Mae Hong Son of a Gun

Leaving the Cave Lodge was bitter sweet. It was a really interesting experience being there and we met some people we will never forget, but it was time to move on.  Our next stop, Mae Hong Son.  We shared a ride with our new Kiwi friends to the Sapong bus station.  I’m not sure if “station” is the correct word.  It was more like a tiny storage unit with a lady at a desk and some benches out front.  We were told our bus would be there in 30 minutes and away we went. 

The bus ride to Mae Hong Son was about 2 hours or so.  The entire trip was through the mountains and it was one sharp mountain curve after the next.  Luckily I took some Dramamine and passed out. It was hard to sleep as our bodies were being thrown to the left then to the right.  It felt like some strange dance the bus was forcing our bodies to comply with…clap clap clap clap clap to the left y’all now to the right y’all now let me hear you scream!! 

We arrived in Mae Hong Son with no idea where we going to spend the night or what direction we should go.  It was decided that the first coffee shop or cafe with wifi we find, Garrett and I will stop and find a place to stay.  The wifi at the coffee shop was less than helpful so we decided to walk towards “the lake.” I put “the lake” in parenthesis cause it’s more like a pond. It’s small and on it sits a large wat.  As Garrett and I bake in the sun on our long walk with packs strapped to our backs, an American , expat, gentleman on a scooter stops to talk to us.  The next few hours were a whirlwind.  This gentleman helped us find a reasonably priced guest house, a scooter, and then took us on a tour of the area. He taught us about the area, where to eat, what to see etc.  He was very kind to us and we are thankful to have had someone help us out with the details.  Don’t get it twisted, we have done really well so far on our own figuring things out but it’s occasionally nice to have someone who has lived in the area for 20+ years helping out. 

We left our new friend and headed up the mountain on our trusty scooter to the Pha Sua waterfall. 

Garrett and the large bamboo

It was beautiful and peaceful. We spent some time taking pictures and reflecting a bit then decided it was getting late maybe it’s time to head back to the room and grab some dinner. We were recommended a restaurant called JiJi’s. (pronounced gigi’s).  A sweet woman appropriately named Jiji owns the place and cooks delicious Thai food that is reasonably priced. Her teenage daughters help out with serving and taking orders.

DaDa the Dog at Jiji's I almost took home

The street around the lake turns into a marketplace every night with very affordable food venders.  You can pretty much get anything you want from dried fish on a stick, to spring rolls ;) We wanted to sit down, take our time and enjoy our meal, 5 baht (about 15 cents USD) pork spring rolls were usually for dessert on our walk home.  

The next day we decided to head to Ban Rak Thai also called Mae Aw near the Burmese border referred to by the locals as China town.  Obviously it’s not China, however it is an area on the Thai/Burmese border where refugees from China who were fleeing communism were given land by the Thai government.  It was a very long, scooter trip through the mountains for about an hour-hour and half. 

You enter Ban Rak Thai through a very traditional Chinese looking entry way with Chinese writing.  The road comes down into the village and there are tea shops everywhere.  There is a lake or pond (now I don’t know which is which) on your right hand side and it’s lovely.

Ban Rak Thai Lake

We went to the tourist center where all the tea shops were lined up.  Each tea shop had tons of different varieties of tea including; morning, green, oolong, jasmine, white and about 50 others.  As a huge fan of all fruit dried and sweet, I couldn’t help but notice these large jars of dried and sometimes sugared fruit. As I was looking at these jars and my mouth watering, a young woman came over and started giving us free samples of everything.  Cherries, kiwi, dates, raisins, ginger, you name it!  We walked further into the shop and a kind woman immediately came over with tea samples.  Garrett and I drank so many different tea samples and fruit samples we were wired on caffeine and sugar. We bought some tea and jumped on the scooter to continue exploring the area.  There was a lovely little resort with individual bungalows built into the side of a hill so we decided to go up and check out the grounds.  We noticed on the grounds of the resort, there was a pineapple farm and about 100 covered jars. 

Pineapple Wine 

We were wondering about the jars and the cost of this lovely resort so we went to the office to ask and we discovered the resort was not within our budget and the jars were full of pineapple wine. This was the Lee Winery.  They make mostly sweet fruit wines and Garrett and I had sampled these during our stay in Pai.

We thanked the lady putting labels on the bottles and decided to drive around the back roads to see what else this lovely area had to offer.  Garrett and I have a tendency to start down a road that eventually ends up turning from sleek paved road to a bumpy, ditch filled road.  As we are heading up one of these roads, we see a large blue sign written in all Thai.  Garrett turns his head slightly and says to me,”That sign probably says, welcome to Burma.” We both laugh and he continues driving up this dirt path until sure as shit…we hit a wall with razor wire covering it and a sign that says BURMA!  We both nearly peed our pants over how funny those 3 minutes were. I guess Garrett can read subconsciously read Thai. We still laugh about that and its about a week after. 

This will be noted as the first time we hit the Burma border but certainly not the last.  I think overall so far we have accidentally reached the Burma border 3 times. But we’ll save that for a little later in this post.  

After we took plenty of pictures, we headed out of China.  As Garrett and I often do, we wondered into a small village to check it out and accidentally found ourselves heading into a National Park.  We drive in through a shop area and find ourselves on this beautiful lake.  Maybe it was a reservoir.. yikes I’m all confused.  Regardless, it was very pretty. There were small cabins you could rent overlooking the lakevior. and a bamboo dock where you could rent a guy on a raft to paddle you around.  We decided to stop for lunch at a cute outdoor cafe on the lakevior. 

Black Swan

After lunch, we continued on our scooter through the park and actually saw a black swan!  I’m actually a bit embarrassed that I thought black swan was a thrilling movie with Natalie Portman and Mila Kunitz and didn’t know these swans actually exist.  It was beautiful and rare and this picture below doesn’t do it justice.  Ok I’ll admit I’m glad to have Garrett with me to teach me all about this nature stuff.  I’m not saying I’m a dummy, I do have a college degree (Art). As if that makes a difference, but you should hear some of the crazy questions this city girl asks Garrett on the daily. “What purpose do ants serve?” “Do you think the ants scream when I kill them? because I do.” “Can those tree climbing frogs get out of that hanging piece of bamboo?” “What kind of animal makes that sound?” “Is that a gecko that just pooped on my back?”  Yep… He’s my resident nature guide.

Anyway, the next day we decided to take a break from sightseeing and we grabbed a couple of Chang tall boys and headed to the lake/pond thingy so Garrett could work on his Blog entry and I could do some sketching.  As we were walking around the lake to find a spot to sit a gentleman  approached us and asked us where we were from.  It was clear he was an American and he seemed delighted to strike up a conversation with some fellow Americans.  His name was John Carter.  JOHN CARTER!!!! Garrett and I immediately turned to each other and mouthed…The Terminator.  He was a very interesting gentleman from Crescent City, CA.   John and Garrett talked a lot about the Pacific North West.  John shared with us that he was in Thailand for Medicinal Tourism.  He needed some dental work done and in the US, it was gonna cost him $20,000! Here in Thailand he was able to get the same work done for $5,000 plus the price of his plane ticket about $800.  We had a long talk about his procedure and US medical/dental costs amongst other things.  After a hour or so and a Chang each, Garret and I walked to get some Khao Soi.  We read online that this place had the best Khao Soi in the city.  Needless to say, this will turn out to be the end of Garrett’s relationship with Khao Soi.  

Our final day in Mae Hong Son had to be my favorite. We started the day by taking our scooter to see the Karen long neck tribe.  Now, Garrett and I both had a bit of hesitation about going to see these people.  We felt that it is a “human zoo” and that these people are being exploited.  They are Burmese refugees given Thai land however, it is our understanding that they are not allowed to work.  We showed up to the village after a Karen woman on the back of a scooter who clearly was getting dropped off from wherever she lives offered for us to follow her. We passed by several elephants giving tourists rides on the road going into the village. When we arrived we were asked to pay an entrance fee… I mean donation to the village and we were handed a piece of paper that had a small explanation of the tribe.  We were then told we could enter.  We walked in and it was just vender after vendor of the same stuff. Then, We started to walk over a small bamboo bridge and there was a huge elephant standing next to the bridge.  I was sooooooo excited by this. I wanted to see some elephants while I was here but I wanted to be sure it was a more humane experience than the elephants we saw on the road.  This elephant was named Meadow and she wasn’t chained up she was just chilling.  You could buy fruit and feed her so sure she was being exploited a bit but she was being loved.  I didn’t feed her but I sure gave her a lot of love.

Garrett patting Meadow

Meadow my love

  














We continued to move through the village and it was literally storefronts built onto the sides of huts all the way down the ally. We met a Karen woman in her 20’s that helped explain some questions we had.  We learned that the women start putting rings around their necks as young as 5 years old. And that some of the women don’t live at the village and some don’t keep the rings on full time. We thanked the woman and decided to check out some other sights that day.

  We were both a bit deflated after that experienced but we kept going forward.  We started making our way towards the Fish Cave and saw a sign for another Karen village. We followed the sign and after the road turned into dirt, we had a feeling we were on the right track.  We decided if this tribe was as commercialized as the last, we wouldn’t stay.  Just as we were turning to follow the signs to the village, just in front of us… The Burmese border.  This was the third time we hit the border. This time, a guard instructed us to turn and he was not to be messed with. We turned and continued down the dirt road until we arrived at the village.  This was the real deal.  We were the only tourists there and these people certainly didn’t seem to expect any visitors.  We met some of the kids and one let me hold her very little puppy.  The road in was so difficult I’m sure tourists don’t visit on a daily basis.  Garrett and I spent some time visiting the village and we felt so much better as we were leaving.  Sure they had a few stands set up trying to sell stuff but it wasn’t close to the same magnitude.  We left the village and had every intention of visiting the Fish Cave until we arrived and were told by some guys from Boston that it wasn’t worth the entry fee.  Plus, Garrett and I had seen thousands of fish in the caves near the Cave Lodge.  We decided to head to the hot springs and when we arrived the spring pool was closed for cleaning. Strike one.  We then heard about other springs on the opposite side of town and when we arrive they were also closed. Strike two. We headed back to the room for a shower and back for our final meal at JiJi’s of course.   Oh and our typical after dinner spring roll.