Mai Hong Song

  Mai Hong Song, Thailand
Saturday, August 7, 2004

The next morning we left Pai for Mae Hong Song. The bus was again overloaded, this time with hill tribe women who were heading back to their villages to restock the crafts that they sell to the tourists and flogging off the ones they hadn't sold on their last trip, I couldn't resist and had a buy a hat and bag. Again the bus ride was long and uncomfortable, with little kids peeing and throwing up all over the bus floor. We had soldiers that were only to happy to hug each other for the whole trip and again toilet stops were few and far between. Arriving in Mae Hong Song we found a nice and peaceful guesthouse which was quite modern, probably the best we had stayed in so far. We arrived around 3pm, so after freshening up we made our way to the markets to have some dinner. The local vendors didn't have much in the way of English skills so it was pot luck on what each serving was. I think Kendall would agree, but this was probably the hottest food we ate in Thailand. The food was that hot that our mouths become numb and the enjoyment of eating was hit for six. We were rushing around getting drink after drink to try and get some feeling back in our mouths. That evening we kept company with some geckos that were going about their business on the walls and ceilings of our room. We knew it was a good thing, as I watched them for some time chasing the mosquitoes and lapping them up with their tongues each time they landed, so we weren't going to complain with that.
 
The next day we hired a scooter so we could head up into the mountains and out to the hill tribes. I remember watching 60 minutes as a young child and seeing a story on the long neck villages. Back then I was mystified by these people, along with many others as the long neck women where being introduced to the world by the way of mass media. I had always thought visiting a place like this would be unreal, and now I was finally here. Although now a major tourist attraction, I was seeing with my own eyes these beautiful women with the strange rings around their necks. The village is part of refugee camp as long neck tribes and also big ear tribes have been caught between the Thai and Burmese boarder for some time now, with neither country wanting to give them citizenship. They live a very basic life and survive from growing their own food and selling crafts and paintings to the hoards of tourists that come each day to see these wonderful people. The story goes that the rings were placed around the women's necks to protect them from tigers, as we know tigers and other big cats make their kill by attacking the neck of their prey, so the metal rings placed around the women's necks would help protect them. Now days the rings make the women sexier to the tribesmen, so it's a bit more like wearing jewelry than personal protection now days. Too bad they can't take it off at the end of the day, since their neck muscles have been overstretched and the neck would simply not be strong enough to hold their heads up.

 
 
We headed back to Mae Hong Song following the same muddy, slippery track that we traversed on the way in. We choose then to ride out to waterfall for the afternoon but we couldn't find the turnoff which was shown on the map. We kept riding instead and came across a national park which had a waterfall sign, so we made our way into the NP. The road turned into a 4wd track and kept going up and up. The bike was struggling up the mountain track when it changed again into a walking size track, but I wasn't going to let this mountain bet my scooter. We kept going up, with the views getting more beautiful with each opening of the forest. We still couldn't find the waterfall so we decided to turn around and head back down, a wise choice since the rain had just started. I don't know about Kendall but I wouldn't like to be the one on the back of the bike on the way down this mountain. About half way down we came across a well hidden sign pointing to a track which made its way to a waterfall. We parked the bike of the track and made our way done to the waterfall by foot. It was about 1.5km along the track when we came across the beautiful waterfall were we could nude up and sit under the running water, and relieve the sore muscles from the days ride. Kendall got bitten by a small bug so we gathered up our gear and headed back to Mae Hong Song, just incase the bite was more nasty then we thought. Better safe then sorry, especially out in the middle of the jungle. Dinner that night again was an overly hot curry. We were back on the bus again the next day, so after some refreshing beverages we returned to the guesthouse to rest up.