Visiting North West Thailand - Part 3
Entry posted by theRascalKing ·
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The bus ride to Mae Hong Son from Pai was about the same as the bus ride from Chiang Mai to Pai. Rickety bus, winding mountain roads, and armed soldiers checking identifications (no laughing at me this time however).We rolled into Mae Hong Son just after lunch. First thing that I noticed about Mae Hong Son was in seemed more of a blue collar working class town. Not too many tourists. Urai had plans for us to stay at Friend's Place guest house. After checking in and having a very refreshing shower we rented a motorcycle and headed out.First stop was a temple close to the guest house. I took a couple of photos while exploring the grounds.
I decided to switch to my wide angle lens to get some different shots of the temple. When I was attaching the other lens I heard a "popping" sound. Much like the sound when a lightbulb blows. After that my camera would just not turn on at all. I tried changing the battery and the memory card. No dice. 
Sadness ensued as I have put many miles on that camera.So we went back to the guest house and I grabbed my point and click.We had a few places chosen to visit so we headed out of town an on our way to a waterfall north of Mae Hong Son. (I forget the name)
After that we visited the "cave fish". I was really expecting something more but all there was to see was a slight indention in the rock and an underground water tunnel where the fish lived.Urai, like myself, loves to see the countryside and the non-tourist spots. So, we both agreed to go off the regular tourist route and start exploring. Or as became the catch phrase of our trip .. "a new adventure".We headed roughly north again and passed some of the most beautiful scenery I have ever seen in Thailand! Maybe because some of it reminded me of Canada. 
We would drive around little villages and visit the small temples (again of Burmese design).
When taking photos of the fields near the village a small group of villagers gathered around us. I am sure tourists (let alone farang) never come to their sleepy village. Urai made small talk with them while I smiled and said 'Sawadeekrab'. 
We continued down the highway, stopping at villages here and there. After awhile the motorcycle felt a bit .. odd. A bit wobbly. Since we hadn't seen a village for over 5km I thought it best to head back to town (we were about 40km away from Mae Hong Son).I turned around and the wobbling got worse. I asked Urai if she felt something wrong with the motorcycle... she agreed that she did. I stopped and we both got off .. it was then we saw we had a flat tire!Oh **** .. what to do?We both kind of stared at the tire without saying a word. We neither had the tools nor the know-how to change a tire. Then we saw a motorcycle coming down the road. We flagged them down and Urai talked to them. The man said it was probably ok for one person to ride on the flat but not two. He said there was a repair shop in the next village about 1km away.We thanked him and he left (he had someone else on his bike so he couldn't have taken Urai even if he wanted to). I didn't want to leave Urai alone on this lonely stretch of highway but she insisted she would be ok and that the countryside was safe. So I started heading towards the next village at roughly 15kph. I rolled into the village and began scanning each side of the road for a tire repair shop. It was then I realized that I didn't know what a Thai tire repair shop looks like!As I wobbled into the village a girl of about 10 seen me, smiled and waved. I smiled back and pointed to the flat tire. She pointed down the road. Good good! I wobbled along some more and keeping a look out. I seen some little shops but nothing tire related. Suddenly I was at the edge of the village.Oh crap ... I must have missed it! Then I saw four men sitting in and around a truck. I stopped and again pointed at the flat tire. They all shook their heads. Oh crap! I pointed down the road and out of the village. Again they shook their heads and pointed back into the village. One of the men held up two fingers (not sure what it meant). I "Khup khun krab"-ed them and turned around.This time I looked even closer ... then I saw this (minus the motorcycle). Was this the elusive village tire repair shop? :
(In the larger version you can clearly see the tire inner tubes.) http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2189/1945407590_088edda068_b.jpgI rolled into the yard and looked around for someone .. anyone. Then suddenly a middle age woman came out from the banana trees on the left and wielding a machete (used for cutting down vegetation but hopefully not farang). She looked as shocked to see me as I was to see her.
I then pointed to the flat tire and she gave me a nod and the "just a minute" hand gesture. She made a call on her mobile phone and again made the "just a minute" gesture. We kind of stared at each other as she didn't speak English and my Thai is nothing more then "Hello, Thank you and Singha Beer please".About 10 minutes later Urai showed up on the back of a motorcycle. It seems she had her own challenges as the motorbike driver didn't speak Thai. She also had to resort to pointing and grunting. 
After a quick conversation with the machete wielding lady she told me the lady's son would be here soon to fix the tire. About 5 minutes later two teenage boys showed up on an OLD motorcycle. After a few laughs they got down to changing the tire.
The whole time they were changing the tire I couldn't get the scene from National Lampoon's Vacation where Chevy Chase's car needs repair and the country hicks charge him an insane amount of money out of my head. "How much will it cost?""How much you got?" But after finishing all they asked for was 60baht. I gave them 100 and insisted they keep the change. This seemed to make their day. :)With new tire Urai and I decided to head back to town and not tempt fate any longer.The next morning I woke up and didn't feel good at all. I will spare you the gory details but let's just say stuff wanted to come out both ends! Often at the same time.I thought I would be a trooper and fight it out. I didn't want to waste any of my time on this trip. I ate a few bites of toast for breakfast and Urai and I went to rent a car and driver. The things we wanted to see weren't too accessible by motorcycle.The first place we went was the Long Neck Karen village. 
There were many shops to buy the handicrafts that they make and at fairly reasonable prices. I picked up a few things for the folks back home.I always asked before taking their photos and felt a bit guilty when I didn't want to buy anything from them. After you looked at the first few shops you've pretty much seen it all.
The village looked very poor but the people seemed very happy. If memory serves me they are originally from Burma where they were violently persecuted so I guess things are better here in Thailand.
While we were there school was in session. Surprisingly we were allowed to walk around the school and even go in the classrooms.
The children were insanely cute and LOVED having their photo taken. The school rang out with the sounds of "PHOTO PHOTO!" 
I still wasn't really feeling good and the heat and humidity of the jungle wasn't helping matters. After about an hour in the village met up with our driver again.Next stop was a Chinese village near the Burmese border. The ride out of the Karen village and to the Chinese village included MANY turns and twists and many bumps. Not good for someone who is sick. After what seemed like HOURS we made it to the Chinese village.Well, maybe it was because I felt sick but the village wasn't too interesting to me. Just a village of people who migrated from China. I guess years ago there were epic battles with opium warlords .. but that is long past.The only thing that caught my eye was this sign:
No thanks Mr. Jata .. I think I will pass. My sickness was getting worse and I asked Urai if it was ok if we returned to the guest house. She had no problem with that and we got back around 2pm. I fell into bed and slept until 9am the next morning.When I woke up I felt a bit better and checked my phone. Urai had sent me an SMS letting me know she had headed on to the next destination (as was our plan .. she didn't abandon me). I then hopped a bus back to Pai where I spent a day and a half. Since I was feeling better I thought I would get a Thai massage. After finishing I asked the massage lady if she could recommend a good restaurant. She then told me that if I could wait one hour she would finish work and would take me to a restaurant. So an hour later I went back to the massage shop and went to dinner with her and her boss. After dinner we went to a bar to watch some live music. Thanks for the fun times Mon! Even with the sickness, flat tire and broken camera the trip to north west Thailand was amazing. I can't wait to visit there again!More and larger versions of my photos can be seen here:http://www.flickr.com/photos/therascalking/sets/72157603048199254/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/therascalking/sets/72157603058064162/
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