Mae Hong Son

With our Vietnam plans cancelled, we had time to explore other parts of northern Thailand. We decided to take another 4-hour bus ride to Mae Hong Son. While the scenery was even more rugged and stunning than Pai, the town itself lacked character. We stayed in the city center next to Jong Kam Lake with a nice view of temples on the opposite side.

Since Mae Hong Son's attractions lie outside of town, we rented a scooter (this time, a 4-speed clutchless automatic) and went for a scenic day trip. First we drove 12 km to a long-necked Karen village. This is a tribe where the women where brass rings to elongate their necks. This oddity has become a major tourist attraction and selling point for trekking companies which makes us feel a bit uneasy about the whole thing. We discovered there was a charge just to walk around the village so we left without going in. We drove 35km to Pha Sua Falls which was a nice stopping point before driving back to town. The views along the way were awe-inspiring and we had another memorable meal at a roadside market.

They actually have an airport in Mae Hong Son and since it is such a small town, we were actually able to walk to it to catch our flight to Chiang Mai. Unfortunately there was a delay and we missed our connecting flight to Bangkok, so we had to spend the night in Chiang Mai. The next day, thanks to One-Two-Go airlines, we were stuck at the airport for almost 4 hours before our 1-1/2 hour flight to Bangkok finally departed.