Mae Hong Son (January 31 - February 2)

I tried to start February without stress. I finally left Mae Sariang on Tuesday because there was no good option for trekking. Apart from paying more for a tour if you are alone, it’s not very funny being two days or more without the companionship of a group.

Mae Hong Son is a province capital but no very big. The difference to Mae Sariang is that there are a lot more tourists. Many package tours have Mae Hong Son in their programme because there are some interesting villages in the surrounding mountains. I quickly figured out that there is no need for booking an organised tour because paved roads go to almost every corner and it’s funnier to rent a motor bike and do it by your own. Renting a motor bike is ridiculously cheap here. I paid like 4 euro per day. Anyway, Mae Hong Son is really nice, with a good touristic infrastructure but not too touristic. With good touristic infrastructure I mean nice guest houses and a great variety of food and drinks, including the famous fruit shakes you can get everywhere.

On Wednesday I first went to Mae Aw (also called Ban Rak Thai), a village situated in the mountains at the Thai-Burmese border. Its population is dominated by the Shan people, a minority in Burma, Thailand and China. They produce a fantastic tea which you can try when you get there. It’s needless to say that the food is also very good. Then I went to Ban Ruam Thai, a village supported with funds from the king personally. It belongs to a recreation area, which calls itself “Switzerland in Thailand” (I guess because there is a lake and some bigger trees). Due to the pine trees it more reminded me of Spain. The area is famous for its coffee so I tried the famous Arabica blend in one of the nice guest houses. There was an older man who spoke some English, so I learned a lot about this king’s project and why there were workers everywhere cleaning the streets and making the village look nice. The reason is that the king is going to visit this area in a few days. It seemed strange to me that I was the only tourist up there. I thought that even package tourists go there. On my way back to Mae Hong Son, I stopped at an orchid farm which had a very nice pavilion next to the street. I had a great orange-lime fruit shake. The owner told me about his German gay boyfriend whom he met in Bangkok. They both decided to move to the north but obviously for the German guy it was too quiet there, which I think is understandable. There was also a woman who didn’t pronounce a word. I don’t know what her role is but as far as I understood the situation, it’s not his wife or girlfriend. OK, in Thailand everything is possible!

On Thursday, I decided to go to the hot springs with the motor scooter, some kilometres south of Mae Hong Son. When I arrived there I noticed that it was completely different from what I have expected. Instead of finding a lovely spot of nature with hot water sparkling out of the earth, there were some artificial swimming pools (maybe with hot water) and a broad variety of treatments was on offer, such as foot massage and face massage. I mean in Germany we call that taking a bath, here obviously they call it hot springs. In any case I didn’t really need a hot bath when the outside temperature is around 30°C. I met Justine from France who was a least as disillusioned as me. She told me that she hitch-hiked to the “hot springs” from Mae Hong Son and that some German guys took her by car. I offered her to take her back with the motor scooter and she accepted happily. On the way back we decided to enter a national park which had its entrance some kilometres away from the main road. First we visited some not so exciting waterfalls and then we drove further up the small road. It started as a paved road and ended up being a dirt road. The scenery was really great up there so the trip was absolutely worth it. We decided to leave the scooter at one place and walk a little bit. After some minutes I decided to go back for the scooter and catch up with her later because I didn’t want to leave the vehicle alone for such a long time. That’s when it happened. Driving down the dusty road I fell down. Apart from some bloody hands nothing happened to me. A small part from the scooter’s left hand brake was broken off and the vehicle ended up having some more scratches than before but there was no bigger damage. I told Justine that it’s time to go back when she saw me. The way down was really difficult (a lot more than going up). My 100 kg together with Justine’s weight in the back was a hard-core test for the scooter’s brakes. They were getting so hot that we had to stop several times in order not to risk losing the braking effect on our way down. We came back to Mae Hong Son in the afternoon. The first thing I wanted to do was returning the scooter. I had to pay a fine of 140 Baht for the break (3,50 euro!) and got my passport back (that’s the way they assure that you bring the vehicle back – 100% safe!). If the bike rental guy knew what we did with his scooter, he’d probably rethink his pricing policy!

In the evening I saw a funny group of package tourists who arrived with two buses. I don’t know if all of them were Germans but at least some of them. I was standing next to one of the food stands and ordered a banana-chocolate crepe (hmmm) when suddenly one of the package tourists came very close to take a picture with his huge camera, with the lady preparing Crepe and me waiting for her. I mean what the hell is that for? Is preparing a Crepe really so exciting? I have seen that in Germany many times.

At the end I decided to skip a possible trip to the famous long-neck Karen villages. Maybe you have seen that in TV: Women who achieve stretching their necks with rings. These villages are the number one destination for package tours but I prefer leaving them in peace. The villages are not a zoo and I am sure they can perfectly live without photo dollars; they have done so for ages.

Now I am sitting in a beautiful guest house with garden bungalows in heavy touristic Pai. I will tell you later!