We left the fireworks and laterns of Chiang Mai behind and caught a 30 minute flight to Mae Hong Son, to the north west of Chiang Mai. The journey on the small plane went smoothly, although the landing was a little different. We basically descended though the hills, flying between the peaks, before making a last minute left turn and dropping down into the valley. Landing was a little rough and fast, but apart from that we survived. It was as we were leaving the airport that one of our friends informed us that one of the planes tried to land there a few weeks previously, but the pilot forgot to put the landing gear down and it basically skidded all the way down the run-way…glad I heard that after we had landed.
We had taken the trip to Mae Hong Son, to visit some friends of ours, who used to live with Jeff and have come out to Thailand to work with the Karen hill tribes in Khun Yuam, about an hour’s drive from Mae Hong Son. After flying in we spent the rest of the day wondering around Mae Hong Son, which is a very laid back relaxing place, with breath taking scenery surrounding you. After some lunch and a bit of exploring we were all quite hot and decided that a swim was required. We paid a visit to the fern resort, which is a luxury hotel in the Jungle 15 minutes drive from Mae Hong Son. It has a very nice little pool in the jungle, which you can go and use for about 25 pence. So after a good swim and a few beers we headed back into town for some food and more drinks and a few games of pool.
The following morning after a relaxed breakfast, we caught the local bus up to Khun Yuam, where Michael and Rosie live. We had a look around the little town and the small school that Michael and Rosie work in. The school is very basic and a lot of the kids live at the school sleeping in fairly rough conditions, on or under desks, cooking and looking after themselves, as they live to far away from the school to travel their each day. Michael and Rosie and their friends had arranged for us to go on a camping trip up into the hills, very close to the Burmese boarder. The scenery though the mountains and hills was spectacular and our trip coincided very nicely with the only two weeks of the year when the ‘sun flowers’ come out. Basically there is a mountain side which is covered in a form of sun flower which only come into bloom for two weeks of the year, which leads to an amazing scene.
We drove up into the mountains in a pick, about 7 or 8 of us piled into the back, with all the gear, for the ride up into the mountains. The ride was good fun, if a little uncomfortable, chatting and laughing with some of the locals. Our camping area had the best views of any campsite I have stayed in before. It was quite literally situated on the side of the mountain, looking out towards the Burmese boarder (not a place to venture too)! We stayed in a leaf hut built on the very edge of the mountain…if their had been a back door in the hut, there would have been a near vertical drop out of it down into the valley below.
We had a pretty good evening, with plenty of beer and food. We basically had the equivalent of a Thai barbecue, which looks like a mini incinerator. You fill the ‘bucket’ with hot coals and fire and then put some for of cooking tray in the top. The tray has a rim around it that you fill with thai soup, in which you cook noodles and vegetables. On the main part of the cooking tray you cook all your meat and all this is down using chop sticks. A great evening was had even when started to get a little chilly as the wind got up. The only problem that we did have that night was that England were playing the All Blacks and we had no means of watching it. Still we did manage to get a few text messages to London to find out the score!
The following morning we woke early to bright sunshine and spectacular views. We hadn’t had all that much sleep, thanks to a few locals having a few problems handling their drink and being very noisy. Basically they would drink walk over to beside our hut, vomit and then go back and carry on. This went on all night. The most annoying thing though, was hearing one of them sing the same line, if the same very bad song, very badly over and over and over again. We drove from the campsite to the near by Mae Surin waterfalls, in the national park. After a time sitting in the bright morning sun and a few photos, we drove back to where the sun flowers were, which looked spectacular in the bright morning sunshine. We then drove back to Khun Yuam, stopping off at a small school for lunch. We spent the night back in Khun Yuam in a very nice little hotel on the edge of town.
The following day we were given a ride back to Mae Hong Son in the back of a pick up, where we spent the afternoon lying around in the sun. We enjoyed another very enjoyable evening and night in Mae Hong son, before our flight back to Chiang Mai from which we could see Thailand's tallest mountain, Doi Inthanon, poking out of the clouds at about 11,000 feet.
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