Ok folks! Had 5 nights in Pai and managed to squeeze in a days fishing at Dave's little complex - Mhor Peng fishing park. You can hire your rods, reels, rigs and bait supplied for 150B - bargain. He also has a fridge stocked with beer. It's 7 km outside town on the road towards the waterfalls, Lisu and Chinese villages.
We left Pai on the 8.30am bus to Soppong which is a very small town that doesn't see the volumes of tourists that Pai does - understandably so! However there are trekking tours etc from here and numerous caves in the vicinity. In fact anything booked in Pai will normally involve being transported to Soppong for the event. We visited Tham lot caves which were 8km outside Sappong. Transport was an issue so we hired motorcycle taxis. 3 of them turned up and somehow I ended up on the one who was wearing a skid lid. Really gave me confidence in his riding ability I can tell you. Adventurous!! Caves themselves were great. You go through them on a bamboo raft as the river runs right through, stopping off at various points to take a look round. Entrance & exit were a little unpleasant due to the huge number of Swifts flying in & out of their roosts. Lots of watery bombs falling if you know what I mean.
Stayed at a place called " Jungle guest house " which I don't think I'd recommend although the owner was a lovely lady who owned a bi-lingual Minah bird - good morning, sawadee ka it said as we left. Just the 1 night in Sappong.
Got the 10 o'clock bus from Sappong to Mae Hong Son arriving here around midday yesterday. Was originally going to only do 1 night here but it's a really place so we're gonna stay tonight as well - booked bus from here to BKK leaving tomorrow ( 1100Km). Leaves here at 2 pm arriving in BKK at 6am, I need some Valium! Can't sleep very well on buses, planes or trains. So we are staying at Johnnies House. A family run place that is nice & clean - in fact it's the nicest room I've had since I've been in Thailand (en-suite bathroom, fan, double bed, etc for 200B). Mae Hong Son is well worth a visit. It's the capital of the Mae Hong Son Province and is very clean with several very well kept park areas, friendly people that take life nice & slow and a general feeling of welcoming about it. There is shed loads of trekking & rafting that can be booked from here as there are numerous hill tribes in the surrounding mountains (Lisu, Shan, Hmong to name a few). These things are probably all best done at the end of the wet season - we are now nearing the end of the dry so rivers are all low and the mountains etc are not as green as they could be. It's also bloody hot, even the Thais are sweltering.
Called into a little eatery at the bus station yesterday and the owner got me to try some food saying that it was "Mai pet" (not spicy/hot). Should of seen him smile when my tongue was on fire and steam was coming out of my ears!
I'll be on the road extensively over the next few days as we have well over 2000km to do as we need to get down to Krabi to extend our visas by 10 days before Songkran starts. Songkran is Thailand's new year celebrations (new Lunar year) and is celebrated pretty much as a huge water fight that lasts for days. We don't really want to be travelling through that. Not much fun trudging along with your pack and being hit with a bucket of water thrown from a moving vehicle. I heard a tale that said a couple of years back in BKK 80 motorcyclists were killed during Songkran by being knocked off by buckets of water. So we need to get somewhere really nice and settle in for a week before it all kicks off. Rock climbing in Krabi sounds like a good idea to me. At least you can leave all your stuff in the dry somewhere and then join in the festivities.
I forgot to mention in previous posts about me tuk tuk rides and the Elephant in Chang Mai (picture above). We were sitting in the Gecko bar having a few beers when I thought I heard an Elephant but dismissed it as we were in the middle of the city and I didn't want to be ridiculed by the gang. Then I heard it again and as I peered out to the street there really was an Elephant blocking the entrance to the bar. The guy who owned it was selling food for 20B and allowing pictures to be taken. You'd have to see it to believe it.
We left Pai on the 8.30am bus to Soppong which is a very small town that doesn't see the volumes of tourists that Pai does - understandably so! However there are trekking tours etc from here and numerous caves in the vicinity. In fact anything booked in Pai will normally involve being transported to Soppong for the event. We visited Tham lot caves which were 8km outside Sappong. Transport was an issue so we hired motorcycle taxis. 3 of them turned up and somehow I ended up on the one who was wearing a skid lid. Really gave me confidence in his riding ability I can tell you. Adventurous!! Caves themselves were great. You go through them on a bamboo raft as the river runs right through, stopping off at various points to take a look round. Entrance & exit were a little unpleasant due to the huge number of Swifts flying in & out of their roosts. Lots of watery bombs falling if you know what I mean.
Stayed at a place called " Jungle guest house " which I don't think I'd recommend although the owner was a lovely lady who owned a bi-lingual Minah bird - good morning, sawadee ka it said as we left. Just the 1 night in Sappong.
Got the 10 o'clock bus from Sappong to Mae Hong Son arriving here around midday yesterday. Was originally going to only do 1 night here but it's a really place so we're gonna stay tonight as well - booked bus from here to BKK leaving tomorrow ( 1100Km). Leaves here at 2 pm arriving in BKK at 6am, I need some Valium! Can't sleep very well on buses, planes or trains. So we are staying at Johnnies House. A family run place that is nice & clean - in fact it's the nicest room I've had since I've been in Thailand (en-suite bathroom, fan, double bed, etc for 200B). Mae Hong Son is well worth a visit. It's the capital of the Mae Hong Son Province and is very clean with several very well kept park areas, friendly people that take life nice & slow and a general feeling of welcoming about it. There is shed loads of trekking & rafting that can be booked from here as there are numerous hill tribes in the surrounding mountains (Lisu, Shan, Hmong to name a few). These things are probably all best done at the end of the wet season - we are now nearing the end of the dry so rivers are all low and the mountains etc are not as green as they could be. It's also bloody hot, even the Thais are sweltering.
Called into a little eatery at the bus station yesterday and the owner got me to try some food saying that it was "Mai pet" (not spicy/hot). Should of seen him smile when my tongue was on fire and steam was coming out of my ears!
I'll be on the road extensively over the next few days as we have well over 2000km to do as we need to get down to Krabi to extend our visas by 10 days before Songkran starts. Songkran is Thailand's new year celebrations (new Lunar year) and is celebrated pretty much as a huge water fight that lasts for days. We don't really want to be travelling through that. Not much fun trudging along with your pack and being hit with a bucket of water thrown from a moving vehicle. I heard a tale that said a couple of years back in BKK 80 motorcyclists were killed during Songkran by being knocked off by buckets of water. So we need to get somewhere really nice and settle in for a week before it all kicks off. Rock climbing in Krabi sounds like a good idea to me. At least you can leave all your stuff in the dry somewhere and then join in the festivities.
I forgot to mention in previous posts about me tuk tuk rides and the Elephant in Chang Mai (picture above). We were sitting in the Gecko bar having a few beers when I thought I heard an Elephant but dismissed it as we were in the middle of the city and I didn't want to be ridiculed by the gang. Then I heard it again and as I peered out to the street there really was an Elephant blocking the entrance to the bar. The guy who owned it was selling food for 20B and allowing pictures to be taken. You'd have to see it to believe it.
4 comments:
You have to see it to believe it! I guess that is going to be said one hundred times over before your trip has finished, Bill. I had been reading about the New Year water celebrations before your last write up and wondered where you would be. Continue to have a wonderful time. If you get a chance please send me a postcard for my collection; never had one from Thailand. Take care. Love J x
You is getting around a bit eh? Wanna dik at some photos c'mon...!
Did you get to ride on the elephants before?
Saw Julie Thursday she said: "have a great time", printed out your blogs for her, but she may have access to internet now.
I is getting excited, off to Cyprus next Sunday woo hoo! me xxx
We'll send you some of our snow over to cool you down! Brrrrr!
Can't wait for the weekend when we head of for some sun.
Love J x
At last some photos! Did you take any of the temples or Buddhas?
My colleagues had a good laugh at the FG Beer sign. It all sounds wonderful, Bill, and you are certainly covering some land. GTEC&O have been camping this week in the snow and ice but they defrosted enough to speak to me today and they are all OK.
Love J x
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