The Mighty Mekong

After three hours of rattling north and east on the local bus I am in Chiang Khong.

                                             The local bus, top speed about 60 km/hr

Getting here was the only requirement of the day. Having done that, I am sitting on an over grown and shaded terrace sipping a coffee and smoking a puro. Below me the Mekong river is flowing past and on the far bank is Laos.

As I relax, bumble bees the size of hummingbirds ate working the flowering bushes around me. These ate the chunkiest flying insects I have ever seen and they are busy.

                                         The Mekong, a river boat, and Laos on the other bank.

The rest of the day I plan to devote to leisure. I may have to find a nook for the boat ride as I have finished the Jamie Ford and Sloane's funny-assed NUC essays. All I have left is Patti Smith's "Just Kids" and that is going fast.

Be well!!'
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Chiang Rai

This morning introduced me to my first Thai "breakfast included" city hotel. Lukewarm instant coffee and toast. OK toast and marmalade is a novelty, the coffee went untouched but the perfect bananas made it fine.
I am glad I bailed off the bus here. I had planned on going straight on to Chiang Kong but a few little words about CR kept getting to me ears.

I had an easy bus ride of less than four hours, air-con first class. For the very few baht in price the first class buses are the only way to go. I found the hotel within blocks and got checked in. Even cheaper here. The usual shower and back out in the streets.  Chiang Rai reminds me of a little tiny Bangkok mixed with a dose of Chiang Mai's hipness minus 90% of the falang.

                                                                      The Local Wat

Real shops selling hardware and clothes mixed with Wats and a few good bars and eating houses. I made merit at the first Wat near my hotel, walked the streets to the amazing main street with its
Golden clock tower which is like a stupa and then to the main Wat.

The story is that centuries ago lightning struck the original stupa which burst apart to reveal the jade Buddha hidden within. After the usual storied trek including a stint in Laos, the jade Buddha ended in Bangkok where it is ensconced at the royal Wat.

                                                         The "New" Emerald Buddha

In the 1990's another jade Buddha was commissioned, carved from Canadian jade and eventually housed in a wonderful new cheda on the grounds of the Forest Wat here in CR. And it is pretty spectacular.
I walked the museum as well at the urging of an elder monk. Buddhas, Buddhas and more Buddhas. We aren't in Kansas anymore my little fundamentalist Toto.

I saw that the Saturday market was setting up so back to the hotel for a quick rinse and grabbed a cigar. Out the door and not 50 meters I passes a tattoo shop that was all funkadelic. The Thai owner says "you need a seat" and motioned to the log section stools. I held up my cigar and he smiles and offered me a Chang.
We talked some and smoked and watched his dog and the people walking by. So very cool.

 I finished my cigar, thanked him and headed fir the market and "walking dinner". Tonight the menu included the best papaya I have ever had followed by corn on the cob. Third course was a banana fritter and then a small fish bun treat. Between courses I had roast cricket, as in just one, and then a red bean humbow. Whew!

                                             The Saturday Night Market, Chiang Rai, Thailand

                                    Your guess is as good as mine.  The food is supposed to be good.

The rest of the evening was spent drinking nam-soda at a very fun reggae bar that was a food mix of falang and locals.

Chiang Rai is my favorite "bigger" Thai city so far. I will be coming back.
Today is the rattletrap bus northeast

To Chiang Khong and then into Laos tomorrow.

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Chiang Rai

I can't believe I was going to pass through here without stopping. Chiang Rai is so laid back and so much fun.

More blogging tomorrow but sleep now.

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Rough

Left the guesthouse and after 2 km found the path North, across the mountains. This is Karin hill tribe country.
And path it was.

                                                   A really, really good section of the "road"

 Today was about serious riding, all playing at adventure riding gone away. The goat paths dished out the punishment with huge ruts, washouts, rocks and even mud from springs in the hills.  Kilometer after kilometer, bouncing and spinning dirt, it was an incredible ride. I was thankful for the monk's blessing.

                                                  Crazy Monks at a deserted hilltop Wat

Aside from making merit at a hilltop Wat, it was all about the ride.  Lost, deadends, backtracking, it was all part of the day. And the surprised looks on villagers faces when I moto-ed into view.

                                              Contemplation in spite of the Nagas

                                                       Getting Lost has huge benefits

Dreaming

No, I did not ride over this bridge

                                         Noodles!!  The reward at the end of another lost section

Eventually I found Chang Mai, road the rush hour traffic like a Thai, and shed dirt, sweat, and the moto at the guesthouse. A shower and massage made everything perfect.

Today I leave Chang Mai for the north, heading for Chang Rai by bus.

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Mae Na Chon

Safely stopped for the day at a fairyland of a guesthouse that feels like Rivendell. My bungalow juts out over the river and has a slat floor that you can see through. There are open exes and a lovely big bed with mosquito netting. The profits from the guesthouse benefit the attached school for 50 kids from hamlets too small to support their own schools.

                                                            Did Elves build this place?

I started the day climbing to the Qar above Mae Hong Son to watch the sun rise over the misty valley. I was still fighting some tummy troubles but so what.

                                                          Morning in Mae Hong Son

                                             This Wat was my next door neighbor.  Cool, huh?

Back down to town I packed and road south. The day was perfect sunny and warm. I was near the "long-neck" villages but took a pass as they seem like human zoos to me. I did stop to see two elephants. Oh well.

I rode south, eating up the kms and the twisty loveliness. At Mae Surim I stopped for noodles while the local village women watched. I was urged to go to the Wat which I did, down a path just wide enough for the bars of the moto.

                                                Yuppers, that is really a noodle shop

The Wat was a little gem and a beehive of construction on an obvious volunteer level. The head monk greeted me while daily teachings went out over the village loudspeakers from a sophisticated stereo set-up.
I saw the donation "tree" and quickly added 20 baht. I was toured by the monk, then given a goody bag of fresh tamarind, bananas, water and soy drinks. Why didn't I donate 100 baht?!?  While I was trying to strap the goods on the moto, the monk blessed the moto and then me as well.

                                                Blessings from the monk and tears from me

I left the Wat and then the main road. I was allowed through another rebel checkpoint a rode a 50 km loop through heaven and then back to the main road.

I headed east on the road to Mae Chaem. I hit reserve and kept going but saw no fuel. Finally I stopped in a hamlet and had my first village gas event. While the shop keeper was summoned the folks turned out to watch. Four liters from a gravity fed barrel to a lychee with a spout and I was on my way after goodbyes and email exchanges.

                                                          This is really a gas station

And here I am and so is my dinner.
Be well.
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Mae Hong Son

Riding the dirt in Northwest Thailand.

I left Ban Tham and Cave Lodge on a perfect Thai day. Sunny and 75 degrees. John Spies, the owner of Cave Lodge suggested I take the dirt roads and loop up towards the Shan Army checkpoint on road 1226. "maybe they let you through, maybe they don't".

Riding packed earth roads on the little XR 250 I was glad for a real off-road moto. I drifted through the tiny hamlets of Ya Pa Nae and Mae Lana while avoiding hogs and piglets an roosters and small waving Shan children. At 1226 I headed North on "mostly" pavement and then mostly not through Mai Hung and then the checkpoint.

The Shan army are an ethnic rebel group fighting the Mynmar government. They are one of several ethnic groups from Burma who are actively fighting inside Burma from bases in Thailand that are allowed by the Thai Government.

The Shan soldiers I met were very professional and very orderly. The checkpoint soldiers allowed me to go as far as Pang Kham on the "main" road only.

I rode along the ridge looking into Burma, just across the valley to the North.

In Pang Kham there was no guest house so I had tea with a group of village women who laughed at me Thai in a nice way.

Back through the hills and valleys to the checkpoint, back to the loop highway and hell, we're exploring right? So north again on the road to Pang Kong. Went halfway through more incredible hamlets and Karst mountain towers. Back south from Na Pu Pon because I really do have to get to MHS today.

But wait, where does that bridge go to? Up an incredibly steep switchbacking snake of a mountain path that quickly goes to double track, rutted and rough. Now we're having fun!!

At 1 km I met the bamboo logging guys. They are pointing and making house mime signs and urging me to keep going. At 7 km I meet the second crew that makes sleeping mime, pointing at me and then up the goat path that is now getting really rough.

And at 10 km is the most beautiful, isolated, and dead end hamlet I have ever seen. I was big news. Even the pigs and roosters came put for a stare.

I was invited to sleep in the village, offered a beer, etc, but I was too far north and would have to abandon the loop if I stayed. So I did my most polite exit with many thanks and headed back riding the ruts like a madman

Finally at the highway I stayed on course and got to HMS. I am now at a beautiful guesthouse right on the town center lake next to two Wats. Ivan hear the monks doing stuff over the wall.

There is just so much more than I can share about today. I can say that if today was my last day in earth, I would not wish to change anything.

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Cave lodge

My day started in the tiny hamlet next to the guesthouse I am staying in outside of Soppong. I was looking for tea but there is no real cafe or noodle stand. I asked a local villager where I could get some and she stopped what she was doing to make a pot and then shared it with me while the monks did their rounds. Amazing.

The rest of the day was spent with five of us chasing our Shan guide up and down tiny trails through bamboo thickets, mountain forests and three stupendous caves. The guide was, although very kind and helpful, a walking machine.

                                      John is saying "Follow Mr. Park, your guide and good luck.."

                                                     Over hill, over dale, chasing Mr. Park

The caves included snakes, spiders, blind shrimp and blind cave fish.

                                                            Putting on the cave gear

                                                          This guy guards the cave

                                                Yuppers, John said it would get dirty

                                                   Fossils!! That's why its called "Fossil Cave"

 In the second cave we had to crawl and almost belly slide through a foot of water for several hundred yards. Yeah Baby!! Trekking for the strong of leg, lung and heart.

                                             Waterfall Cave, nestled into this limestone cliff

                                                          We got real small in here

                                                              Steamy, steamy breath

                                                     Looking out of Christmas Cave

                                                                    Serious Formations

                                                         Very Happy Spelunker Boy

Last night I watched hundreds of thousand is Swifts returning to their cave at twilight. The river that runs past the lodge disappears into this huge cavern and emerges a kilometer later.

Tomorrow I will force myself to leave and I will ride to the most northwestern corner if Thai and the Burmese border.

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