Thailand: Mae Hong Son Loop Day 4 Ban Rek Thai - Pai a day of caving

Ban Rek Thai, get up early and meander around the sleepy village its worth seeing the village life in its simplicity.

Up early again, this time it was a leisurely stroll around the lake on which Ban Rek Thai is situated. I was actually surprised how cool a morning it was here. Mist was coming off the water and there was dew everywhere. That’s one thing I love about Thailand, it’s hot, damn hot at times but yet you can find reprieve by escaping to the mountains for a tree change. The mountains are definitely the place to go and Ban Rek Thai was no exception with the cool, pleasant days and nights one can see why it’s a bit of a Tourist mecca for the locals. Moreover, it’s not very well known on the Farang tourist trail and this is primarily because it’s a little hard to get there without your own mode of transport.

helping the locals make sticky rice treats. The lady told us this grinding press was over 40 years old and still functioning fine

Giving alms to the Monks is a daily morning ritual for many of the locals in Thailand and gives merit to your reincarnation.

The idyllic pace of life around the lake is what makes it a mecca. It is chilled on steroids and one cannot imagine this place to be stressful in anyway. When the village of Ban Rek Thai isn’t playing host to the tourist its secondary role is to serve as a border crossing between Thailand and Myanmar. At the time of writing this, the border is currently closed because of political unrest in Myanmar. It’s been closed for a while now, but rumour has it that the border will reopen for tourism soon.   Which will be good for both countries and overlanders, because at present there is no go around option to travel from Europe to Southeast Asia.

Myanmar /Thailand Border the end of the road this time. at the time of writing Borders remain closed due to political unrest. However, they are rumoured to be opening soon.

I wonder if this counts as entering into Myanmar. Close but no cigar !!

Walk in the mist completed, we opted for the breakfast supplied by the hotel. The girls were having Thai rice cereal and poached egg. If I had to describe it then I’d say picture a bland rice soupy gruel, crack an egg in it and eat it. Now those that know me know I do like a good poached egg but this bay boy is very snotty and essentially raw. It is probably the only one in Thailand I’ve actually struggled to consume so I politely opted for a coffee and a Chinese sweet bread bun. Plans were made and we joined up with Mark and Ann for a quick run to the border. I wanted to see what it looked like and see if we could pose for a quick picture before hitting the road.

These kids came to say Hi, to them borders, political differences make no sense, yet the innocence of youth is often impacted.

Now the border is only about 2km away from the town itself and down a small nondescript road. Arriving at the border we were greeted with sandbagged fortified positions, rolls or razor wire and a red and white bamboo barrier. It was pretty apparent that this was not a place to linger, but to the credit of the Thai soldiers manning the border post they were polite and friendly. We tried to get access to the sign signifying the border for a group picture. This was beyond the razor wire and barrier. Essentially in no man’s land but our request was politely denied. However, he did let us pose for a group photo in front of the barrier and even joined in, but that was as close to Myanmar as we were getting today. One light moment was a couple of Myanmar kids came to the razor wire to say hello and Kung Fu was allowed to approach them and give them some sweet biscuits which made everyone’s day. After all, Oreos know no political boundaries.

Fish Cave, as the name implies there’s fish everywhere. Even my mate Boof could catch a fish here.

Hitting the road we just travelled in convoy through the twisty road back towards Pai. Our destinations today were to be fish cave and the Nam Lod cave system.

Fish cave was first up. This isn’t really a cave as it implies more of an overhang into the mountain with a natural spring coming out of it flowing down past a small Buddhist shrine and out into some lovely chilled gardens where you stroll around and like everywhere in Thailand soak up the Zen. The fish part of the caves is as it sounds, ponds of blue carp like looking fish in their masses. You can feed them scraps here for 20 baht. There are so many fish in one spot it’s hard to see how they can actually swim. I reckon even my good mate Boof could catch fish here, they were biting so ferociously at the scrap food. Fish cave made for a nice break on the road, it wasn’t earth shattering but was still worth its entrance fee.

Sometimes you just have to get lost so you have a story to tell. Well that’s my excuse and i’m sticking to it. I only overshot the cave by a lazy 20km

After an early lunch of roasted dead pig, chicken, spicy sauces and rice we hit the road for the Nam Lod cave system. Now I have been there before but I was high on pain killers after falling off the mountain whilst doing some trail riding a couple of months ago. It’s a big cave system that has a river flowing through the mountain. Cleverly the locals have placed a levee at the rear entrance to the mountain. This has ensured the river is just deep enough for bamboo rafts to float through the massive caverns that the waters over time have carved out. It’s about a 10 minute float down the river but it’s pretty cool.

Probably the only rock you are going to hit your head on in the Nam Lod Cave system, so I guess it warrants a warning.

Nam lod Caves, big enough for bamboo rafts, double decker buses and much more. it’s surprisingly large.

Aussies on Tour Mark & Ann soaking up the wonders of Nam Lod Cave

This cave system is massive and has a lot of walking in it, with a lot of stairs so if you are not into walking then it might be better to just pay for the raft ride or just do as I did and opt out of the massive stair climb by asking where the climb comes back down to this level. It did, so I just sat in the darkness and watched the lanterns cast shadows as they floated down the river and got my Zen on.

Nam Lod Cave system it is pretty big and be prepared for a lot of stairs to climb up.

Caves done and dusted it was an easy ride to Pai and Aussies do as Aussies do, we literally booked into the nearest half decent hotel and headed to the pub to wash down the road dust with a cold beer and tell stories of the day. I won’t mention locking keys in the under seat compartments of scooters and resorting to U tube to save the day or getting lost by about 20km on the road to Nam Lod Cave because that’s part of the adventures you laugh about when you are drinking beers with your riding buddies. As the beers flowed the night got louder and well it always was going to end messily especially when the tequila came out to play but you get that when you’re living the dream.

The Road to Pai offers some stunning viewpoints along the way so be sure to stop and take it all in

What could possibly go wrong ?, it’s only one Tequilla after a good days riding