A Trip to Pai and Mae Hong Son

Carol and I had a few days free while the students were on their Home Stay.  We booked a car and driver and headed out Thursday morning for the drive to Pai.  The Lonely Planet says that there are 782 curves between Chiang Mai and Pai and I believe it.  It was a twisty turny two lane road with lots of potholes, landslide areas, cars and scooters.  I am glad I was not driving on this one.  Our driver and guide was a man named Kid who we found to be extremely knowledgeable, interesting, accommodating and an all around nice guy.  We enjoyed his company a lot.  We asked to see villages along the way and he stopped at a couple of them where we were able to view village life unaltered for any tourism.  The people didn't particularly care if we were there and made no effort to engage with us - actually they totally ignored us.  Kid stopped on the side of the road and asked an old woman if the road to one certain village was drivable.  She assured him that it was, so off we went on this one lane, very narrow road down a fairly steep slope.  In about a kilometer, the pavement stopped and the muddy ruts started.  I felt the car slide a time or two and started to be just a bit concerned.  About then, the car slid into the huge rut and got stuck up against the side of the hill.  MMMMMM what to do now?
Kid and I strategized
while Carol collected
branches and sticks to
place in front of the
stuck tire. I pushed back
on the car a little and

was then able to plant
my feet on the side of
the hill and my back to
the car and pushed out
as Kid eased forward
with the wheels cut
sharply out of the rut.
 Hey - it worked.





We were able to then turn around and decided to forgo the visit to that particular village.  On to Pai - a backpackers' and hippie haven.  Lots of rasta people, crafts people, street food, and a real laid back atmosphere.  We enjoyed a couple of days of R&R and then on to Mae Hong Son.  Another 700 or so curves and we were in an even smaller but really pretty town.

This is looking across the lake in the middle of the town out to the main temple in town.  We enjoyed our one night at the Fern Resort (Brad and Anjelina stayed there a few years ago).  Had dinner and lots of beer with a Dutch guy who comes to Thailand on his annual vacation, rents a scooter and travels all around the smaller provinces.

One of the highlights was a ride on a long boat down the river to visit a Koran Tribe Of the Long Neck Women.  The boat ride was fun and the villagers were very friendly.  They make their living now exclusively through tourism and selling their locally made scarves, jewelry and carvings.

We then had a rather long ride back to Chiang Mai but really loved our excursion.