Kippy

Gpanda,
Yes - part 3 will be our jaunt round Northern Thailand.
I think that writing a report on the hoof is a great idea and one that I might adopt on future trips. It would be fine if we stayed in places with internet acccess, however so many of the internet places we went to were very hot and airless and word would get out very quickly amongst the local mosquito population that I was a sitting target and so often I would have to beat a retreat - too late.
I know what you mean about impressions though and when I read reports which are being written as they go I find they are so evocative I get transported a bit to that place too.

Gpanda

My first two reports were written after our return from notes and memory. The facts were present in proper chronological order (I do note that some choose to write non-chronological reports), but there was an element of lifelessness present. My last two reports were written on the fly and I think they read much better. Plus, I avoided the late fees.

K-While I have not yet been strafed by mosquitoes on the internet, I have posted from some rather seedy establishments. I found that it added to the flavor, plus it kewpt me from running endlessly on.

Kippy

A LONG DRIVE THROUGH NORTHERN THAILAND


We set off from Baan Orapin with Poon as our driver with my travel bag strapped into the front seat of her Mercedes, like a passenger. As we had been with Poon two days earlier, it was nice to be setting off on a journey with someone familiar.

We drove straight past all the tourist attractions of snake, orchid and butterfly farms, monkey and elephant shows in the Mae Rim valley to Mae Sa and Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens. The gardens had many different areas including nature trails. Most impressive were the large greenhouses holding plants from different climatic zones especially one really huge one with an aerial walkway with many tree ferns and lush tropical plants and a artificial stream and waterfall which rivals anything at Kew Gardens.

After leaving there, we headed off up a broad valley until we turned left off up towards Doi Angkhang. We passed through many orange plantations and stopped to buy some at one of the many stalls lining the road. Then the road started to climb. Good surface and wide enough, but kind of steep for Poon’s car and some really tight hairpin bends. Finally, we arrived at the Royal Agricultural Project at Doi Angkhang. Poons car was seriously overheated by this time and so we got the bonnet open to cool the engine off and headed straight into the magnificent greenhouse, which was full of all sorts of really healthy plants. There was a shop/tearoom area in the greenhouse and we ended up with some lovely, fragrant organic green tea and cake and a fresh strawberry ice drink – delicious. We bought some dried mango, which turned out to be salty and so not quite what I was expecting! What we saw of the rest of the project was more than worth our detour up to Doi Angkhang. There was a garden with a lovely collection of bonsai trees, some pots being planted like little woods; a lovely big rock garden area which was planted with a mixture plants from the familiar to the exotic and a rose garden. There were many gardeners in evidence replanting areas. All this against the backdrop of incredibly blue skies, probably because the air was cooler. Like the botanical gardens, there were no other tourists, although there were some hill tribe women selling jewellery and bags. I noticed that these women had terrible betel-rotted teeth.

We were booked into Angkhang Nature Resort, which is just near the project. The rooms are teak buildings with balconies overlooking the valley set in nice gardens. The hotel was full of Thai and some Chinese tourists, all very wrapped up against the chill of the air. There was a log fire in the reception and all the staff were in outdoor jackets and coats, some with scarves and hats too, so they seemed to feel the cold. Surprisingly, there were a few HUGE mosquitoes, despite the cold, and I had to have the room sprayed – not before getting an equally huge bite in my foot. The warm duvets and blankets turned out to be necessary. I was disappointed that with so many oranges for sale in the valley below that we had orange squash instead of the real thing for breakfast. The morning was lovely here. The valley was filled with mist, which we were way above and the chill air was really refreshing.

Once we were back on the flat, we stopped to fill up with diesel where an army of attendants came to do everything, except they forgot to put the filler cap back on. We stopped at a newish temple overlooking a river and had to had to make a makeshift cap with tape to stop the diesel sloshing out before heading off up into the hills again (not too high or steep) to Doi Mae Salong. This small town is definitely more Chinese than Thai in flavour and aside from some hill-tribe people selling tourist stuff was more like being in a small town in China than in Thailand because of the number of Chinese KMT who got refugee status there. Because of all the government initiatives to replace opium production with other crops, there is much evidence of things like tea for sale in the town. Many Chinese shops full of different grades of tea which you can sample and all manner of chinese teapots and teasets for sale. We had lunch here and like many places, this was made much simpler by having Poon explain that we didn’t eat meat. We stopped off at the 101 Tea Plantation to take a look at green tea production. Green trees bushes grow much closer to the ground than bushes grown for the production of black tea, which I have seen in India and Sri Lanka and we didn’t see any being picked. Nor could we find anyone to show us around the production area and so we had to do a bit of guess work as to what was what.

Eventually, we emerged from the hills and headed up 110 towards Mae Sai stopping for temple and caves (which were closed) with lots of monkeys. There were all kinds of shenanigans going on there - puppies chasing chickens; monkeys chasing puppies, compounded by young monks teasing all of them with food.

Next stop – Mae Sai, a border town that just rose up on either side of the highway which was still flat. At the end of the road is a bridge over a river, immigration gatehouses and the border with Myanmar. There was a fair amount of foot and bicycle traffic across the border, but in no way were we tempted to cross. Poon had booked us into the Wang Thong hotel, which was very Chinese in style. Our room had a balcony overlooking the town to Burma. Poon took us for dinner to a street stall where we had a really tasty meal produced out of minimal facilities and then on to another stall for the best banana roti. We pottered around a bit, but this was a place that closed early and we headed off for an early night with a long day and drive ahead again next day.

Our first stop was the Opium Museum, which was another case of a royal project being done on a really grand scale. It couldn’t really have been improved upon, especially the long tunnel between the entrance and the main area, which, it later became clear, went right through a hill and that was why you couldn’t see anything of the main facility from the entrance area. It is an impressive place and we were reminded of Britain’s part in the whole history of opium. We learned that what we had bought in Luang Prabang as old Lao currency was actually Chinese and some Thai opium weights.

On to the Golden Triangle, after stopping to check out Anatara which was just lovely and now right up there on places we want to stay. We then retraced our route back up to Doi Tung to the Queen Mother Memorial building and the magnificent gardens - very busy with lots of Thai visitors and parties of school children. We walked on up to the Queen Mother’s villa which she had built - a fusion between Thai architecture and Swiss chalet. Very simple and elegant lines and peering through the windows at herown apartment, modestly furnished. After seeing some more of the project with macadamia nut and coffee production we realised that time was getting on and we had to get back to Chiang Mai. Long drive back to Chiang Mai through hilly countryside and difficult roads especially in the dark.

Stayed overnight in Yaang Come Village, which turned out to be right next to Whole Earth restaurant, yet we hadn’t noticed it when we ate there. Nice large room, beautiful bathroom complete with its own urinal – that was a first ever, anywhere. Chiang Mai had been decorated for the upcoming Kings birthday with flowers on the main bridges and lots of pictures of the King with floral displays around.

Next morning Poon turned up with a van and driver for our drive to Mae Sariang. On the way out of town, Poon stopped and went off into a restaurant to emerge with fish and noodles for our lunch as there wouldn’t really be anywhere to stop later.
We drove to Doi Inthanon. We parked on the road and then took a shuttle pick up to two modern temples. It turned out to only be about 200 meters! There was some ceremony going on with the air force in honour of the King’s birthday and we arrived just in time to see hill tribe children doing traditional dances in front of a large picture of the kings which was surrounded in an enormous arrangement of flowers. That was a complete delight and surprise and because the children were there doing a display it was fine to be taking photos of them in their beautiful costumes.
After driving more through the national park, we stopped of at some good waterfalls where we had our very welcome picnic lunch – clever, thoughtful Poon.
We made a few more stops on the way to Mae Sariang – one at a 15th century wat at Chom Thong with an ancient bo tree whose sagging branches are supported by dozens and dozens of coloured supports – more than necessary, but no doubt placed by the devoted in hope of gaining merit. Was very tempted by the white water rafting at Ob Luang Gorge, but we were unprepared and so pressed on to Mae Sariang for our next overnight stop.

We stayed at River House hotel with fine views of the river and a lovely sunset on our balcony and after looking askance at a meal being served in the hotel, we followed our Rough Guide’s advice not to be put off by the basic appearance of Inthira restaurant. We have eaten in a lot more basic, but probably not as well as in this restaurant – very friendly and they were keen to find out how we had heard of them.

Next day we ended our long drive at Mae Hong Son, to stay at the Fern Resort for a few days. One of the main reasons for driving to MHS was to see the sunflowers, which grow all over the roadsides of Northern Thailand at this time of year – November to early December. The main place to see them is at Buotong fields. We probably needed to be there about a week earlier to see them in their full glory because they were now past their best but it was still a lovely sight to stand up on the hill above the fields and see the yellow spread out below.

Kippy

We opted to spend five nights in MHS at Fern resort. We were hoping for a relaxed atmosphere and a cooler climate for a bit of a wind down at the end of our trip. I think we chose the right place, apart from it not really being substantially cooler.

Fern Resort is about 8 km outside MHS and they have a free shuttle van running throughout the day and evening between the resort and the town. We spent our days there just chilling out by the small pool and as the restaurant there wasn’t anything as good as the Fern restaurant in town we tended to eat there. The staff are all local people, not hotel trained, and that added to the charm of the place. If you like dogs, you will love it there as they are very much in evidence and will accompany you on walks.

Mae Hong Son is a quiet town, really not much going on. There is a nice evening market, with some hill tribe crafts of better quality than many places, which is best at the weekend and an interesting indoor local market and some wats worth having a look at.

We wondered about driving back through Pai, which is supposed to be the nicer part of the Mae Hong Son loop, but in the end we found that we just wanted to stay put and took a flight. It transpired that the road was really bad at that time after all the autumn floods and so we made the right decision.

We had one night back in Chiang Mai at Baan Orapin again in yet another nice room. This gave me the chance to go back to Oasis Spa again and to do more shopping. We bumped into Poon in the street, which a real surprise – she was waiting for a client who was shopping. I wonder if he was a fellow fodorite?

Another night back at Bangkok Marriott and Spa, which ensured that the trip ended on a high note.

Gpanda

One of the sad things about trip reports (except Lynn's) is that they quickly pass out of the current category and get relegated to the archives. This sames a shame with yours. Thanks.

Kippy

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