Thailand: Mae Hong Son Loop Day 1- Thunder clouds & Hemmingway moments

Mae Hong Son Loop, the holy grail of road trips in Northern Thailand

They say planning a trip is half the fun, but what if you’re slack like me and don’t do that. Does that make it any less fun? Well, it might if you don’t speak the local lingo and it might be a lot more stressful. But that wasn’t really the case on this trip. I must confess I had a couple of Thai friends tag along for the adventure on their scooters and they kind of took over the reins for all the planning. Although I did turn up for the planning meeting at the local coffee shop a few days before our scheduled departure, but they had done all the research and even had printed out maps. So, in true Thai form I rolled with it and adopted the Sabai Sabai mentality. I seem to be doing a lot of Sabai Sabai lately. I must be adapting to my surrounds. If you do not know what Sabai Sabai simply means it more or less translates to take it easy and enter into a chill mode that is often missing in western culture. Sure, we have our own sayings (they escape me at the moment) but this seems to be more of a lifestyle here and damned if I don’t love it.

The Mae Hong Son loop is definitely a right of passage around this neck of the woods. It truly is a motorcycle enthusiast dream come true. A multi day adventure that starts in Chaing Mai and finishes in Chaing Mai and of course goes through the provincial capital of the region-Mae Hong Son. Most people on time restraints allow a good solid 5 days to complete the 600km loop and with over 1864 curves you can see why it’s a mecca for the motorcyclist (we just love our twisty roads). The Loop as it’s affectionately called takes in a plethora of places that are breathtaking and magical all rolled into one. The highlight is subjective because there is so much to do on this trip that encompasses everything from mountain views, hot springs, waterfalls, rain forest, rivers, caves and of course a liberal smattering of weird and wonderful Temples dotted through the quaint little towns. Towns filled with super friendly people and of course food, glorious food, at nearly every turn.

Road tripping on motorcycles can be hard on the body, by the time we stopped here our bottoms were starting a protest. So, it’s well worth a 30 minute pit stop.

We did the loop in the recommended 5 days but I felt this was an injustice to the region. If you really wanted to do this loop justice, I’d allow a solid 10 days to soak it all in because there is just so much to explore and do. But if you set a goal of visiting one or two places a day and don’t linger too long you can do it in the average 5 days, it is doable.
Setting out from Chaing Mai, we opted to go clockwise on the loop for no reason other than we’d all been to Pai first, so we wanted to focus on the unexplored territories, and we had some rain predicted so wanted to hang down lower in the hope to keep it at bay for another day or so.
Of course every good road trip must start on a full belly for both rider and  steed so after a quick servo stop to fill up the Grey ghost (GG), the chief navigator set us off at a cracking pace to find a restaurant that was recommended to her. It was an out of the way place, non-descript like a lot of restaurants in Thailand but damn was the Khao Soi with chicken delicious. Khao Soi is a northern Thai dish that I’ve never seen on a menu in Australia. It’s a spicy coconut milk based noodles come soup type dish.

Khao Soi anyone? I think the smiles from Team Thailand give away just how good the road trip food was.

There are two layers of noodles, one that’s in the soupy red sauce and another layer that sits on top of your chicken leg, out the dish and out of the soup sauce that adds a different texture to the meal as it’s crunchy. For the foodies out there I am probably murdering this description but for the redneck bogany  Australians you’ll get it when I say it’s a shit hot feed that’s filling, a tad spicy and fucking delicious.

The road into Kissing Mountain was both scenic and seral as the thunder rumbled overhead.

Bellies full we hit the road for Mae Sariang, the rain clouds were looming, and I wanted to eat some miles before it bucketed down on us. Our first stop was a place called Khao Khad canyons (The Kissing mountains). It’s on the road to Mae Sariang, you can’t miss it. It’s a place where two mountains form a gorge with rapids flowing through it. There’s a little beach there but the recent rains up north have ensured it was closed it as the river was seriously moving. As we explored there the heavens above started to let us know we were in for a downpour.

Pretty easy to see why they call it kissing mountains, the river was heaving after recent rains

As we explored there on a nice little walk to a swing bridge across the canyon the heavens above started to let us know we were in for a downpour. As the thunder rumbled off in the distance, I was a little anxious. I really didn’t like the idea of riding the GG through a storm. I am not a super experienced rider and you’ve probably seen social media pics of the GG lying down having a dirt nap. I was not keen on slippery bitumen and a bitumen nap which is another whole level of hurt. So quickly snapping a few pictures I managed to persuade Team Thailand to meander onwards at a not so meandering pace and beat a hasty retreat for Mae Sariang. We managed to get about 20km out of Mae Sariang before the first drops of rain dampened the spirits of the trip. Arriving 40min later in Mae Sariang we were definitely a little damp and a hotel was calling. In true meanderthal form we sheltered out of the rain at a hospital whilst looking for a hotel to stay at, ever the organised.

Danger Will Robinson, Danger!!! the rains are coming

Damp and soggy we arrived in Mae Sariang, the rain had found us but fortunately it wasn’t raining cats and dogs, just a steady drizzle

Riverbank guesthouse came up trumps in the search and at 800 baht I wasn’t complaining. It’s a nice little place in the centre of a sleepy village of Mae Sariang. I loved the vibe of Mae Sariang, one of the Meanderthal’s (Snail) used to live here and she describes it “as a town of nothingness in the sense of being uneventful”. Mind you that sounded perfect to me but I guess if you were living there for 3 years then the quaint relaxed vibe would get old real fast. Personally, to visit the place I’d call it an inspirational Ernest Hemmingway kind of place where one discovers one’s inner soul. If one has a soul that is. I loved the feel of it. I walked to the morning markets for a look see and I never once felt like I was about to be mowed down by a crazed scooter driver or a red truck packed full of farang.

Drinking a cold beer with great food, good company and recalling the antics of the day in a quaint little restaurant was the perfect end to day one on the road to the holy grail.

Sleepy Mae Sariang my kind of town and I’m sure Hemmingway would agree, a place where one comes to lose oneself and maybe find your soul (if you have one). Certainly not a Farang part town