Jungle is massive
I stay a day extra, as I can’t possibly miss the England match by being on a bus overnight. Though it was quite dull, and I wouldn’t have missed much after all.
I leave the island to catch a coach to Chiang Mai. I’m quite surprised it turns out to be a huge luxury double decker full of people from Bangkok- they are even more confused that it has stopped in what does look like the middle of nowhere to pick up one passenger! The bus stopped near to Chiang Mai (you never actually seem to get dropped off in the place you head for!) at about 6am the next day, and I head straight to the bus depot. I am heading west first, and will come back to Chiang Mai later.
Pai is a small village a bumpy 4 hours away on the bus, but is worth every minute. It’s a quiet little place next to the river, even more quiet as it’s low season. I stayed in a little bamboo bungalow next to the river, great spot, shame about the mozzies! The first afternoon, I wander around, and bump into the girl I was sitting by on the bus north. Turns out she is staying at the same place, which is a bit of a coincidence considering how many guest houses there are. Pai is in the jungle, and we take advantage of this and spend a day with Mr O, a guide, who takes us through his village into the hot and sweaty hills beyond- complete with signs warning us of the King Cobras. 
We are fed various leaves, roots and fruits, and discover a plant that curls up when you stroke it’s leaves. The hill tribe villages we pass through are modern, and it’s nice to see things as they really are, and not as they have been preserved for tourists. Another highlight is the motorbike ride to and from the starting point, and between a few of the outlying villages.
The next day we take a cookery course, where we cook a huge feast for lunch and dinner, and visit the local market to sample some of the weird and wonderful fruits that are present in this part of the world. I now have some more extra spicy recipes to try out on you lucky people when I return (though it might be difficult getting the skin of a Kafir lime in Tescos, or a galangal root….)
The morning after England’s second match, I head a bit further west to Mae Hong Son.
If Pai was experiencing low season, then this place is experiencing positively ultra-low season! It’s more of a working – town, but still very quiet. I don’t take to the place at first as it’s so hot and humid, and seems a bit boring, with little charm. Later on, I have a look at what I can do, and end up signing up for an overnight trip deep into the jungle here. Three of us are taken by a guide and a man from a local village to see some more traditional villages. I think they are more primitive here because they are a lot farther from civilization than they are in Pai. The first day is spent trekking along a high path, and then descending to the guide’s village where we will spend the night. We are made to feel welcome in his house, eating and drinking our way around the 8 bamboo huts, and learn about some of the traditions of the Hmong and Karen (not long necked) tribes. We sleep on the entrance balcony to the hut under a mozzie net. In the Karen village we stay in, there are small solar panels to provide electricity for a few lights, radios and the one tv in the school. After an interesting evening, the cockerels crow at 4.30am, and a few hours later we start the long and hot trek (8 hours) further into the jungle, across many waist deep rivers and finally back to the road. It was an interesting view of a way of life that is changing, and probably will not exist any longer than our lifetimes.
As I’ve been disorganised and not sorted out my visa for Laos (it costs the same to get a month in advance, as it does to get two weeks at the border), I do this from Pai and while I wait for it and my passport to come back from Bangkok, I go back to Chiang Mai. This is a busy but pleasant city, with an old walled island where I stay.
I take a trip into the Golden Triangle area – the area formed by Thailand, Laos and Burma (Myanmar). Once the opium poppy made the area very rich, and the it was an important trade route.
There’re a few touristy signs to pose by, which I did, including “Thailand’s most northerly point” at Mae Sai on the Burmese border.
On the way back we stop at a refugee area where the Long Neck Karen tribe live and make their money from manufacturing traditional goods. Interestingly, the hoops they where round their necks (heavy brass, and only on women from the age of 6) do not stretch their necks, but push their shoulders down.
It’s a long drive back to Chiang Mai through the jungles and limestone mountains.
I’ve taken a Thai language course. The first language I have attempted since the disastrous attempt they had at teaching me French at school, this was much better, mainly because it wasn’t in a classroom near the M6, but in a leafy garden in the early evening sun.
I’m now back in Pai for one final time (after a chaotic and wet bus journey remansicant of those in India), and hung around doing absolutely nothing with some of the people that travelled up here at the same time as me.
My passport made it to Bangkok. Strangely I have been allowed to go for 60 days, on a visa that doesn’t seem to officially exist, not that I have any intention of being there that long! Tonight at 11pm I will be leaving for the border and the 2 day slow boat down the Mekong.
Thailand has been fun so far, and I’ve still got a bit of island hopping to do in a few months. It’s such a change from India, much … easier, I think is the main thing! There’s more of a holiday atmosphere, and Thai people really know how to enjoy themselves!
Tags: Travel
Nick