For those who have 4 days or more to spare, the Mae Hong Son Loop is an adventure worth taking. The loop is 615 km long and proudly boasts 1,864 curves. The loop begins and ends in Chiang Mai and is an incredibly windy circuit that snakes through the relatively non-touristy Mae Hong Son province. Many choose to traverse the loop via motorbike while others go by public transit. My suggestion is if you go by motorbike, drop some money on a higher cc bike that will be able to haul you through over a thousand curves while going up a steep incline. If you go by public transit, the big buses are always going to be a better option than the mini vans. One local told me that at least one minivan goes off a cliff between Mae Hong Son and Pai each year. I believe it since mine almost did. Don’t take local buses because they don’t seem to follow timetables and you are not guaranteed the pleasure of actually sitting.
Most tourists make a beeline for Pai. It is a popular tourist spot and a place many twenty-something year olds like to relax. All I can say about Pai is I was supposed to stay for two days, but left after one. In my opinion Mae Hong Son is the true gem of the loop and has the beauty of not housing hundreds of high or drunk tourists. Both are surrounded by natural beauty, but Mae Hong Son is just better. Now if you are looking to party with other foreigners, western food, and to buy cheesy souvenirs, than Pai is your place. We spent a good chunk of the day at the Fluid Pool and walking around the town. I lay by the pool trying to quiet my mind and relax like all my fellow twenty-somethings when I realized that frying my pasty white skin cells and inhaling my neighboring Germans’ cigarette smoke, just isn’t something I enjoy. I would rather be hiking or exploring a temple. So I left. I am partially biased because I went to Mae Hong Son first. The one highlight of Pai was the Fine Rice Restaurant and Cooking School. We didn’t have a chance to take a class, but we ate there every meal. The food was excellent and the owner is a fun-loving guy. If you are on the loop and have time, I recommend taking a class at his place. You can even rent a room at his onsite guesthouse.
Mae Hong Son was a very different story all together. We arrived after dark and crossed our fingers we had booked a decent guesthouse. We did! The Panglor Villa was clean, had a hot shower, a TV with BBC, and pure quiet. They also rented us scooters for 10 USD per scooter for the duration of our three day stay. Our first day we jumped on the scooters with no plan other than stopping by the famous fish cave. The skies were brilliantly clear and it was a perfect temperature to be soaring past rice fields. There were so many times on that scooter that I had the thought, “This is perfect. Absorb this moment.”
We stopped to take some photos of rice fields flanked by rolling hills when a neon green hat wearing sixty something came flying down the road. He skidded to a halt and asked if we needed anything. Come to find out he is a Vietnam War Veteran who just never went home. He was a hoot to say the least. He rambled a mile a minute about the secret war that is still waging on the Thailand side of the Myanmar border. Apparently there are nineteen military groups fighting for liberation from something. He claims he has been a “Freedom Fighter” for the past twenty years. Oh and he enlightened us on many media scams such as 9/11, the beheadings by ISIS, and the economic crash of 2008. The one morsel of information of value he did add was that there is a KMT village not too far from Mae Hong Son. I will give background on what KMT means in a future post.
I cut the conversation short and we continued on to the fish cave. The Thampla-Phasua Waterfall National Park is a nice serene place. You have to pay a 100 Baht entrance fee, but you can camp there for free. Unfortunately, during the dry season the waterfalls basically don’t exist and the cave is well not a cave. It is a small grotto that is crammed with overfed Plapung (a relative of carp). The fish were impressively large and a distinct blue color. The phenomenon of them all swimming against the stream to crowd into this grotto is odd, but not worth going out of your way for.
We headed back to town to catch the sunset from the top of Doi Kong Mu, a hill with a commanding view of the entire town and valley. Perched on top of the hill is a Burmese influenced temple, Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu. As the sky changed from blue to gold to a dark navy, I met someone who would end up being very significant to our time in Northern Thailand. His name is Ari and he is a semi-retired Canadian who recently relocated from China to Thailand. We all instantly liked him and it was only a matter of time before we were all headed down the hill to share dinner. Not only is he an easy going and funny person, but he is a fascinating conversationalist. His travels have taken him all over the world. He has driven a motorcycle from Montreal to Southern Mexico, spent ten years exploring Southern China, speaks 4.5 languages, etc. Our meal was also of note. Visit Salween for delicious food including some Burmese cuisine.
The next day we struck out on the road again this time for Soppong. Our objective was to shop at the hill tribe market that takes place every Tuesday. The trip takes roughly two hours and has the highest concentration of curves out of any other part of the Mae Hong Son Loop!!!!! Tim failed to mention this to me until we were almost back to Mae Hong Son. Sneaky Dutchman. The landscape was stunning as it had been the day before, but this time my genitals and tailbone were at war to decide whom would be squished. In the end neither party was victorious. When people tell you about a hill tribe market, it is important to clarify if the market is selling hill tribe arts and crafts or if it is a market for the hill tribe people to come and buy stuff. This distinction is important. Alas, we found a market filled to the brim with cheap Chinese manufactured goods. After one glance and a drunk man looking me up and down, we were back to genital squishing.
I really can’t highlight enough out breathtaking Mae Hong Son and its environs are. We didn’t see any of the forest degradation we had witnessed in Nan. As far as the eye could see there was greenery. Mae Hong Son itself deserves praise. In each country I go to I am always looking for another “Vang Vieng”. Well, in Thailand’s equivalent to Vang Vieng is Mae Hong Son. It was built at the floor of a long valley snuggling up to the surrounding mountains. The fact they were able to fit an airport runway in the small town is a true feat. At the center of this quiet frontier town is a small lake (I would classify it as a pond) with a gazebo and an attractive temple. Wat Chong Klang is a Burmese style temple (remember Burma was the king of the roost for a couple hundred years) and positively glows at night. Literally, the temple is decked out in lights. Around 8:00 pm the monks light candles and float them around their own little pond at the foot of a Buddha statue.
We ended up spending three dinners with Ari. I would also like to point out that he kept us out way past my bedtime. Ari, if you are reading this- stop being so interesting and thank you for sharing all your China photos with us. Mom, if I end up spending three to six months in China, blame Ari. What a surprisingly delightful town and new friend.
Most tourists make a beeline for Pai. It is a popular tourist spot and a place many twenty-something year olds like to relax. All I can say about Pai is I was supposed to stay for two days, but left after one. In my opinion Mae Hong Son is the true gem of the loop and has the beauty of not housing hundreds of high or drunk tourists. Both are surrounded by natural beauty, but Mae Hong Son is just better. Now if you are looking to party with other foreigners, western food, and to buy cheesy souvenirs, than Pai is your place. We spent a good chunk of the day at the Fluid Pool and walking around the town. I lay by the pool trying to quiet my mind and relax like all my fellow twenty-somethings when I realized that frying my pasty white skin cells and inhaling my neighboring Germans’ cigarette smoke, just isn’t something I enjoy. I would rather be hiking or exploring a temple. So I left. I am partially biased because I went to Mae Hong Son first. The one highlight of Pai was the Fine Rice Restaurant and Cooking School. We didn’t have a chance to take a class, but we ate there every meal. The food was excellent and the owner is a fun-loving guy. If you are on the loop and have time, I recommend taking a class at his place. You can even rent a room at his onsite guesthouse.
Mae Hong Son was a very different story all together. We arrived after dark and crossed our fingers we had booked a decent guesthouse. We did! The Panglor Villa was clean, had a hot shower, a TV with BBC, and pure quiet. They also rented us scooters for 10 USD per scooter for the duration of our three day stay. Our first day we jumped on the scooters with no plan other than stopping by the famous fish cave. The skies were brilliantly clear and it was a perfect temperature to be soaring past rice fields. There were so many times on that scooter that I had the thought, “This is perfect. Absorb this moment.”
We stopped to take some photos of rice fields flanked by rolling hills when a neon green hat wearing sixty something came flying down the road. He skidded to a halt and asked if we needed anything. Come to find out he is a Vietnam War Veteran who just never went home. He was a hoot to say the least. He rambled a mile a minute about the secret war that is still waging on the Thailand side of the Myanmar border. Apparently there are nineteen military groups fighting for liberation from something. He claims he has been a “Freedom Fighter” for the past twenty years. Oh and he enlightened us on many media scams such as 9/11, the beheadings by ISIS, and the economic crash of 2008. The one morsel of information of value he did add was that there is a KMT village not too far from Mae Hong Son. I will give background on what KMT means in a future post.
I cut the conversation short and we continued on to the fish cave. The Thampla-Phasua Waterfall National Park is a nice serene place. You have to pay a 100 Baht entrance fee, but you can camp there for free. Unfortunately, during the dry season the waterfalls basically don’t exist and the cave is well not a cave. It is a small grotto that is crammed with overfed Plapung (a relative of carp). The fish were impressively large and a distinct blue color. The phenomenon of them all swimming against the stream to crowd into this grotto is odd, but not worth going out of your way for.
We headed back to town to catch the sunset from the top of Doi Kong Mu, a hill with a commanding view of the entire town and valley. Perched on top of the hill is a Burmese influenced temple, Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu. As the sky changed from blue to gold to a dark navy, I met someone who would end up being very significant to our time in Northern Thailand. His name is Ari and he is a semi-retired Canadian who recently relocated from China to Thailand. We all instantly liked him and it was only a matter of time before we were all headed down the hill to share dinner. Not only is he an easy going and funny person, but he is a fascinating conversationalist. His travels have taken him all over the world. He has driven a motorcycle from Montreal to Southern Mexico, spent ten years exploring Southern China, speaks 4.5 languages, etc. Our meal was also of note. Visit Salween for delicious food including some Burmese cuisine.
The next day we struck out on the road again this time for Soppong. Our objective was to shop at the hill tribe market that takes place every Tuesday. The trip takes roughly two hours and has the highest concentration of curves out of any other part of the Mae Hong Son Loop!!!!! Tim failed to mention this to me until we were almost back to Mae Hong Son. Sneaky Dutchman. The landscape was stunning as it had been the day before, but this time my genitals and tailbone were at war to decide whom would be squished. In the end neither party was victorious. When people tell you about a hill tribe market, it is important to clarify if the market is selling hill tribe arts and crafts or if it is a market for the hill tribe people to come and buy stuff. This distinction is important. Alas, we found a market filled to the brim with cheap Chinese manufactured goods. After one glance and a drunk man looking me up and down, we were back to genital squishing.
I really can’t highlight enough out breathtaking Mae Hong Son and its environs are. We didn’t see any of the forest degradation we had witnessed in Nan. As far as the eye could see there was greenery. Mae Hong Son itself deserves praise. In each country I go to I am always looking for another “Vang Vieng”. Well, in Thailand’s equivalent to Vang Vieng is Mae Hong Son. It was built at the floor of a long valley snuggling up to the surrounding mountains. The fact they were able to fit an airport runway in the small town is a true feat. At the center of this quiet frontier town is a small lake (I would classify it as a pond) with a gazebo and an attractive temple. Wat Chong Klang is a Burmese style temple (remember Burma was the king of the roost for a couple hundred years) and positively glows at night. Literally, the temple is decked out in lights. Around 8:00 pm the monks light candles and float them around their own little pond at the foot of a Buddha statue.
We ended up spending three dinners with Ari. I would also like to point out that he kept us out way past my bedtime. Ari, if you are reading this- stop being so interesting and thank you for sharing all your China photos with us. Mom, if I end up spending three to six months in China, blame Ari. What a surprisingly delightful town and new friend.
