The north of Thailand, so much to do so little time. Like I wrote earlier we had to narrow it down. We knew we had about a week so we devised a plan to fill the days as best we could.
The first day was dedicated into what, in my opinion, is one the best things in Thailand . Thai food. The Thai kitchen is incredibly rich in taste and has a fresh feeling to it. we both are great fan of Thai food so we decided its time we knew how to make some ourself. The first lesson was the material so we went to the local market for a fast lesson on the different sort of rice, noodle, vegetables and meat that goes into Thai dishes. After some shopping we got a ride to the school. The class was smallish (about 8 of us) so there was enough time for individual attention. Our teacher was really funny, mostly because of the way he laughed at his own jokes. at least once every 5 minutes he would tell a joke, which non of us understood, but he had to laugh so hard at his own jokes it was really funny. Cooking was fun to. we learned how to make home made Curry, and how to cook several dishes (Yes Aharle we learned to make Massman). We even cooked adventure style. That is set fire to the food in the wak. At the end of the day we had the pleasure of eating what we cooked. To our surprise it actually tasted remotely like real Thai food, which for a first time, made us both quite happy. It also filled us up very well. With a full stomach we rolled into our guest house to book a 3 day trek. They were a few people short so they said they will let us know in the morning if we are leaving or not. Hoping for the best but expecting the worse we made a backup plan of going downhill mountain biking instead. The trek didn’t go through the next morning, “But tomorrow we go for sure” we were promised. So we went mountain biking.
And boy was that fun. We both have mountain biked before, but never really did hard core downhill. Somehow we got ourselves into an advance level path, which is parallel to black slopes in winter sports. We got body armor, helmets, knee and elbow protection. At this point Paula was starting to get stressed. Then our guide started talking about all the bad things that could happen. It didn’t really help that, being an American he probably over exaggerated a lot of things. Paula was starting to get real doubts about our ability to finish this route in one piece. We got on the bike, and then things really got worse.
The first part of the route must have been the most evil piece of terrain I have ever tried to negotiate with a bike. Hell, it looked so evil I would have thought twice before attempting it on foot. Roots, logs, rocks, in all shapes and sized. And this on a 30 to 40 degree angel. Luckily for me I had quite a good bike (some sort of downhill mongoose bike that were real heavy duty) so I successfully negotiated the terrain. Paula had the misfortune of having a crappy bike, with a front brake that could be either off, or full on. Combine that with the fright she got from our guide, and you see her situation. Just as we were considering maybe we did take a bite to big for us to chew, the route became much friendlier. That hellish descent, the first part of the route, is ,as it turned out, the worst part. We got on a few dirt roads, then some more hard core descents, but nothing as long as that first part. By the end of the day I was feeling quite confident on the bike. And my arm muscles hurt like hell.
All those downhill mountain bikers in movies, they all have thick muscular arms. I always figured it was part of having a sporty life, or going to the gym. I had no idea how hard your arms are actually working when doing serious downhill mountain biking. I figured it would be like snowboarding. Just try not to fall while gravity does the rest. By the end of the day my shoulders were done, but man was it fun! Paula also had a blast. Despite the rotten start. I cant wait to try it again. Maybe throw in a few ramps for jumps next time.
When we got back to the guest house we heard there were still not enough people to go to the trek tomorrow. “But the day after tomorrow we go for sure”. Having heard that before we decided to take matters into our own hands. We sat down with the lonely planet and chose what we really wanted to see in the north of Thailand. We made a 4 day plan, and the next morning we got up, checked out and rented a motorbike for four days.
At first I was considering renting a dirt bike, to enable us to go off road. But with a passenger, and a fairly large bag it would have been nothing short of madness. So we got ourselves a chopper. At least as far as choppers go in Thailand. You see, here its all small engines so our 400cc Honda Steed was a real heavy motorcycle. I have to admit the bike impressed me in a very positive way. With lots of torque at low revs, it had no problem negotiating the steep climbs we faced.
We first headed to the northward to Chiang Dao, to visit holly caves. The caves are host to a Buddha temple, and are nice to see as a natural phenomena. From Chiang Dao we headed east towards Pai, where we planned on spending the night. The road is only 200km but it took us over 4 hours to complete, an it had nothing to do with the road quality. This road, and the road we will be taking for the next 3 days were really bike heaven. Lots of curves, lots of hairpins, it was a lot of fun to ride. Paula was also having a blast. A chopper doesn’t only give the passenger more comfort, it also sets him quite high, which meant she could see more then the back of my helmet.
The next day, we drove from Pai to Mae Hong Son. On the way we stopped at the Coffin caves. Inside this rather large cave complex coffins have been found which have been dated back to 1200-2200 years ago. It is still unclear who made them, but the small number of them suggests it was reserved for very specific individuals. The coffins are very long logs (5-9m in length) cut in the middle lengthwise, then hollowed out (basically resembling a long, round canoe) and suspended on logs. The whole experience of caving and ancient relics is quite exciting I have to admit. To get around in the cave one must use a boat. This adds even more to the sense of adventure and exploration when visiting the cave. Unfortunately, all this also means a lot of people come to visit. For the first time in our trip we were surrounded by tourists, most of whom, to my surprise were Israelis. That did damage the experience a bit, but it was still amazing. At sunset we arrived at Mae Hong Son.
Our third day was spent in the area of Mae Hong Son. We started by going with a boat to a Karen long neck tribe village. The experience was not quite what I had expected. for some reason I was expecting a quite, almost intimate meeting with the tribe. What I got was a street market which happened to be run by women, some of them are long neck. Don’t get me wrong, it is very interesting to see these people, and to hear about their customs. There was however not a lot of reality in it. As soon as they spot a camera they switch to posing mode. So catching them natural is quite the challenge. Seeing then acting naturally is also not easy, but we finally manged, thanks to Paula, and her passion for kids. After taking a snap of a kid she showed him the picture she made. She then proceeded to try and teach him how to make a picture with the camera. Within 10 seconds she was surrounded by kids, all trying to make pictures and view them, at the same time. It was wonderful to see. The tribe’s people around also were amused. It helped dismiss a bit of the stiffnes you felt by them when you were approching. After that, Paula managed to get some better shots of the tribes people.
We got back to town hopped on the bike and went to visit the summer palace. While actually locating the palace grounds we failed to actually find the palace in it. We pretyt much covered all the roads inside but there was no palace to be found. There was however a nice collection of animals that would not shame any medium scale zoo. Included in that collection is a miniature leopard. Sizing at about 1.2m long, it looks more like a house cat on steroids with a cool fur. Until he opens his mouth. Damn there are some sharp teeth inside. Resisting the urge to try and reach inside to pet them, we got back on the bike and continued to a village on the Lao border. The village, is known for its tea plantations (recently before that it was for the opium). Drank a cup of tea and started heading back to Mae Hong Son. We nearly froze.
You think of Thailand you think of warm, and sun. Well we found out the north can be quite cold. The night at Pai the temperatures dropped to 10 degrees. But at least we weren’t riding. Now the temperature was going in that direction, while we were on the bike. It took me 10 minutes in a hot shower to feel all warm again.
On the last day we woke up quite early as we needed to cover all the distance back to Chiang Mai in one day. Expecting the cold we wore all our cloths. We looked like stuffed teddy bears, but at least we weren’t cold. On the way to Chiang Mai, we stopped at the top of the highest mountain in Thailand, measured at 2565m. Getting to the top is a matter of following the road there. We arrived in Chiang Mai in time for diner.
Traveling on a bike has proven to be lots of fun. Although non of the paths we took are unique, doing them on a bike is quite rare. We got a lot of friendly waves and smiles from locals, and a lot of attention from kids on the way. Being on a bike puts you out there with the people, not closed inside a box. If it gets cold, you feel it. If it rains, you get wet. Then again, people notice you more, and you get a lot more contact with the people and the surrounding.
The tale of crossing the Cambodian border will be told in the next post.
Oh and once again, gallery has been updated.