Quarter Hotel Mae Hong Son

We got up early and met up with our trekking group. We sorted out the payment and got in the jeep. A few hours drive took us into rocky roads, throwing everyone in the jeep around. Some people were even sick, the lightweights. We had lunch in a hill tribes village, using their community hut as our dining room. The food was good, rice, stickyrice, egg and spices. We walked around the village and got shown inside their houses. The conditions in there ...

... a canteen, playground and general living space.

The kids were very shy with me at first, and I felt very shy too! I'd bought them some crisps and snacks, so they sat round to eat them. There are 45 kids and they are so adorable - and range in from abut 5 to 15.

Kham Chuen showed me round and told me about his plans to expand if they manage to raise enough money to buy their neighbours land (They are asking 60,000 baht - a huge amount of money here). It sounds ...

... into Mae Hon Song just to walk around and have some lunch. The town is much bigger than Soppong, but still pretty laid back. We had a relaxing lunch by the small lake in the city-center, checked out some temples, and walked up the mountain to the overlook. It was on this journey that we met the "crazy man on the bus." To be fair, he gave himself that nickname. He drew pictures of flowers with pastels, drank moon-shine out of a water bottle, and loved ...

Woke at 7.30 and started with scrabbled eggs on toast and two strong coffees, it was really foggy but i was assured it would clear for my tour. My moterbike guide was an elderly chap called Patty who advised me to wear a jacket of some sort as we were heading into the mountains at 9am. I took his advice and stuck on my hoody which id only worn to Heathrow back in December. The Karen Long Neck village was about 16 miles west of Mae Hong ...

... et se font photographier puis essaie de nous vendre des babioles. Grosse discussion par rapport a ce genre d'exposition avec d'autre touriste. Nous avons bavarder hier avec 2 anglais et deux polonais. Tres sympatique. Au retour nous avons bu la tasse. Nous sommes arriver a la "guest house" tout trempe. Je dois vous avouer que l'on s'est amuser comme des petits fou. La pluie nous a pas vraiment deranger puisque cela nous rafraichissaient. Nous ...

... the other side of the mountain. It is a route where visitors may travel by raft or by foot to explore the 1-kilometre-long cave full of stalactites and stalagmites. There are services provided by villagers to guide visitors in their exploration at 100 baht per group. Accommodation as well as camping site is available near the Tham Lot Nature Study Centre in front of the cave mouth. Day3 ...

... even bowed his head down, shuffled his feet and proceeded to walk away! FINALLY, we got it all cleared up, and he was excited to show us his cave, and we were excited to explore it. We didnt know what we were in for. Mastering hand gestures, he wanted Mathew to drive me up the top of the hill and he would follow: about 500 meters up a steep hill! When we got to the top of the hill, we were surrounded by ...

... free - the place runs on donations and government funding I would imagine (the abbot is a pretty important person in Thailand from what I understand). You're supposed to wear as much white as possible and keep talking to a minimum. Women should stay away from men to prevent distraction, and there are only two meals of rice porridge a day. But, the most important detail of them all, the place is ...

... suburb food at ridiculously low prices. As we leave Asia, we also thought that we'd share with you some of our favourite English signs and products that we've come across: Lenticular Donkey Hide (snack food in China), Living Creature Toothpast (China); Deep Fried Yard Grass (menu in Bangkok); Soft Shudder (road sign in China); Iced Corn Juice (menu in Laos); and our personal favourite Blind Manssage (6 ...

I wanted to write about the last few days in Pai even though I haven't finished telling you about our last day in Chang Mai yet. I'll prelude by saying that I first started feeling ill on our last full day in Chiang Mai (Jan.2), though I perservered through my stomachaches to spend the day up on a mountain at a temple. The next day we ventured higher up North into the mountains by van to the small village of Pai, a really cool place. We ...