Casual Spelunking, Pai Relaxation, and the Windy Road to the Golden Triangle - Motorbike Adventure Days 5-10

This past week, Northern Thailand experienced (and is hopefully done with) disaster zone worthy temperatures. At first I thought I might be hallucinating actually feeling COLD in a tropical climate, but now that it's in the news, my bundling up feels legitimized. I think today is the first day I've felt warm for more than half the day in a week or so which is exciting news. Before anyone says "ERIN IT'S 30 DEGREES IN SEATTLE," this is relatively freezing to me compared to the norm of 85+. Suddenly it feels a bit like Christmas!

Only one full day left on our roadtrip, so I'm trying to catch up on blogging while I have semi-decent WiFi in Phayao, and before I fall too far behind.

Last I posted, we were at CAVE LODGE, which is situated next to one of the biggest cave systems in Thailand, Tham Lod.

Per the park's requirements, we had to hire a local guide with a lantern, in order to transport us through the river and into the three main cave areas, via bamboo rafts. Super cool!

I don't think I've ever been in a cave that large before, my favorite part being the green limestone rocks, and my least favorite part was the crazy steep stairs in dim light, some covered in bat poop (GUANOOO).

I have to admit I struggled with my camera a bit as I haven't had much practice shooting in the dark, and the humidity didn't help. If you want to see the cave in all of its splendor, check out these photos, taken by the owner of Cave Lodge who has spent the last 30 years in the area.

Up and down, to and fro

Pai dog.
OK, if you can't tell, about 30% of my photos are of dogs.

Pai countryside

We headed to Pai, and after deciding to stay for 2 nights ended up eating way too much pizza, as well as had a lot of downtime. I don't think I'll be able to find pizza that good again in SE Asia (the same stuff I had at Thanksgiving) so things went a little overboard. :)

We made some friends who live in Chiang Mai that we might spend Christmas with, and were determined to track down the Reggae Festival we coincidentally timed our trip with.

Unfortunately Eric left his wallet at a strange carnival/market the night we planned on attending the festival, on the table for a literal cap gun (rifle) shooting game. When we returned a few minutes later it was gone - the first time bad luck has reared its ugly head in Thailand. Boo.

This put a damper on the evening, and while a fun trip to the police station was had (which included police officers fawning over Eric's panther tattoo), no wallet has turned up yet.

We planned on leaving Pai on Sunday morning, but a semi-monsoon came through town so we booked another night at our guest house. Of course the rain stopped about an hour later.

Eric goes to the Police

Fun with bugs

Last Monday we drove longest leg of our journey yet, from Pai to Fang City. This is where we left the Mae Hong Son loop (which we almost completed - we were about 35km short of finishing, but that would have put us back in Chiang Mai).

To be completely honest, the road from Pai to Chiang Mai intimidated me when I was a passenger in a minivan a few weeks ago, so I am really glad we did this (AKA the most challenging) part of the loop last.

This meant that I had more riding experience under my belt, and ended up being able to enjoy myself, instead of somewhat fearing each hairpin (and bumpy) turn as it approached.

I did end up a little "carsick" from the rollercoaster like journey, but this was when I also felt the most exhilarated, finally learning to to embrace how closely I can hug the road on my little bike.

About 3/4 of the way through the mountains is when the cold front became reality. It was almost excruciating and I started to wonder if you could get frostbite in Thailand. 250km later, we found ourselves in Fang City, proving again that we can cover a lot of road in a short period of time.

One of the Mae Hong Son Loop's many hairpin turns

Some gorgeous mountains on the way to Fang

I found a recommended hotel in Fang that is run by the Lahu hill tribe and they cook the BEST FOOD EVER. I wish we'd taken some pictures, but we devoured our 8+ courses (half of which were artfully deep fried) in record time. If I had a travel button and could go back to eat anywhere, I think this place would be in my top 5 spots. It was a very nice, unexpected surprise.

The double rainbow that greeted us at Fang

Endless winding roads

At last - it was time to drive to the Golden Triangle (where Thailand, Laos and Burma meet) via Mae Sai, the northernmost city in Thailand.

I told Eric we had plenty of time and to feel free to turn off whenever something looked fun, so we ended up following a sign for two waterfalls.

We only found a very small one (and ended up at a dead end road to get there), but the road and views leading to it were better than any waterfall I could have imagined.

We did find the trail to a waterfall after we hit the actual dead end of the road, but it was nothing in comparison to the one at Doi Inthanon. On our way back we went through a tiny village, where grain lined the streets in tarps and the families appeared to be either divvying it up or keeping it protected.

The end of the road

Grain?

View from where I ran out of gas - not bad

My scooter luck ran out again when we were almost to Mae Sai, as I run out of gas. Thankfully Eric noticed my absence (the extra gas is in the saddlebags of his bike... maybe an oversight) and showed up as I was contemplating setting up camp next to the side of the road for the night, as well as how the hell to get back in touch with him. Back on the road, we entered the coveted (to me... as it is on my "checklist") northernmost city.

Suddenly trapped in a horrible traffic jam, we turned around just as we discovered its source - we were headed straight for the border crossing into to Tachilek, Burma. Oops. The sun was setting as I ended up more frigid than I thought possible (now "Will I be the first farang to get pneumonia in Thailand?" raced through my head), but we hit the pedal to the metal as they say, and ended up at our intended resort as the sunset faded into darkness behind us.

Almost accidental crossing into Burma

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the road trip, which includes multiple (intentional) border crossings, a flower festival, Christmas partying with a hill tribe, and to be determined.

Remainder of cave photos here, Pai here, longhaul to Fang here, and taking the road less traveled to the Golden Triangle here.

-Erin

Scootin' Along - Days 1-5, Road from Chiang Mai to Soppong

We are currently sitting in the common area of our residence of the night, CAVE LODGE, which is just a skip away from one of Thailand's largest caves.

It's been an awesome first five days, learning to hug the neverending curves of the Mae Hong Son loop, my scooter frequently putt-putting like the Jetsons' car. We've been taking it pretty slow because Eric was fairly sick, but hey, no problem, we are on a loose timetable.

Watchirathon Waterfall

Day one involved a trek from Chiang Mai to the small town of Mae Chaem, climbing through Doi Inthanon National Park. It featured an awesome waterfall, and then my scooter's almost downfall.

Shortly after we left the waterfall parking lot, I noticed that my steering was wavering a bit. I thought maybe I was running out of gas so we pulled off at a viewpoint, when both Eric and some locals pointed at my poor flat rear tire. They motioned that if we drove down the dirt road to the next to us, that we would be able to find repair.

Boontam and his son

We slowly made our way to what ended up being the Mae Klang Luang hilltribe village. At first it seemed no one was able to help, but then a friendly man with a toddler pulled up on a scooter and recruited his brother to take me and my scooter in a truck to the nearest repair shop, which was about 5km away. The friendly man, Boontam, exclaimed breathlessly once we got to the repair shop, "I am so drunk." Apparently he had been drinking rice liquor all morning (it was only 1230pm!), so while we were rescued by the nice town drunk, I am thankful it was his brother who drove.

We had some food and a beer with Boontam (don't worry, staying well below the .04% Thai driving limit) to thank him for his help, and my new tire + transport only cost me about $10. If I can find rescue in the middle of a national forest, I am confident that we will make it through the rest of this trip unscathed.

Ban Mae Klang Luang - their livelihood is rice crops and tourism

Beer with Boontam

Hills of Mae Chaem

Our journey that day literally peaked at the highest point in Thailand at the top of Doi Inthanon, but as it was socked in with clouds and fog, we were unable to appreciate the view. It was SO cold, though, and I'm glad we decided against camping in the park that night. We ended our day in the nearest city of Mae Chaem after getting turned around a few times and found a bungalow for the night. We were tired and unable to navigate the real town of Mae Chaem in the dark, so ate a quick dinner and headed to bed.

The next morning we got turned around in navigation a few times - I do NOT know what I would do without both my phone with a data plan and the locals, and easily conquered the 128km to our next evening's destination, Mae Sariang, in a few hours. People, including a man from Wenatchee we ran into in Chiang Mai, kept giving us skeptical looks about our planned distances of travel, but we must just kick ass at traveling via bike. 

The road that day included a stop at one of the MANY Royal Agricultural Research Stations where there were water buffalo grazing. We decided to put the camping gear I purchased to work and went to Salawin National Park, right outside of Mae Sariang. 

On the way to the campground, an army officer noticed my bag was falling off my bike and helped me re-strap it on, and it turned out he lived at the campground. Suddenly we had an escort to take us there and help check us in. 

Our camping spot ended up being in the lawn right in front of the headquarters building, which was a little strange. We were visited by an owl in the night that would NOT leave us alone, but was a patient photo subject, and there were many large creepy bugs in the bathrooms. My dad (the bird expert!) guessed that we were impeding on the owl's territory - sorry owl.

Thanks Army officer!

Hey!

Eric's illness started to peak the next morning so we drove the quick distance north to Khun Yuam, and after checking out the dying sunflower fields (we were about a month too late), settled at a nice resort in the hills, where we had the top floor of a two story building. 

Eric took to the king size bed and napped for a while, then we watched some ridiculous Thai soap operas, and I went to bed in the coolest window seat ever which was large enough for a mattress.

My sleeping area

View from deck

Still not feeling any better the next day, we finally bit the bullet and take Eric to the hospital at the next largest city north (which was also an intended destination) in Mae Hong Son. Mae Hong Son is a province, city AND what the loop we are driving on is called, which can be a little confusing. We got to the strange hospital and Eric went to the "ER" - a large room with multiple curtained off areas and no patients (it seemed all the Thai patients were crowded into another area). He was seen by a doctor who appeared to be half his age (Thai Doogie Howser!), but they confirmed he had no infection, which was what we really wanted to know, and sent him on his way with some medication. 

We went to a recommended guest house on a small lake in the middle of the city, rested, checked a temple and the night market, and I bought about 7 bags made by the Lisu hilltribe. Oops.

Today was definitely the most eventful yet. Eric almost feels human again, and the roads just keep getting more and more fun as we go along. I wanted to see a Chinese tea village on the Burmese border I head read about, so we started up a mountain and ended up distracted by another agricultural research station, that turned out to be some kind of zoo/animal sanctuary.

We played zoo tourist, then took off for the tea village, on a picturesque lake. Naturally we ate and did a tea tasting, which involved interesting technique. They pour the tea into a small tea "shot glass," then quickly flip it over into an actual tea glass and let it sit for a minute. Then they remove the shot glass and you are supposed to smell the tea flavor that way. It was absolutely delicious!

The lake at Mae Aw, Chinese Tea Village

Terrible tourists

Tea tasting

Back on the road, we visited to the Fish Cave along the way, which as Eric read, was just.. uh, fish, in a kind of cave. Not too exciting. We backtracked about 1km at the suggestion of my friend Jesse and found the monk who has lived at another cave for 10 years. We checked out the cave digs, and took some photos with the monk while I kept hearing something screeching in the background. I thought an animal was dying, but then the monk led us behind his "kitchen" and there was a small monkey, looking terrified on the roof... 

I can't make this shit up, the monk had a pet monkey. A monk and his monkey. It was hilariously wonderful and one of the random surprises that makes travel awesome.

There was no real way to top that, outside of a viewpoint on our way into Soppong. Tomorrow we will take a sunsent tour at 530am to the famous cave. 

Monk Cave

Road to Tam Wua Forest Monastery

After some sunrise cave exploration, we will drive to Pai, then abandon the rest of the Mae Hong Son loop, which would  just take us back to Chiang Mai. Onward and upward to the northernmost city of Thailand, and the Golden Triangle, where the countries of Thailand, Laos and Burma meet.

I think I've found a lifelong obsession with motorbike travel after just 5 days, and can't wait to continue to see the globe (and re-explore my home - Darryl is onboard!) in such a freeing fashion. 

My butt might be a little bit sore, but in the end, the journey is truly the destination.

-Erin

Doi (Mt.) Suthep and Thanksgiving in Pai

OK, I'm going to admit it. Choosing a destination (AKA Chiang Mai) for more than a few weeks has made me relatively lazy and ruined the early morning motivation and momentum I had in Phuket.

About two weeks ago, in an attempt to break myself out of my non-routine, I walked about an hour west and caught a songthaew (a red truck type of "bus" system in Chiang Mai) up to the top of Doi Suthep, a jungle mountain that towers over the city.

There is a major temple there that you need to walk 300+ steps up to, giving the Howe St. stairs at home a run for their money.

The golden chedi up top is spectacular, though I'm not sure how it didn't blind my eyes in the penetrating sun.

There were hundreds of tourists adoring the temple and chedi up top. One side of the temple grounds provides an overlook of the city of Chiang Mai - one of the main reasons I came up here. I will definitely have to go back and see the temple for a sunset before I leave because the colors of the sky in the morning here are usually pretty incredible.

I think a favorite part of my trip to the mountain was when I walked back down the stairs at dusk. Suddenly there were neon lights illuminating the stairs and parts of the temple to guide your way back.

It was great to get a little bit out of the city, but I still needed a little bit more of a nudge to get back on track. Thailand always throws a mixed bag of coincidental and unexpected adventures (and people) my way to keep me on my toes. Kristin, a friend of my good friend Nick happened to be passing through Chiang Mai with her roommate Aaron, so we met up and explored the city by foot and bicycle. When they mentioned that they were going to head to Pai for Thanksgiving, I asked to tag along, and I'm so glad that I did.

Pai is about 3 hours north of Chiang Mai by minibus, and the road boasts an impressive 762 curves.

I was amazed to see that there was some type of pine tree thriving at the highest point of our drive. It's hard for me to believe when it's usually 86 degrees in Chiang Mai, but the temperature can drop to below freezing in the mountains.

Once in Pai, we found a bungalow to stay at and quickly exhausted the options of the town itself. Pai is a pretty small and hippie-centric town, though it has developed a lot over the past 10-20 years. The allure of Pai for me isn't really the town itself, but the endless options for exploration, using Pai as home base.

After eating (2 meals for me - soup followed up with pizza, happy Thanksgiving! ;), we connected with a group of Dutch guys that Aaron had met in Vietnam. It was at that time that we decided the best option for the next day was to form a small motorbike gang and take on the countryside of Pai.

I was excited to get some practice with a group of more experienced riders, and to break out of my comfort zone a little. It was beyond worth it and opened my eyes to a whole new world of travel.

We were only on the road for about 3 minutes when we had to pull over to take pictures from a gorgeous viewpoint. I found myself smiling uncontrollably as we rode off to our next unknown destination.

We set out originally to find some hot springs, but ended up at a "trailhead" for a waterfall. Unfortunately after walking about 10 minutes down the river, we discovered that there was no land trail that anyone could find, and we would have to continue up the river about 2-3 hours to reach the waterfall.

Some of us didn't bring a change of shoes (and the hike would have probably left us walking back in the dark), so we turned around and got back on our motorbikes.

We found a national park with hot springs. After haggling (OK, we showed them our driver's license and they thought it was a student ID), we got into the park for a less obnoxious fee. "Farangs," aka white tourists/expats consistently are charged more for services, but I don't mind paying to support the parks. :)

We headed in and found the multi-tiered hot springs, each pool hotter than the next as you approached the source.

I had a worry in the back of my mind because Darryl told me Axle wasn't acting normal (spoiler alert: he's fine, thank god!), so after we grabbed some dinner I went back to our guest house so I could keep in touch.

Aaron and Kristin left the next day to go to a monastery at Mae Hong Son (even further northwest) for 3 days, where they meditated with monks, as well as fasted for 20 hours a day.

I decided I would head back "home" to Chiang Mai so I could keep tabs on Axle as I wasn't sure whether I'd be able to keep in touch via cell phone if I went to the monastery. It turned out that Axle was fine, but I'm still glad I went back. It feels terribly helpless to know something might be wrong when you are thousands of miles away.

The rest of this week I've spent trying to prep for my next big adventure, with a friend (Eric) from my hometown who happens to also have left his life in Seattle to travel the world. We leave this morning - it's 66 degrees out and I'm freezing, which is very confusing.

What's the plan? A very loose 2 week itinerary involving touring the Thai countryside via motorbike. I promise I'll be safe, cautious and focused on the road, but I would have some serious regret if I didn't take this opportunity. Every account I have read has said that motorbiking (they are 125cc scooters honestly, ha!) the north is the best decision they made while in Chiang Mai.

So here we go... no reservations made, just on the open road and taking it day by day.

-Erin

Full set of photos from Wat Doi Suthep here.
Pai here.
And another mini temple exploration I didn't blog about - here.