uitzicht hier ’s ochtends vroeg bij zonsopgang over de mistige vallei onvergetelijk schijnt te zijn. Omdat we hier toch wel erg nieuwsgierig naar waren gingen we dus vroeg (veeeels te vroeg), om half 6 in het pikkedonker op pad. En koud dat het was… brrr.. we waren even vergeten dat we in de bergen zitten en de temperatuur hier een stuk lager ligt ‘s nachts. Gelukkig kregen we het al snel warm want het was een behoorlijke klim (goed voor de kuiten, hahaha)! Maar eenmaal boven….. we werden inderdaad beloond met een geweldig uitzicht! Zooo mooi! Een geweldig uitzicht over een groene mistige vallei met de opkomende zon achter de bergen! En die geluiden! Door de hele stad hoorde je alleen maar hanen kraaien en tropische vogels fluiten. Zo apart! Op wat monniken na, waren we helemaal alleen… echt geweldig!

Na veel (te veel) foto’s gemaakt te hebben zijn we weer teruggelopen naar ons hotel. Hier lekker gedoucht en genoten van een lekker uitgebreid ontbijt. Om 9 uur ’s ochtends werden we door onze chauffeur naar de Pai rivier gebracht waar we op een longtailboot werden gezet.

Na ongeveer 30 minuten varen door de prachtige natuur kwamen we aan • echt in the middle of nowhere-  bij een dorpje van de langnekstammen. Hier leven ‘paduang’vrouwen die tientallen (zware!) koperen ringen om hun nek dragen waardoor het lijkt alsof ze een hele lange uitgerekte nek hebben. In werkelijkheid word hun borstbeen naar beneden gedrukt door de zwaarte van de ringen. Sommige vrouwen van de stam hadden ook koperen ringen om hun kuiten en grote oorbellen waardoor hun oorlel helemaal uitgerekt was.

Heel bijzonder was om te zien hoe ze daar wonen, zo primitief in houten hutjes en (bijna) alles zelf gemaakt. De was doen ze in een teil met de hand (op zo’n ouderwets wasbordje),  koken doen ze buiten op een vuurtje en ze bouwen zelf hun hutjes. Ook douchen ze buiten in een teil met (regen)water.

We hadden overigens verwacht dat hier hordes toeristen zouden rondlopen, maar wij waren de enigen. Ik vond het erg bijzonder om te zien, maar soms voelden we ons er wel wat ongemakkelijk bij, alsof we apen in een dierentuin aan het bekijken waren. Ook als je je bedenkt dat deze rare stam eigenlijk allang al uitgestorven was, maar speciaal voor de toeristen weer een nieuw leven ingeblazen kreeg.

Na ongeveer een uur in het dorpje te hebben rondgewandeld zijn we weer teruggevaren en heeft onze chauffeur ons afgezet bij de Wat Doi Kong Mu. Nou dat is toevallig, haha hier waren we vanmorgen ook! Ik kan je zeggen dat het uitzicht ’s morgens echt 1000 keer mooier is dan overdag! Hierna hebben we ook kort de tempels Wat Kham Khor, en de Wat Hua Wiang bezocht. Deze waren wel mooi maar eerlijk gezegd hebben we nu wel genoeg tempels gezien! Hierna lekker geluncht en gerelaxt bij ons zwembad. ’S Avonds zijn we weer even het centrum van Mae Hong Son ingeweest. Geïnternet  en over een marktje gelopen. Weer lekker gegeten in hetzelfde restaurantje als gister. Thais eten is echt zooo lekker! Tom Yum Gung soep is echt m’n favoriet (zuur-pittige garnalen soep) en José is verslaafd aan Gai pud med mamuang himapaan (gegrilde kip met cashewnoten in oestersaus). Vandaag had ik vis met lemongrass sauce besteld. Kreeg ik n hele vis voor m’n neus! Compleet met oogjes er nog in. Haha, heb de oogjes maar even bedekt met een schijfje citroen. Gelukkig serveerden ze de saus er apart bij, want deze was echt heeeel pittig! Maar wel erg lekker! Je moet trouwens goed opletten wat je in je mond stopt tijdens het eten want ze gooien overal hele pepertjes doorheen. Haha, het is mij dus een paar keer overkomen en dat is geen prettig gevoel. Gelukkig was er genoeg singha bier binnen handbereik om af te koelen.

We werden om 8.45 uur opgehaald en naar Chiang Mai Airport gebracht. Hiervandaan met een lief minivliegtuigje van Thai Airlines naar Mae Hong Son gevlogen. Een korte vlucht van nog geen half uur en we kregen aan boord zelfs iets te eten en te drinken (wat ’n service)!

Daar aangekomen stond onze volgende chauffeur ons al op te wachten. Gelijk doorgereden naar ons hotel ‘Rooks resort’. Supermooi hotel met lekker groot en mooi aangelegd zwembad. De hotels worden steeds luxer lijkt wel, dit hotel is echt heel mooi! De hele middag lekker geluierd, gezwommen, gelezen, geslapen en ’n beetje bijgebruind.

Tegen de avond het stadje van Mae Hong Son verkent. Ook weer heel veel tempels, maar wel anders dan die we tot nu toe gezien hebben. Deze zijn meer van Birmaanse stijl met veel teakhout en de boeddha’s zijn niet goudkleurig maar wit.

Rondom een meertje (waar vroeger de olifanten baden) een gezellig marktje. Hierna romantisch wezen eten in een restaurantje wat helemaal versierd was met valentijnsharten. Ook was er een gitaarspeler en ’n zangeres die allemaal lovesongs speelden. Was leuk!

It's Prince Guesthouse. It's owned by an englishman who lives in Thailand for some years now. The teak wooden house is big, nice and clean. The rooms are fine, with privat toilet and shower, a wardrobe and television. For 400 baht per room you also can use internet for free.  We got a nice room at the first floor with a view over the lake, straight towards the temple Wat Jong Kham.after we put our things away, we went for a walk around the lake.

The lake was used as a bathing place in the the old days for the elephants. Now it's just nice to see it in the early morning when it's foggy. The temple is build around 1827 by ThaiYai (Shan) people, who make up about the half of the population of Mae Hong Son providence. The temple is made up in burmese style. In the temple is a 5 metres high sitting buddha.

The area is really nice and the town is small and peacefull. We did some grocery's in the local supermarket. After that, we're having dinner in one of the restaurants. It was okay, but not the most delicate dinner we had so far. We went back to the guesthouse where we desided to do a trip the next day. A tour guide showed us some things and we were allowed to choose what we wanted, because it's the low season and she didn't have much costumers. So, we said that we wanted to see the surroundings and the Longnecks. The rest was fine by us, aslong we didn't had to go to some handycrafts shops or stuff like that.  To canadian girls who also stayed in the guesthouse wanted to join us on the trip. So, we arranged everything for the next day and then we went to bed.

I remember discussing my forthcoming trip with some of my internet buddies on the Lonely Planet forum. They're a well-travelled lot on there, as you might expect; most of them (it seemed to me at the time) could zip round south-east Asia three times before breakfast. I remember one of them reckoned he could 'do' my route in three weeks; what on earth would I be doing with my time? "Do it slower," I said.

This is how slowly I travelled in south-east Asia. Day one: arrived on a bus that took me across beautiful forested mountains. Spent the journey reading Dracula, of all things. Mae Hong Son was a peaceful little town with a lake as its centrepiece, and I got a room with a mattress on the floor in a guesthouse by the lake, on my first attempt. Strolled around the night market, had a couple of beers, had a pizza. Went to a bar that the LP reckoned was a good place to drink and socialise after ten o'clock; there were five people at the bar, and four around a table twenty yards away. Stood at the bar, watched Tottenham play Pompey and talked to a guy from the south of England. The most cultural thing I did all evening was have ice in my Beer Chang.

Day two. Got up late, went online, had lunch overlooking the lake, talked to the southerner from yesterday. He told me he'd just been out to the airport to see about flights to Chiang Mai, that it was interesting and that I should do it. So I walked out to the airport, a tiny little place about the size of Digbeth coach station. He was right, it was interesting. Sat on the grass outside, watched a plane come in. Spent the evening at the same bar as yesterday.

Day three, got up early. The LP recommends a trip up the hill to the wat overlooking the town. A hot and sweaty climb got me to the top from which I watched the Mae Hong Son emerge from the morning fog. Back in town, the southerner - I never did get his name - informed me that I'd gone up the boring way. Took the road, should have taken the steps. So, after asking about a trek at a couple of LP-recomended agencies - nothing doing - I went back up the hill, taking the steps this time. Watched a plane come into the airport from a viewpoint half-way up. I'm a sucker for watching planes. Spent the evening in the same bar as the last two nights.

Day four, move on.

I had made one previous trip to this province to visit the town Pai.  This is a cliche hippie town with tons of ex-pats who never went home, and countless backpackers with dreadlocks in need of a shower.  That being said Pai is a fun place and pretty affordable.  I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the outdoors, there are tons of waterfalls, hot springs, etc. all in a relatively close proximity.  Very easy to get to on a bike.

But this trip I went with my fiance and her mother to the provincial city for a couple days of trekking and relaxation.  The city itself is rather small with a pleasant ambiance.  There aren't too many foreigners as most opt for the city of Pai, but it's got a nice lake with a nightly market.  This is a great place to make day trips from, which is exactly what we did.  The first day we went up to the very north of the province and visited what they considered a "real chinese" town.  Along the way we stopped at a hill tribe town where they have been making their own coffee in efforts to export it throughout Thailand.  I was excited about their project but after tasting their coffee realized that they have lots of work to do before they can make any money from it.  Then we stopped off to view Ban Ruam Thai.  This is a small place that is a project of the Queen's.  She has been putting money into this area to clean up and turn into a tourist area with guesthouses.  The scenery is beautiful, as is the man made lake. The A-frame guesthouses were ok, but nothing too exciting.  It's a great project though, and I think within a couple years tourists will find their way there.  Then for lunch we made it to the authentic chinese village.  For lunch we of course hit the only chinese restaurant.  We ordered our food and relaxed, but after a while began wondering where our driver had taken off to.  My fiance searched the back room to find that the "Thai" drivers leading each group were off in the back cooking our meals :)  So I guess it was Chinese food Thai style.  The food was nice though and afterwards we hiked through some more hill tribe villages before heading back. 

The next day we took another day trip out to visit some waterfalls and coffin caves.  On the way out we stopped at the Pha Sua Waterfall which was absolutely gorgeous.  There are another 3-4 levels you can hike to if you have the time.  I made it to the second level and thought it was great.  I wish we had more time to spend here, but we soon left to the "Tham Bla"  (fish cave).  This place was a very well kept park that attracts copious amounts of Thai people coming to see the blue cave fish.  Well they aren't actually cave fish, they just like to swim in and out of a cave, but it's still pretty neat.  They are this creepy color of blue and some of them have no eyes.  But since all they do is swim into the cave and get fed by humans I suppose their eyes aren't a necessity. 

The next two days were spent white water rafting down the Pai river which was a lot of fun.  Our guide was great and we were with a nice group from London.  The overnight trip included a nice dinner and campfire which was swell.  Not so pleasant was the drunken singing until about 3:30am, most of which had become jibberish around 2am. It was alright though, and thanks to a light night of drinking we were in the best shape come morning :)  The second day was great and we had some nice cliff jumping opportunities as well as some surprisingly big rapids. 

After returning from rafting we spent the final day going to see the coffin caves and the cave Tham Lod.  They were both amazing.  The cave was great and luckily we spoke thai because the tours were all done completely in Thai.  The caves are nothing compared to those of New Mexico, but they were pretty nice nonetheless.  I also learned that "Jon Bin" ("dish fly" is the direct translation) means UFO which I thought was pretty funny. Then afterwards we hit up the coffin caves.  This hike was straight up a path that wasn't very well marked.  But eventually we made it to see the remains of these massive teak coffins.  They were pretty impressive and thank god the inhabitants were long gone.  Overall the day was very fun and productive. 

I would highly recommend Mae Hong Son to any traveller coming through Thailand.  The best way to take in the province is through day trips, but they are worth it.  Thus proving there is more to this province than just the town of Pai. 

9/4/06

Well today is our anniversary, so I figured I would treat Cindy to three hours of sitting in the Soppong bus station, really nothing more than a tree with a bench around it - quite a thrill. The highlight of the morning was taking pictures of a little boy then showing them to him on my camera. The first bus that came was full and it ended up being three hours until the next one - my ass is sore from sitting on a wooden bench that long. Hopefully the trip to Mae Hong Son won’t be too bad.

We had found a place with a good looking website that was recommended by www.travelfish.org - this was their first miss. When we arrived at the Mountain Inn, the girl behind the front desk was much more interested in the game she was playing on her PC than helping us. Someone eventually showed us a grimy, dingy deluxe room and a more expensive superior room (just as bad) - we opted for the cheaper room and figured it was only for one night and headed out for dinner after deciding to sign up for an all day tour tomorrow to see some of the local hill tribes and sights. 

We had dinner at a great little place called the Fern Restaurant that was highly recommended by the locals. Dinner was really tasty grilled pork, a chicken and eggplant red curry dish and a spicy morning glory salad with shrimp and pork (and you probably guessed, several large Singha beers :-D).  After dinner, we wandered around the lake and watched old women doing tai chi and waited for a non-eventful sunset, hoping the lights at the two Wats across the lake would come on (they didn’t).  At one point, a pickup truck of three guys showed up and they had a little tailgate party, munching on big shrimp and drinking whiskey from the back of the truck bed.  Spent the rest of the evening updating the blog and breaking my damn card reader before strolling home for a crappy night’s sleep on a rock hard bed….

9/5/06

Breakfast at the not so lovely Mountain Inn was a sorry excuse for food (abominable in Thailand where usually the food is great) and even the coffee was undrinkable.  We couldn’t wait to leave and then our tour guide showed up.  He was a very funny older guy in Ray Ban aviator glasses and a baseball cap who used to work with the American Army during the Vietnam War (probably spying for the Americans).  He was very nice and knowledgeable if a little bit hard to understand and we spent the day driving around Mae Hong Son and seeing the sights.

The first stop was a Paduang village of Karenni people called Ban Nai Soi. This little village actually had two different tribes, originally from Mongolia but having migrated to Burma around 1000 BC, called the Kayan and the Kayaw (or in local pidgeon English, the Longnecks and the Big Ears - you can see why by the pictures).  We were somewhat worried about the supposed zoo-like atmosphere that can occur at the village with tourists indiscriminately clicking away, but the place was empty (one of the advantages of traveling here in the low season) and we actually got to sit and talk to several of the women.

New!  this should launch in a separate window but if it doesn't hit back after viewing the video

Paduang Woman with Brass Rings

They wear brass rings that appear to stretch their neck (but actually, it weighs down their shoulders, somewhat painfully it appeared from the bruises beneath the rings).  The first ring that ways one kilo is put on when they are five years old, then a second kilo ring is put on at the age of ten, and finally a third at the age of fifteen.  It is quite an art to put them on and can only be done in a distant village.  They also wear brass rings below their knees, some of them going all the way to their ankles, but many just to the top of their calves.  The wearing of rings is entirely voluntary. 

The Kayaw or Big Ear people wear those ever increasing sized earrings to stretch their earlobes out to gigantic proportions and also where lots of coin jewelry.  Looks much better on them than on the young, disaffected kids with the ear stretcher rings we see at home!

The next stop was Tham Pla or the Fish Cave which ended up being a pretty little park with no real cave to speak of, just a stream fed from an underground river where lots and lots of fat carp sit and wait to be fed by the tourists, mostly Thai’s.  We bought a back of weird seeds, fish food and leaves and threw them in the river for good luck, watching these gigantic carp jump to eat everything.

After the non-cave, we were off to the Pha Sua water fall which was pretty nice for a waterfall, with six levels going back into the jungle.  We hiked down towards the base and enjoyed the cool, misty air.  When we got back to the car, our guide told us about a tourist last year who neglected to listen to the man at the entrance and hiked up to the top of the fall and had his girlfriend take his picture, right before he fell over the falls (maybe about 100 feet and rocky).  They found his body three days later downstream - pretty freaky last picture!

Next was a small Hmong village called Ban Na Pa Pack where we were invited into the house of an eleven person family (see the kid’s pictures below).  Let’s just say that the interior of their house won’t be in Architectural digest anytime soon.  One big room made of half rotten old timber, corrugated tin roof, no electricity, not much ventilation and more spider webs and grime then desirable, but they were very nice.  Cindy couldn’t figure out how they managed to have enough privacy to ever even have babies (they had lots…)  Our guide explained how the Thai government has been very favorable to the Hmong in order to get them to stop growing Opium, including granting them land for houses and farming.  They have become very prosperous from this, especially now that the Government has control of the area around Mae Hong Son and built roads, but they choose to spend their money on cars (we saw several nice, expensive trucks) and satellite dishes for television!  Too bizarre…

We wound up a very hilly road to the Kuomintang village of Ban Mae Aw - a very old Chinese village directly across the border from Myanmar (a.k.a. Burma) where we had lunch.  Supposedly, this is where a large portion of the Chinese Kuomintang Army migrated to after Mao took over communist China.  I did manage to shoot some pictures of some frolicking water buffalos, not sure if they knew if they were Thai, Chinese, Hmong or what…

On the way back to Mae Hong Son and the airport for our quick, 25 minute flight back to Chiang Mai (instead of an eight hour bus ride!  Well worth the $30….) we stopped at a “spa” that is supposed to be the first and only natural mud bath in Thailand.  Some French geologist and a Thai businessman “discovered” it and compare it to spas in Israel at the Dead Sea.  Sounds fishy to me and I really couldn’t see sitting in a VERY hot mineral bath when it is almost 100 degrees outside.

The Mountain Inn and Resort in Mae Hong Son, Thailand seems to be targeted at large groups of young travelers who are less discretionary about both accommodations and food than we are.  It was recommended by Travelfish which has done us great in the past but this one was a definite miss.  

The rooms were OK but not particularly clean or nice with rock hard beds.  We were shown a Deluxe and a Superior room, pretty much both the same.  The food at breakfast was abominable with undrinkable coffee, pre-cooked cold eggs and Tang.  We did walk around the pretty courtyard in the morning and there did seem to be some nicer rooms overlooking the garden, maybe we were just unlucky but we wouldn’t go back…