What a journey! We got the bus here mid-morning with Kristie and Pat who we’d bumped into again in Pai, they’d decided to head out further North with us. The bus stop was bedlam, as expected; too many travellers and too few buses. When the bus finally arrived it was old and rickety and I ended up standing for most of the hair-raising 3 ? hour journey. That aside the journey was memorable, we ascended the mountains at the NE end of the Pai valley and the views from the top were breath taking. We had some fun on the way too, a Thai chap next to Sarah kept falling asleep and lolling his head onto her shoulder, we were all just waiting for him to start dribbling!
When we arrived in Mae Hong Son we were slightly disappointed, the place seemed a bit scruffy on first impressions. Some say the place has it’s roots more in Burma than Thailand and I have to admit there is a different feel to the place. We found rooms at the Prince’s House next to the lake (150B), a nice setting, but probably the most run down and least secure place we’ve stayed in yet.
Had our first Thai body massage this afternoon. Sarah’s shoulder had been giving her pain so we decided a massage would certainly do her no harm. The masseur found a knot in her shoulder and gave it 30mins of additional massage (free!), the knot disappeared as if by magic, it was really impressive to watch.
14th Feb, Moved to 'Jonnie House' much better, hired 2 mopeds with Kristie and Pat and headed North out of Mae Hong Son. We were headed for the KMT village on the border but somehow took a wrong turn and ended up on the border, but more to the West, close to the Nam Tong summer palace. The views over the National Park on the way up were fantastic, the mountains seemed to stretch for miles in every direction. Right on the border and at the end of the road, we spotted a collection of bamboo huts, one with a sign offering fresh coffee. It turned out the Thai guy there had his own plantation where he grew tea and coffee. He gave us a tour of the plantation then made us coffee from freshly ground beans. He also explained that the Thai Royal family had even graced his establishment three times in the past to taste his coffee - sure enough it was fanatastic. We decided to head back to MHS as it was beginning to get late and we didn't want to get caught coming down out of the mountains in the dark. We all had a good session in the evening and Pat gave us a rendition of his 'Sawadee Krap' song - bloody funny, but guess you had to be there!
15th Feb, Decided to go our own way for the day, Sarah wanted to visit the Karen Long Neck Hill Tribe so we took the moped South out of town. Directions were frugal and we spent most of the day following tracks that disappeared into the jungle and came to a dead end or the river Pai. We also seemed to be taking for granted having to dodge snakes and elephants which seemed to appear from nowhere - beat's dodging pedestrians in Sheffield! It wasn't until late in the afternoon after bumping into Pat & Kristie that we decided to try again and found the trail. We crossed 11 fords on the mopeds which was a scream, including one so deep the bike stalled and we ended up stuck in the middle of the river! The Long Neck village was a strange place, a bit like a zoo if i'm honest, I can't help but wonder how much of the entry fee to the village the tribes people acutally receive? One of the Long Necked women told us she was wearing 6kg of brass on her neck and 5kg on each knee - can this be right?
17th Feb, Took the option of flying back to Chiang Mai rather than taking the bus. It cost us 850B but that had to be better than sitting for all that way. Plus the flight took only 25 mins, which meant we made it back for the Sunday market which was just superb. We could have spent a small fortune on things for the house, we bought a set of chopsticks , servers and place mats - really cool.
17th Feb, Headed for the post office to send home a load of gear, packs just too heavy, mines upto 26kg and it makes my neck scream after wearing it for any longer than 20 minutes, OK if you're reading this and were in the SAS I know that's nothing - but hey, this is supposed to be fun! Cost us about 35 quid to send home 7.6kg. Got tickets on the night sprinter for the journey back to B/Kok - unfortunately sitting all the way (14hours), and sitting separately. Didn't work out so bad though, I managed to hassle the train enough to get Sarah moved next to me - result! As expected the journey was hell, we slept for all of 3 seconds and felt like crap by the time we reached B/Kok! On to Kanchanaburi from here..........
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