Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...

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It's a fairly boring stretch. We loosely follow the Ping River north out of Chiang Mai, crawling through small towns and cities along the main road. The urban scenery scrolling past us for most of the way until we reach the turnoff for the lake. Then we saw the signs for Wat Ban Den.

Oooh, we have to check this out!

Wat Ban Den is a huge temple close to the reservoir, we hadn't really heard about it until we rode past it

I love discovering stuff along the way! I'm a bit wary about parking the bikes with all our drybags unprotected on the back of our bikes as we walk around, but they're only clothes. I think the drybags themselves would be the hardest things to replace here in Thailand!

Neda vehemently disagrees about the "it's only clothing" part. I think she wants her own lockable topcase for her clothes...

Outside of the Royal Palace in Bangkok, this is probably one of the largest temple complexes we've seen

 

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Cool elephant/dragon monsters with antlers!

We're paying more attention to elephants after having visited the rescue sanctuary

Back to the bikes. And everything is still there. *phew*!
I suppose it would be bad karma to steal anything right in front of a temple?

 

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Our route takes us through large tracts of farmland which is much more scenic now that we're off the main road.

As we search for the boat dock, the road also devolves into a dirt path

I think we're lost. My GPS knows where the dock is, but the map is incomplete so I'm now navigating by eyeballing where we are and where we should be and choosing the most direct way there. This takes us through fields and farms. At one point, we have to stop and ask for directions. We spot a farmer by the side of the road. He's watching these two lost farangs on motorcycles with equal parts amusement and curiousity. Out here I know that there's 0% chance that he speaks any English. Thankfully, Neda has previously downloaded an app for her iPhone that has an off-line Thai/English dictionary. It also comes with a speech module, so we type out "boat" and "dock" and have the phone speak it to the farmer. His face lights up and he nods and points to another dirt path that we had missed earlier.

I love technology! We say our Khob Khun Khraps (thank yous) and wave goodbye to him as we set off to the docks.

These little huts on the farms are like the Croatian Kazuns!

 

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We made it to the Mae Ngat Somboon Lake!


So it turns out there was a paved road to get here, but my GPS took us the shortest way through the fields. Neda read there was an admission fee to the Si Lana National park that the lake is located on, so she goes in to pay while I stay with the bikes to protect them (which really means I stay outside and take lots of pictures). Almost immediately she comes out. There's no one there. *shrug* okay! Free admission! I think it's because it's the middle of the week, so not many tourists now.

Riding down to the docks, the soil beneath our wheels is kicking up an orange-red cloud behind us


I think most visitors take a taxi or tuk tuk to get here. There's not a lot of parked vehicles down here. We just stick our bikes behind the huts and hope they will still be there when we return. I think I'm being overly paranoid about the security here in Thailand, but it's our first road trip with these motorcycles, so I don't really know what to expect. Neda listens to me clucking on about locking everything up, "Don't worry so much, it'll be fine!"

A private longboat takes us out onto the lake


The coast of the artificial river is sparsely lined by houseboats, floating accommodations that you can stay overnight in and hang out and swim in the lake during the day! The most popular houseboat that was recommended online was fully booked, so Neda just chose another one by random. We're a bit worried because it has no reviews. I guess we'll find out what we signed up for soon!

Passing another longboat on Mae Ngat Somboon Lake

 

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There are quite a few houseboats on the lake, all of differing standards - some run-down, some really nice-looking.

It's not a perfect blue-sky/clear-water day here on Mae Ngat Somboon Lake. The smoke from burning season has tinged the air just a few shades more opaque and the water in the reservoir almost matches the sky.

Everytime we approached a nicer-looking houseboat, I secretly hoped that our longboat would stop in front of it. But, it always passed those nicer ones... And then when we approached the decrepit-looking ones, I also hoped the longboat would not stop in front of those... In the end, we ended up docking at what looks to be a middle-of-the-road houseboat. Not run-down, but definitely not as nice as some others along the lake. We have to plan ahead a lot earlier the next time we do this!

Neda exploring our houseboat

On each houseboat, there's a restaurant, some recreational facilities like kayaking, a platform to jump into the lake and some snorkeling equipment. But the main activity here is definitely resting and relaxation.

Staying on a houseboat is quite a unique experience. Although the houses are securely moored so there's very little rocking on the waters, the tin roof at our place flexes and creaks which gives us a bit of "soundtrack" for when we're trying to fall asleep. We can also look through the gaps between the wooden floorboards and watch fishes swimming in the lake directly below us. From our bed!

We're hanging out and sleeping on a house on the water. How cool is that?

Oh yeah, there's also animals for Neda to pet!

 

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Neda takes the time to put the last few cross-stitches into her pattern

Voila! It only took six months to complete!!! She's so proud of it!

Doing what I do best: nothing.

Our houseboat has no Wi-Fi, so I have a lot of time on my hands to organize all the pictures I've taken in Thailand and jot down a few blog posts to upload when we get back to civilization. I'm slowly getting caught up!

In the distance, we watch oxen graze by the edge of the lake

 

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In the distance, we watch oxen graze by the edge of the lake

Our houseboat has kayaks that you can take out into the lake

We go shopping for another houseboat

Neda and I take one of the houseboat's kayaks out and we paddle out to the opposite shore to where we saw some of the nicer houseboats. We've only booked one night in our current place and we thought we could knock on a few doors in person and see if there are any vacancies. Then maybe we could switch for the next evening. Is it bad of us to use their kayaks to shop for a new place to sleep?

Well in the end all the nicer houseboats in our area were fully booked up, and the other ones
were of the same quality as ours, so we decided to stick with the one we have and stayed another night

 

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Neda says hi!

Watching the sunset on the lake. Very relaxing.

The light show from our room in the houseboat

As the sun sinks below the horizon, we stare at the lights from the houseboats across the lake reflecting off the water. But what really captivates us are the the fields on fire on the hills around the lake. Burning season has become much more vivid at night-time. This is what we'll have to ride through in the next few days!

Fun times ahead!

 

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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/284.html

On the longboat back to the shore, I keep squinting at the shoreline trying to see if our bikes are still parked behind the huts. Neda is shaking her head at me.

*phew* Still there!

We're heading back to the Mae Hong Son Loop. The road to Pai (B on the map above) is the twistiest stretch of the Loop. Glen had told us that there was heavy construction all the way to Pai, but we decided to brave it. Glad we did, because it looks like all the roadwork has just finished. Aside from a few construction vehicles and some piles of dirt by the side of the road, it was smooth sailing!

Still a bit hazy though

The terrain starts to get more mountainous just west of Chiang Mai and on that 150km ribbon of freshly-paved road, there are 762 glorious curves! We're getting a bit more comfortable on the 250s, even leaning them into the corners a little bit! Still have to be wary of oncoming vehicles crossing the line - two wheelers are definitely second-class citizens on the road in Thailand! We wind the Hondas up and shoot them up the steep climbs, negotiating a combination of tight switchbacks and 4th gear sweepers, passing hordes of farangs on scooters. Pai is a very popular farang destination.

Along the way we stop for water breaks, to take in the scenery and of course... pet the stray dogs

 

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The landscape around us consists of mountains, wild jungles and farmer's fields

Loving the Loop!

Just outside of Pai, we stop for lunch. No, not bacon... Burritos, actually. And Neda stops to pet more animals

Pai is very westernized. It's been popularized on a lot of TV shows and movies lately, so it's built itself up as a major tourist draw in the area. Tattoo parlours, bars with live music, burrito places... Not really very Thai...

A neat bridge we passed on the way into Pai

 

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Pai is a funky town, lots of hippie places to eat and hang out in

We don't spend too much time in town. Too many farangs. We are actually staying 40 kms further west in a tiny village called Soppong, which is basically a line of shops and stalls in a cluster less than a km across. If you blink while riding by, you'll miss the village entirely! From what we saw of Pai riding through, we like this a lot better!

Passing more fields on the way to Soppong

Our accommodations for a couple of nights, right on the Soppong River! Beautiful!

The real reason why we are staying here. Neda: "Where are your dogs? I would like to pet them now."

 

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Walking around the Soppong River, our little inn above us

A missionary baptizing some hill tribe members in the Soppong River. The indigenous people here are predominantly Buddhist

Trying to catch up on the blog. Or watching some motorcycle racing...

 

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We were told that there was a morning market in the village, so we walked outside to buy some fresh fruit

From the style of dress, I think this woman is from the Lahu tribe

There are many hill tribes in the Northern Thailand, the Karen are the most well-known, but other tribes like the Lahu and the Lisu also live in this area. On certain days, they set up stalls on the main road through Soppong and sell food and arts and crafts.

Of all the things in our travels, I am the most drawn towards anything depicting indigenous history and ways of life

We are staying in Soppong for a couple of nights, so the next afternoon we ride back into Pai to visit some of the sights that we passed the day before. The road between Soppong and Pai is nice and twisty, so we totally don't mind spending a half hour on the bikes shuttling between the indigenous hill people and the hippie farangs. Having said that, we did drop into a vegan Belgian Waffle place for lunch in Pai...

Dread-locked, Birkenstocked, Granola-Farangs are a tourist attraction too!

 

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Just outside the waffle place, is Wat Phra That Mae Yen, otherwise known as White Buddha on the Hill
Speaking of which, our Hondas *used* to be white as well...

From the top of the steps by the Buddha statue, you can get a pretty good view of the area surrounding Pai

After the White Buddha, we rode over to the Pai Canyon to hike around a little bit

It's not a very big place, just a few raised ridges of reddish rocks that snake around a valley full of green pine trees. We came around sunset, which turned out to be a great time to take pictures as the rocks were glowing with a nice colour and the temperature was not too hot that we could walk around without dying of heat exhaustion.

Some places you had to scramble up and down the ridges. Fun!

 

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Taking a break from hiking

Brave Neda out on a ledge

On our way back to Soppong, we come across some more temples

The sun is getting lower, so we say good bye to Pai

 

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Love Pai, the rice paddies are all I need

 

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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/285.html

Our days on the Loop are quite lazy. Sleep in, then start off with a nice and late, relaxing breakfast at our inn, watching the sparse morning traffic pass by us. Then mosey on down to the bikes in the parking lot to pack up for the day's ride, which is probably going to total less than 150kms. We probably won't leave till just before noon! Today, we're heading further west towards the actual city of Mae Hong Son today.

The rhythm of packing up, moving on, then unloading the bikes is quickly becoming familiar again, like muscle memory.

See those memory muscles flexing? Definitely not the physical muscles...

This is version 2.0 of our pack'n stack jobs. There's a lot of movement in the luggage behind us while riding. The bungie cords and bungie nets just aren't secure enough, so we ditched them. Good thing I remembered that we brought Rok Straps with us from Europe. We love these things. They cinch down nice and tight and nothing moves behind us now!

I like that our bags don't make our bikes wider. We're really getting used to filtering past stopped cars in traffic and big panniers wouldn't allow us to do that as easily. Although we both still miss the comfort and power of our GSes, we love how we are able to squeeze and maneuver these smaller bikes in the tiniest of spaces, in traffic and also when parking.

The haze of Burning Season obscures the distant treelines surrounding us

Although the twistiest part of the Loop is behind us, there is still enough entertaining curves in the road to keep our throttles happy, as our motorcycles cut their way through the dense jungles of NW Thailand. The temperatures up here in the mountains are perfect for riding, we just need to talk to someone about this damn haze!

Before heading south towards Mae Hong Son, we turn off onto a northbound road and head towards the Myanmar border

We're going to pay a visit to a small village called Ban Rak Thai. Neda read up about it and told me that it's a Chinese Tea Village. Neda is a tea connoisseur, so we have to go and take a look around!

 

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As we ride into Ban Rak Thai, we do a quick tour around the town's reservoir which they've turned into a little lake called Mae Sa-Nga

Although not a big tourist destination, one of the larger resorts in Ban Rak Thai has guest houses lining the hill with tea plants all around them

One of the larger shop/restaurant/hotel in town

Taking a stroll around the reservoir

 

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There are Chinese writing and decorations all around town!

Ban Rak Thai is not that large, about 1,000 people, most of them of Chinese descent. They arrived here shortly after the Chinese Civil War which ended in the 1950s. The previous ruling party in China was ousted from power and fled to Northern Thailand. Some of them set up in the mountains around here, and the biggest trade back then was running opium and other drugs across the Burmese border.

Nowadays, tea is what Ban Rak Thai is famous for, drawing tourists in to sample the brews from different tea plants that grow in the area and also to eat some Yunnan food in the restaurants, brought down from the south-west region of China.

Tea stores and restaurants make up the majority of the businesses in Ban Rak Thai

Neda is perusing all the different types of tea they sell in the stores. They are packaged like bars of soap!

Walking by the up-turned curved-roofed of some Chinese-styled buildings. I think these were built just for the tea tourists' benefit though...

 

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We did have lunch in a Chinese restaurant, then later walked down to the shops to sample some tea

The lady who worked there gave us some free samples!

Okay, let's go riding! These crops behind us are tea plants

Riding around the tea fields, we are just a few kms away from the Myanmar border!