Mae Hong Son Loop Pt 2

After a short breakfast with our new thai buddy from last night we get on the bikes and begin our journey to Mae Hong Son. The caves we visited the previous day are on the same road so the first 30km was familiar. This is probably the most scenic part of the trip or at least the part where we took the most photos. This slowed us down a little as we took it in turns to lead and pick out the next photo stop. The road was full of curves up steep mountains which didn’t speed us up either. When I say steep I mean crawling up in 1st or 2nd gear after going round a switchback turn. Not the kind of road you would care to be on with a bicycle! Anyway the roads were quiet so this allowed us to do our own thing without worrying about other road users. We arrived in MHS in the afternoon and found our first choice hostel was full so had to go searching for a new one. While we were standing over our Lonely Planet and map we heard a yell in English “You guys looking for a hostel?”. This is shouted by a big, burly American guy on a motorbike who yells at us to follow him if we want a place to stay. We scramble to keep up with this lunatic as he nips in between traffic like he owns the place. He eventually guides us to an out of the way place and shows us a room. Its kind of late in the day and we are not entirely sure where we are so we agree to take a room (the rate was fine though the room was a bit Spartan). Here we discover our mysterious benefactor is ex-US military and goes by the name ‘Rambo’. Apparently he is here to get involved with the troubles in Burma which is pretty close to the town. Anyway we work out where we are on our map and manage to work out how to get to the town centre again. We had a fairly unimpressive dinner and have a walk down the walking street (small and doesn’t come close to Chiang Mai) before settling in a bar that has a pool table. We knock back a few cold ones and play some pool and head for bed when the bar is getting closed up. We had the place to ourselves which was a tad disappointing. We had been hoping to meet up with fellow travelers on the trip. However, we decide to give it a chance and stay another night.
The next day we escape from ‘Rambo’ and book into a hotel for almost the same price we paid him. We then proceed to waste away the day relaxing by the small lake in the town. Then in the late afternoon we start searching for Markus’s pick for dinner (he had been doing a good job on this so far) which he had been talking about for the past day. Its supposed to be the best curry in MHS and we are both craving curry by this stage. We arrive at the shop only to find they have run out of curry and are closing. Devastated we start asking people for another place we can get a curry and end up at a resteraunt that did a pretty good one. Our craving for curry sated we make our way to a different bar than the previous night in the hope that we will meet some people there. Luckily this one has a pool table as well albeit an American one. Markus sees this as his chance to get some revenge for the previous night where I came out on top on a European table. But as we are playing a group of people come in who are obviously travelling the loop as well. Competition forgotten we join them for some drinks. We soon decide to grab a few drinks in 7-11 chill by the lake. Another gang are set up in a bar nearby and soon a mini-songkran ensues (a waterfight). But not too long after this the cops show up and tell us to move it on which we do and all go our respective ways to our beds.

The following morning Markus and I get up and refuel ourselves as well as the bikes before heading south. Today we have a choice to make. We can go all the way south to a town called Mae Sariang or halfway at a place called Khun Yuam we can turn east towards a town called Mae Chaem. Figuring that Mae Sariang will add an extra day that we don’t have to the trip we take a pit stop in Khun Yuam and turn east. This is not strictly part of the loop and we soon worked out why. Initially things went well with the scenery being pretty and the weather being hot (did I mention yet that the heat so far was baking hot? No? Well it was), and we were motoring along fine. Then at one point I got caught behind a pickup and not being thai I decided not to try and overtake him going uphill around a bend. Markus didn’t realize and was pretty far ahead by the time I got around the truck. It took some hard driving to catch up but I managed to find him again. We stopped and figured we were about an hour or so out of Mae Chaem. We got back on the bikes and the road suddenly turned bad. The surface had odd pits and bumps in it that were tricky to spot so we had to go a tad slower. There was even a spot where a chunk of the road had just fallen away. It was going round one of the unpredictable bends that I encountered trouble. I had moved out in order to duck into a corner at a better angle. I’d been doing this every day and found it the best way to get around some of the tighter curves. Unfortunately there was a thai lady on a bike behind me who was in no mood to wait till I was out of her way to pass me and resolved to go past on my inside on the bend. Having not expected her to try this when I turned into the bend she clipped my front wheel and sent me spilling onto the ground. Of course she fell as well but she was up and gone before I was really aware what had happened. Luckily I came out of it fine, had a few scrapes and bruises on my arms and legs from skidding on the ground but nothing life threatening. The bike suffered similar superficial damage and still ran. Markus must have suspected something was up as he was just ahead of me and the Thai lady went roaring past him with no sign of me. After a few minutes cleaning my wounds as best I could we both got back on our bikes and got as far as Mae Chaem without further incident. I went as far as the hospital to get the wounds cleaned properly and got some sticky plasters for maximum visual effect. This done the two of us found some food and retired to a hotel to bitch and moan about crazy thai women drivers.

After my run-in it took some of the shine off the week. The bikes were due back the next day so instead of going to Doi Inthanon (highest peak in Thailand) we skipped it and went straight to the bike shop. Later in the day we met up with Jesse (who works with Markus) and a mate of his and we regaled them with tales of our adventures. It was Sunday the next day so I had a good night’s rest before catching the bus back to Li in the morning. I was working on Monday again after all. And so ended Markus’s and my motorcycle tour of the Mae Hong Son loop.

Mae Hong Son Loop Pt 1

This trip was the brainchild of one Markus Chisholm (or Market to most thai people) and he put the word out looking for companions. Initially there was due to be 3 of us on this trip but Reuven discovered he was working that week and couldnt get out of it. No matter, myself and Markus were confident we could manage ourselves. The trip consisted of a week long motorbike journey through the mountains of the northwest of Thailand along what is known as the 'Mae Hong Son Loop'. It takes in over 400km and famously has 1864 bends (i wasnt counting). To do this monster in a week was fairly challenging especially considering Markus's motorbike experience was limited and mine was nil. Anyway we rented two bikes in Chiang Mai, one was a Honda Sonic 125cc with a manual gearbox(Markus) and the other was a Honda Dream 125cc semi-automatic(me). I should point out that anything with two wheels and a motor is a motorbike over here whereas i would have classed the dream as a moped but thats just me being pedantic. We took a warm up lap of the moat in Chiang Mai, filled our tanks, I layered on suncream, we strapped on our helmets and sunglasses and hit the road north out of Chiang Mai towards our first destination; Pai.

The initial part of the journey was easy, it was motorway, straight and flat. We turned west off this after about 30km and began our trip in earnest on the windy, mountainous roads we would become familiar with over the next 7 days. Now when i say curves i dont mean a slight bend in a road, i mean big looping switchbacks up hills. This is what we coped with for the most part and it meant we werent moving too fast but that suited us to an extent as it meant we could drink in some of the amazing scenery. The descents were trickier but we managed. I guess my experience with a racing bike served me in good stead here as once i got the hang of the accelerator and brake i was flying. It was weird to just drive over little stones and cracks in the road though, i was tempted to yell "hole" and swerve wildly but i figured that wouldnt end well for me so i just ignored them and kept going. As i said above the scenery was beautiful so we would stop every now and again to take some scenic pictures and have a water break. But the first day on the road was remarkable for being uneventful really and we arrived in Pai in the late afternoon after about 3hrs + on the bikes having covered over 100km of mountainous road. Not bad for my first time on a motorbike. We scouted around Pai for a place to stay and found a decent spot for a decent price. We then found out that there were hot springs nearby and a few places offered the chance to soak in them so we having grabbed our swimming gear we hopped back on the bikes and went and soaked ourselves in the hot mineral waters. Just what the doctor ordered after a hard day's biking! After some time we dragged ourselves back onto the bikes and drove back to Pai. A quick shower later and we went in search of food. Now Markus introduced my previously uncultured self to the delights of Vietnamese food. We found a nice little resteraunt and between Markus and an extremely excited owner, they preached the wonder of Vietnamese food and converted another unsuspecting customer. The food is really light but delicious and apparently is good for body and soul. So to counter this bit of good work we went and downed a few beers. The town was pretty quiet and we were kind of tired so we called it a night and got some sleep.

The next day dawned in Pai and we slept in. This was a rest day and we were going to take it easy in Pai (its hard to do anything else). Firstly we changed hostel to see what else the town had to offer. It was low season so this was pretty easy and the second place was pretty cool. Next we made our way up to the temple on the hill in the late morning on foot which proved to be a silly mistake when we could have driven. Once we got to the temple we found our view blemished by some kind of haze. This was to be the norm over the week, beautiful countryside, a sunny day but what looked like fog settled over everything. I now suspect i have an answer for this. This is the time of year in Thailand when the rice fields get burned to make way for a new harvest so it could be that some of the dust and smoke settles as a kind of smog over everything. I think.... So a tad disappointed and even more sweaty we went back to the town for lunch. We had this in a place called 'The Witching Well' and proved to be one of the best meals i have had in Thailand so far so if you go to Pai go here! For the afternoon we were going to head to some caves that were 30km outside of Pai on the road to Mae Hong Son. We had read up on them and knew that sunset was a good time to be there so thats why we left it so late in the day to go there. So an uneventful ride later we found our way to 'Cave Lod' about an hour before sunset. We got a guided tour of the caves which included a guide with a paraffin lamp (caves are dark, who knew?) and another to steer the boat. Since there was a river running through the caves there is no other way to see them. The main parts are on land though so we got off at parts and were treated to a wonderful tour of the caves with our guide basically pointing at rocks and saying things like "looks like elephant". This would prompt a few minutes of me and Markus staring at the rock before one of us said "oh yeah i see it now" and we could move onto the next one. Some were interesting and it was a cool cave but the guides could use a bit of work. Maybe they dont get many English speakers. Sunset was fast approaching when we got to the end of the cave network and saw the exit point. This is where the magic happened. Every day at sunset, hundreds of thousands of swifts (and some bats) fly into the cave to their nests. We must have been there for a half hour or so and there was a steady stream of them flying in so i could believe the figure to be a little bit accurate. It was a truly amazing sight and created a sound like a loud waterfall as well with the birds rushing in so it was well worth the visit. Unfortunately my camera chose this moment to die so i didnt get many good pictures. I guess the memories will have to suffice.

Having spent a nice afternoon in the caves and witnessed the sunset bird show we got back on our bikes and drove back to Pai in the dark. Here i feel the need to blow my own trumpet a little. Having never driven a motorbike before i had in two days covered over 150km of tough terrain over mountains and on windy roads. I had also driven 30km of this in the dark and so covered night driving. All of this with no problems whatsoever so im fairly proud of that. Moving swiftly on we got back to Pai safe and sound, had our showers and went for dinner. Tonight i was introduced to Middle Eastern food in the form of falafels. It was good enough that i would try it again but wasnt as nice as the vietnamese food. We went in search of a bar to see out our last night in Pai and found our way to a spot with a live band. We started playing 'Guess that tune' which was tricky enough as these guys were playing a wide variety of stuff. We had a bit of banter with the band as well and after they finished they joined us for a beer. This drew over one of the staff who sat with us as well. The band moved onto another bar where they were to play again and the girl stayed talking to us (in good English). So having made a new friend we went back to our hostel and got a good night's rest before we moved on from Pai.

Pics: 1)Me and my trusty Dream
2)The Markus pose
3)The mountains of NW Thailand
4)The second place we stayed in Pai
5)"Look like lady"

English Camp

Recently we held an english camp for all of Matayom 1. This is about 300 kids so this was a big task, especially since there were only 12 teachers to manage them. Like everything in Thailand the organisation was a bit lax so it was a case of just jumping straight in and getting on with it on the day. This wasnt help when my boss jumped ship the day before since it was her idea to have it in the first place and she was one of the main organisers. So it was left to the rest of us to muddle our way through the day. The basic gist is that the day began with registration and orientation, at which the students were going to learn the words to some songs in english. After this was the main part of the day where the students would visit the teacher stations and we would all finish the day with a talent show. For the orientation our main person for making the kids sing was AWOL (my boss) so it was suggested that i take over. I pretty much laughed in the faces of the other teachers at this suggestion and almost told them where to stick their singing but managed to politely decline and swiftly suggest an alternative. So someone else got stuck with it. We also had assistants for the day in the shape of one of my classes; 4/3. Now this lot have pretty poor or in some cases non-existent english language skills so i was a bit pessimistic about how much of a help they would be. Mostly they ended up guiding the groups of students between the teacher stations which required no english and they just kind of dumped the kids on me and moved out of sight till the time was up. Useless bums.

Orientation lasted about an hour or so and with the students in predetermined groups we moved on to the stations. Now the idea here is that each teacher has a spot and will do an activity with a group of about 20 kids for about 20 minutes. The idea was the groups would visit all the stations and see each teacher. It didnt quite work out like this but was close enough. We had a break for lunch but this was my day from about 10 till 3.30. I had come up with a few ideas i though would be fun for the kids during the week. Unfortunately these mostly relied on the students having the basics of the english language. They didnt. I thought the assistants would assist me. They didnt. In fact they looked at me as if i was crazy when i suggested it. For the first two groups i attempted to explain a game called 'murderer'. In this game everyone closes their eyes and i pick one as a murderer, their job is to kill everyone else without being found out while everyone is trying to find them. The whole point of the game is the victim dieing. In my head this was fun and cool because the students would fall around screaming in ever more elaborate ways. Sadly this was not to be as i found out when they couldnt understand 'close your eyes', 'kill' and 'die'. SO very frustrated i moved to my back up plan of "Simon Says". This is a pretty basic game that they should have been able to manage. Of the first two groups one of them picked up the rules of this game. The other group had zero english and zero interest in anything i tried. I was thoroughly disheartened by the time the next group came and moved onto my third game - Rainbow Tag. This is a version of 'Bulldog' where the students are split into colours and when i shout this colour that group runs, unless i shout rainbow and everybody runs. Since i managed to explain that all they had to do was run from one spot to another this proved the easiest game of the day to explain. However it took its toll on me as i knew to convey the message i would have to show them. So i spent time with the two groups chasing them around a patch of grass..... in almost 30 degree heat. Fun but exhausting.

After lunch i was advised to move into shade as it would get quite hot in the afternoon. This meant another game had to be brought into play. For the rest of the day i played two short games. One was a game i had used on the trips to the pratom (primary) schools where one person sits in the middle of a circle with their eyes closed, one person in the circle claps and the guy in the middle has to find the clapper. This gets old quickly hence why i needed a second game. For my sins i tried to play 'Buzz' with them. I thought it would work to an extent as it relies on knowing the numbers up to about twenty or so. For those who dont know it, you count around the group with each person saying a number but instead of the number 3 or multiples of 3 you say "buzz". I did a round of the group just getting the numbers straight and then introduced the buzz idea. Some students cant count to 20 in english so that was a problem right there. A good few students got the game and had a bit of fun but there was (as there always is) a few who couldnt care less and point blank ignored me until i was in front of them demanding a number and staring them down when they would panic and turn to the person beside them for help. One group actually did quite well and some of the students were looking around counting to find out if they were 'buzz' in advance which was great to see. Thankfully 3.30 rolled up and meant it was time for the talent show.

Im absolutely exhausted at this stage. The talent show doesnt require much input from me thankfully. The idea was that each group was given a sheet with a list of basic songs in english (some composed by my coordinator apparently) of which they would choose one and perform it on stage as a group with an accompanying dance routine. They all knew the songs before the day and knew the dances that went with each one. So no problems here right? Well each group got up and sang a song and danced along to it (extremely reluctantly) with each one on stage for, oh, maybe a minute or so before running back to the safety of the hall floor. But out of 14 groups, 10 did the same bloody song! After the 3rd time in a row i was sick of it but since i was the judge i had to listen to them all. The winner was the group that had a different dance routine to the song and looked to have put a tiny bit of effort in. They also looked like they had fun whereas the others did not. So ended the english camp and after a long and exhausting day shouting at kids i was ready to flake out.

Pics: 1. The view from my spot in the morning.
2. Some reluctant singers and dancers in the morning.
3. Some reluctant dancers in the afternoon.