The road from Chiang Mai to Pai (pronounced like pie) has 762 curves, and lots of touristy stuff like mugs and t-shirts to make the point. Not to be outdone, Mae Hong Son proudly proclaims its 1,804 curves from Chiang Mai. Yesterday morning I got to experience them all. Leaving Pai, we climbed for 35 minutes straight, back and forth. It was only 20 minutes back down, then a brief 5 minute respite along a creek, before climbing over the next mountain, and so on and so on. Stunning views and charming villages. Every so often one of the passengers on our minibus would yell and get off. The German couple behind me looked pretty green. Once we arrived, the bus station for some inexplicable reason is 2 km past town, so I hopped on the back of a motorcycle taxi for an 80 cent ride into town. Pai is a tourist town. Especially for young people, mostly from Europe (although I met a young woman from Aspen), who come to trek and hang out in bars. The partying goes on very late every night, so naturally when I went out looking for breakfast in the morning before my bus, I couldnt find a single restaurant open. Even the monks who go out into the streets every morning to beg for rice to eat werent out at the customary 6 am but were still wandering the streets at 7:30. Monks must depend on people to give them food every day. Sometimes enough for one meal in the morning, sometimes two. And that is it. They walk the streets barefoot with a special bowl. Townspeople stand waiting. This is a whole ritual in Luang Prabang, Laos, where I will be next week. Every morning at 6 am monks walk single file through town as people place food in their bowls. Pai has two markets. One with vegetables and meat and items for daily life. Here you can see hill tribe people who are farmers selling their produce. No souvenirs here. It is tomato season, so there were piles and piles of fresh tomatoes. Every vender had a pile and I thought, surely every citizen of Pai could have a dozen per day and there would still be leftovers. The other market starts at 7 pm and is meant for the tourists. But unlike many other night markets around Thailand, this one had an interesting mix of contemporary art. And lots of shop where you can buy postcards and stamps and sit down right there to write and place into one of the 20 or so post office boxes lining the street. Getting a card postmarked from Pai is like having your Valentines day card postmarked from Loveland. There is a famous Thai movie called Pai in Love. This is referenced in half the goods sold here. Large groups of tourists come 8 hours from Bangkok to have their picture taken in front of the sites seen in the movie, and never look at anything else. I sent a postcard to my mother for her birthday from Pai, which will probably arrive belatedly! Mai Hong Son, on the other hand, as the provincial capital is a bustling center of commerce, set in a beautiful bowl in the mountains. It is literally ringed on all sides. Though it has only 6,000 residents, it is the largest city in the region, with Chiang Mai a days ride away. Not a lot of tourists come this far, just miles from the Myanmar border. This was, in fact, Burma at one time, evidenced by the architectural style of the temples. There are four primary styles of temple architecture in northern Thailand, representing the historical periods of who was in power. Some Chinese or Shan, some Burmese, most recently Thai, but primarily Lanna. The northern provinces of Thailand were once the Lanna kingdom, dating from the 1300s. I have learned to look for details so when I hear tourists say its just another temple, or we did the temples yesterday, I sigh. I found the temples in Mae Hong Son province, which includes Pai, to be particularly beautiful. They are all trimmed with a very thin tin, cut like paper snowflakes. In fact some of the tin is so thin, you could easily cut it with a pair of scissors. There are three temples in MHS, one in the center of town, where I found a group of boys in their robes watching TV on the same platform as the Buddha statues. There is one along a picturesque natural lake in the center of town, which is lit up at night for a dazzling mirrored reflection on the lake. And one at the top of a mountain overlooking the city. There are steps to the top. I didnt count, but I lost my breath a few times. Im talking seriously up there. As I was the only one on the path, I thought I would have the place to myself. Apparently everyone drives! Well, the hike was worth it. The views are absolutely stunning, on one side the city, on the other Myanmar. I stayed up for a few hours, wandering around, then realized, I could watch the sun set over Burma. Again, stunning. I couldnt stop taking pictures, until my battery almost ran out. As it gets dark, the temples turn on lights they have strung for effect. Really beautiful. MHS has only a few tourist oriented shops near the lake, so I walked over to look around. I went into one and had a lovely conversation with the owner, who is also the artist of the creative t-shirt designs. He has spent his entire life in the same province, growing up in one of the smaller villages. I wanted to ask what it was like to be a gay man here, as seemed quite obvious to me, but didnt want to ask for fear of offending. I have met other clearly gay men who have wives and children. Thailand is among the most gay friendly countries in the world - to westerners. Their own children are supposed to grow up and get married and have children. Younger Thais are following convention much less. Im not sure how that sits with the elders. After shopping I stopped to eat at one of the many outdoor cafes, this one with live music. I had chicken fried rice for $1.25. And a fresh squeezed lime juice in soda water for 80 cents. I am very glad I made the journey here. I met some interesting people. This morning at breakfast I talked for a while with a couple from Belgium, here for two months. A few years ago they spent two month in the US. They drove from Glacier Park all the way down to New Mexico and back up to Washington State along the coast, stopping at 13 national parks along the way. They know the Rockies better than most Americans. Some Coloradans, for that matter! Later today Im going to ride an elephant.
Posted on: Tue, 15 Oct 2013 02:40:12 +0000
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