maehongson

Ching Mai-Chomthong-Hot
Our first destination was Hot via Chiang Mai and Mae Klang Waterfall and Chomthong We didn't want to ride from Chiang Mai to Mae KlangWaterfall as we have read from Mr.Pumpy web page that the roads are not worth the ride.We would be fighting with the traffic. We took a "songthaew" (similar to tutuk) and placed our tandem on top of the roof. The "songthaew" took us to the doorstep of Mae Klang Waterfall. Took a short hike around the waterfall. Nothing much about the place. From Mae Klang, we tandemed to Hot town. There are not many guests house in this nothing-much-to-do town.We chose Hod Resort as our reward for the day. Cost 500B a night. Very clean with attached bathroom. You can choose to have your meal at the table that faces the river and the beautiful mountains. At night, we rode to Hot town and had our dinner and some road side food.

Hot-Mae Sarieng
Hot-Ob Luang Canyon National Park on the way to Mae Sarieng is considered to be the grand canyon of Chiang Mai. If you are a foreigner, you will end up paying 250Bper person just to have a look at what mother nature has done to the park. Whereas a local only pay something like 50B. Of course, being a miser whenever we travel, we found an unmanned alternative entrance and entered without hesitation. It is quite fascinating to see how the river has cut through the bed to get a formation of Ob Luang Canyon.there were several relics of old and historic cavemen. From the Ob Luang to Mae Sarieng, we decided to hitch a ride from a truck who was heading our direction. This was after much debate as we ended up doing 5-8kman hour on steep hills. As we were riding, we calculated it will take us 10 hours or more to reach Mae Sarieng. We were glad we hoped onto the first truck we see. Indeed, there were hills after hills and no guests house available. At Mae Sarieng, we stayed at a cowboy look-alike called the SeeView Resort. Cost us 150B per night with attached bathroom. Not very clean bedsheets and bathroom is questionable. But nice view from the dining area. Breakfast cost 200B per person, more than our accommodation. Don't ever have your breakfast at SeeView.

Mae Sarieng-Mae La Noi-Khun Yuam-Mae Hong Son
We begin our morning warm up by cycling 30km to hilly Mae La Noi. Had lunch and took a bus ride to Mae Hong Son. The bus struggled up hills after hills and you can actually hear the relief of the engine when itfinally at MHS. The long-necked padung women tribes were only 15-17km away from MHS. Most of the route to the village were rocky and hilly. We were glad to have our tandem along. The only vehicles that could make it up to the village were the 4-wheel drives. There is a large sign board that says Entry fee 250B. As usual, we played dumb and entered via the main entrance without paying. Later did we realised that we looked like Thai and that was why fee collector didn't bothered us. The padung village is like a human zoo. Well, on the day when we visited the village, our tandem became instant attraction and probably the most photographed item for the day. Even the long-necked padung women wanted to ride on our tandem. In Chiang Mai the Wat Doi Kong Mou was worth the 2km climb as the view overlooks the MHS airport runway and the whole town.

Mae Hong Son-Sop Pong-Cave Lodge
We took a bus ride to Sop Pong and cycled 8km to CaveLodge.Be forewarned!! The route is so hilly that we could only managed a kilometre climb in 14 minutes. We were glad that we stayed at Cave Lodge ast he owner only gives out detailed map around the area to his customers. If you don't stay at Cave Lodge, you don't get a map. Too bad. Accommodation at Cave Lodge only cost us 100B for 2person. Common bath with hot shower. The Lodge actually nestle at the top of river bank . The walkt o the river is about 100meters away and it is definitely worthwhile. Around Cave Lodge area, there were poppy farm(shhh..)and nice offroad trail. The main attraction is caving.The bat cave is worth a visit.

Sop Pong- Pai is like an "Ang Moh" town. It is the gateway to adventure rafting and offroad biking. We put up at Baan Nam Pai. The owner is actually a Japanese who has resided Pai for a couple of years. That explains as to why our accommodation was a mixture of Japanese and Thai setting. Even the bathroom has a touch of Japanese decoration. It only cost us 150B per night .We liked it so much we decided to put up two nights here. You will have to cycle out of Pai town for sightseeing. Pai is surrounded with lots of farms and mountains. One of the exciting things that we got to do was to go to a village hot spring. At the top of the hill, the water is very hot and lowerdown it gets cooler. So its a matter of preference to where one wants to soak one self What to eat? Plentiful. Just walk to the centre of town and see it for yourself. A lot of local food and of course the regular 'kwei loh' food like pasta and pizza.

Pai-Chiang Mai
As one would say, you become poorer in the pocket but richer in experience at the end of your trip. We ended up staying at Lek Garden at Ching Mai for 150B a night. We decided to reward ourselves and booked a BusinessClass Thai Airline from Ching Mai to Bangkok. As usual, all flights were fully booked during festive season.