Thailand: Mae Sot Loop: Day 2 Destination Mae Tawo Pier

***Sunset Myanmar & Thai border at Mae Twao Pier. the colour is. whilst pretty hides the darker side of the burning off in the region***

Apologies for the delay in getting this to you, it would seem my laptop is not waterproof after all and it doesn’t like Beer Chang like I do.

Rising up early to hit the road, again we were on a mission, destination Mae Sot. One of the luxuries of being meanderthal is that you can take your time and explore as you head towards your destination, you generally have no fixed timeframe. But if you’re on a timeframe then this advantage gets negated quickly. Sure local knowledge helps you find the good spots and it seems good old Google reviews are increasingly playing a role in how we travel through uploaded photos and reviews. Both have negatives and positives but the later definitely impacts our travels. In fact I would bet a month’s wages that there wouldn’t be a person alive on the planet that travels without reviewing their travel destination through Google. In the old days it was the Lonely Planet guide combined with word of mouth from fellow travellers. But like everything it changes. So today whilst having breakfast we combined both local knowledge and Google reviews to come up with a plan for the days riding. Our first destination was to be the pine forests on the road to Mae Sariang for a quick visit, then some lunch in Mae Sariang before pushing southwards towards Mae Sot with a little diversion to a river for a quick dip. Sounded like a plan so off we trundled roaring up the street like a gang of bikies turning heads as we went.

***Tom looking dapper on his hired steed and Angry Birds wishing he looked as cool , but that’s a bit hard to do when you're a grown man riding a Scotter around the wilds of Thailand.***

In fact I would bet a month’s wages that there wouldn’t be a person alive on the planet that travels without reviewing their travel destination through Google. In the old days it was the Lonely Planet guide combined with word of mouth from fellow travellers. But like everything it changes. So today whilst having breakfast we combined both local knowledge and Google reviews to come up with a plan for the days riding. Our first destination was to be the pine forests on the road to Mae Sariang for a quick visit, then some lunch in Mae Sariang before pushing southwards towards Mae Sot with a little diversion to a river for a quick dip. Sounded like a plan so off we trundled roaring up the street like a gang of bikies turning heads as we went.

***Mae Sariang, damn it was hot, stifling hot, only a cold beer and air con could curb the heat and Angry Birds moaning.***

The road to Mae Sariang is pretty chilled, it’s got the right amount of twists and turns to make it interesting and whilst there were a few trucks on the road there was also ample opportunity to fly past them without choking on diesel fumes for an eternity. A good road to crank up the tunes – “out on the road today I saw a dead head sticker on a Cadillac a little voice inside my head said don’t look back you can never look back” …. Now that I’ve got that tune in your head I’ll leave it there but who doesn’t like a little Don Henley bouncing around inside your head as you roar down the road to a destination unknown.

Arriving at the pine forest it was more of a rest stop than a travel destination. It’s a plantation from the look of it, but afforded shade and offered a bed of pine needles to lay down on should you desire a siesta from the midday heat.. There was a herd of buffalo grazing nearby but nothing much more to see, just zone out, recharge for five minutes and of course take some pictures in an attempt to make you look cool before hitting the road again on our trusty steeds.

***Random road conditions and signs in Thailand they’re every where. So much so i’m going to do a whole blog on them - watch this space***

Arriving in Mae Sariang, it was hot, did I say hot? It was stinking hot. So what do Australians do when they are on tour and it’s hot, you guessed it, we head for a pub. But here it’s hard to find a designated pub in a relative rural town, here it’s more restaurants who serve beer. Well we weren’t fussy and Angry Bird was moaning loudly about the weather so good old Google reviews came to the rescue. We punched in Restaurants Near Me and found the first one that was closest to us and with a half decent rating. More importantly it had air con. Snail wanted to catch up with a friend who lived in Mae Sariang so after a quick lunch she disappeared and left us to our own devises which was a pretty risky move because the way Angry Bird was necking cold beers we’d be pissed as parrots inside of an hour which is never good for the road ahead. An hour came and went and well I’d have to responsibly say we were right on the legal limit to ride. when I received a text message from Snail with a meeting point. Hopping on our steeds it was painful to leave the cool of the air con and ride out into the furnace, but there were miles to eat. Riding was like sticking your head in a fan forced oven and it wasn’t long before we all decided to seek refuge in the form of another waterhole to cool off. This time we decided on a visit to a national park with a river that Snail knew about. It was only about a 15km detour but it was a river, cool place to chill and of course there’d be vendors there to quench the thirst with an ice cold beverage. Destination Mae Nago river.

***Hire me for 50 Baht, i even come with a random camp dog to keep you company***

***Mae Nago river its all about cooling off just ask the camp dogs***

Arriving at the river it was pretty apparent that this place was popular. Not only did it have a chilled vibe but the local vendors had set up tables in the middle of the river so you could have a place to gather around, eat food and drink whilst sitting in the river cooling off. I have to, hand it to the Thais they certainly know how to capitalise on a good thing. We had no sooner waded out to sit in the river and were charged 50 baht for the privilege of using the tables. It was money well spent and we just soaked up the goodness of the cool river. Unfortunately, we did our usual and overstayed. This left us short of time to make Mae Sot. So we agreed to ride until it got near dark and seek out local knowledge to lay our weary heads down in the first village we came across.

***Farmers burning off the crop waste, its a major contributing factor to the air poluttion in this region***

Hitting the road again we kept running into patches of burnt-out farmlands and it became all too quickly apparent that this was an example of the contributor to the pollution experienced in Chaing Mai region that I talked about. At one point we stopped to watch a huge burn off on the side of the mountain. It’s pretty disheartening to see but what’s the alternative? After a long day we came across a tiny village literally on the Myanmar/Thai border, the two countries only separated by a narrow stretch of water that you could pretty much throw a stone across in places. We were quite the novelty when we rode in, little kids staring and inquisitive , parents intervening and unsure of us. I was pretty sure that we were the first Farang and outsiders to visit this village in a long time. But a simple smile and a jovial Sawadee Carp (standard greeting) dissolved concern and Snail’s linguistic skills had direction flowing. The village mayor’s son and his girlfriend even escorted us to a tiny guesthouse a couple of kilometres out of town, with a view of nearby Myanmar, and we settled in

***Pretty sure this border post hasn’t seen many Australian passports recently if the locals reaction to our presence was anything to gauge off.***

We’d been there only 5 minutes when we were invited to a Thai party with some of the local constabulary from a nearby city that had come here to decompress. Now what you may not know is Thai parties can get wild and it’s not for the faint hearted. Moreover, add some coppers to the mix and it gets loose pretty quickly. Once you’re drinking with them you’re accepted and the language barrier fades away in the clink of a glass and a smiling Chon kaew. The poison of choice tonight was Hong Thong a rather potent Thai whiskey that’ll put hairs on your body where you don’t want hair growing. It’s a lethal concoction that can be purchased at the 711 and just when I thought the bottle was going to be empty and we’d be able to skulk away with dignity to retire, a random man would turn up on a scooter, an improvised version of home delivery. This happened on several occasions and whilst Tom and I managed to retreat with dignity we left Snail and Angry Bird waving the meanderthal banner, spiralling towards the hurt locker of hangovers. Somehow I just knew that it was not going to end well and that tomorrow would definitely get off to a slow start. But that’s a story for another day.

Caution if you scroll any further you are going to see a hideous and Heinous sight that capitulates just what Hang Thong will do to the mind and body if consumed in excess.

you don’t want to do it stop here !!!

trust me stop here and view the next blog

Warning What is seen can not be unseen !!!!

Definitely not for the feint hearted.

Last chance Don’t do it !!!!