Maehongson Riverside Hotel Mae Hong Son

... followed us all the way from the village to the next, which was quite a way, something i was quite impressed at. We actually walked so far during our trekking we even crossed into Burma at one point! We met up with our jeep in a small village which was there to take us to a river quite a way away. Once we were there we split into groups and got onto rafts made of bambo, got given a bombo stick ...

... yoga studios, bars and yes even a night club. Many farang live there, as do Thai's. Its alternative with most having dreadlocks, eklectric clothing preferences, many tattoos both tribal and not. And all having escaped the conventional lifestyles they conformed to. Farang look and feel wild, its a kind of time warp. 

Long was back in Pai too he swings between Pai and MHS looking for work, he is a jungle trekking guide, and at the moment is working in the fields for 200 ...

Well, I'm now sitting in a lovely little chilled out cafe round the corner from my guesthouse. Took me a little while to find a place with WIFI, but then I stumbled across this place and I'm all set. Serves great coffee and food so I'm a happy bunny.

My volunteer work starts tomorrow. I'm both scared and excited in equal measure. I met up with one of the co-ordinators, Dennis from Sweden, in Chiang Mai (part of the charity I've ...

... first days here, we grabbed the map and walked to "Coffin Cave." After careful inspection of the map, we noticed several Coffin Caves in the vicinity. Archeologists speculate that about two to three thousand years ago a culturally-distinct civilization lived in these areas and buried their dead in teak-coffins in the plethora of caves in these parts. Close to our hotel was just such a Coffin Cave, so we climbed around and saw three caverns with coffins in ...

... happy to arrive at the night stop. Kuan Yuam is a wee little village and I managed to get some dinner by hitching a lift from a young kid on a scooter who also came and picked me up when I had finished. Other than that not much to mention about KM. The next morning I set out for Mae Hong Son. This route took me up close to the border with Burma. The golden Triangle used to a massive opium producing area. The govt ...

After a couple of days hiding from the heat, the hot season is upon the region in a big way.. temperatures get up to the mid 30 oC and if the clouds cover comes in, the humidity cramps your style big time.. lucky the guesthouse I randomly checked into at gone midnight had a pool on site to take the edge of things.. Via the wonders of facebook, I caught wind of some ...

... children laughing and giggling by our presence. Once our guide reached the top, he then got on the back of the bike and drove off with mathew about 1/2 kilometer for Mathew to come back and get me. Once we were all at the end of the dirt road, we parked the motorbike and thats when the trekking began. My goodness, we had no idea. It would have been a good idea to have some water..... We were literatly off ...

... but this was great to actually sit right on it although they're really quite hairy and very prickly! I did do something useful one day, a Thai cooking class. It was a lot of fun, although whether or not I'll be able to recreate it at home I don't know. I have a recipe book so we'll see. First of all we made pad thai (a noodle dish) which we ate for lunch, then spicy papaya salad, then we prepared all the ...

... that is not used meaningfully by the big names, some christian crusaders from america who have some dubious activities here going on related to a school run by locally established Oportunitis for Por Childrn - please have a look at their homepage, its really scary -> lizbillvolunteer.com. mind the same abbreviation they both share and you can imagine yourself what they try to do... update 12/03/2007: i guess everything i learn here was ...

... around pai, which is a VERY fun city to bike ride the streets in. lots of motor scooters and cars, dogs and pedestrians, all sharing the roads together. it's a cool, slow paced atmosphere with lots of life and a nice breeze when travelling on wheels. We all went back to chill in our palace, our lovely treehouse bungalow room, and then yaron left to catch his bus back to chiang mai, and we went for an oil massage, which was dirt cheap and fun. after our massage we ...