Thailand: Mae Sot Loop: Day1 Doi Inthanon & Mae Pan Waterfall

A motley crew if ever I’ve seen a crew of Motley Meanderthals. Scooters and CRFs ready to tear up the

I am blessed on this trip, with a motley crew of Meanderthal’s to keep me out of mischief or some may debate into it.

 Making up the Meanderthal teahailand countryside m for this trip … there’s ‘Angry’ Phil or Angry Bird as the locals call him here. He’s as mad as a cut snake Aussie from my diving days at Remote Area Dive who on a whim decided to come to Thailand and see the countryside. The ever reliable ‘Snail’ a good Thai friend of mine who somehow managed to wrangle some days off out of her busy life and last but not least, my son Tom, who moved to Chaing Mai with me to continue his digital nomad ways. He’s also decided it was time to take a break from his work and wanted to explore the wilds of Thailand.

Speaking of wilds of Thailand this trip was scheduled to be a beauty with a trip to the highest point in Thailand and a long run down the Thai and Myanmar border following the Moei River and route 105 to the border town of Mae Sot and looping back up to Tak and then onto Chaing Mai.  Five fun filled days and some 1000kms of exploring.

Angry Bird, all class and Aussie Bogan on tour.

Rising early to meet everyone at a local 711 and servo I was greeted by another Smokey day. Chaing Mai has a bit of a bad rap for what they call the Smokey season. It basically occurs every year between February to April in the dry season. Abating only when the rains start to return in the middle to end of April. There are many controversial reasons for this, but the air pollution is largely attributed to farmers burning off crop waste and clearing farmlands during the dry season. It is a real downer for tourists as they come to see the magic of the mountains only to have views choked out because of the smoke. Moreover, let’s not mention the long-term health implications for the local population. Most of the Expats just head south for those months and go on vacation but the locals can’t do that. Some years are worse than others and this year it’s been bad. With no solution in sight it remains a controversial topic for everyone. But I’ll leave it there and move on.

Doi Inthanon a walk in the park for the CRF’s but the scooters struggled up the mountain with Angry Bird’s steed moving along at the cracking pace of the extinct flightless dodo bird.

Well as with all plans they go straight out the window when you have 4 crazies on bikes tearing up the countryside. We found a nice little coffee shop on the highway, it’s hard not to find them really. Fuelled up on caffeine we hit the mountains and mountains  they were, Doi Inthanon is the highest mountain in Thailand. Sure, it’s no Himalaya’s. But at 2175 metres it’s no pimple on the earth, it’s on par with Australia’s highest mountain and I certainly wouldn’t want to walk up it. It’s a steep climb even with a pathed road and in places the CRF300’s really needed to be knocked down gears to cope. I won’t mention Angry Bird on his scooter being downgraded to that of a fat flightless bird in regard to the pace he was setting. But at least he was staying upright for a change and not doing his usual tricks (more on that later). We eventually got to the top and were greeted with clean, clear, crisp air. I love the mountains of Thailand, the temperature drops, the air feels alive, the jungles green and life is so much more pleasant away from the humidity and heat below in the cities.

Team Meanderthal at one of the highest points in Thailand signs, i think we encountered 3 of them at various points on the mountain, so it become a running joke.

Now at the top one has to stop at the ‘highest point in Thailand’ sign for a picture. This became a bit of a joke to us as we went on a short walk through the jungle and around the summit of the mountain and on every corner a little higher than the road was another sign saying welcome to ‘the highest point in Thailand’.

Heading down the mountain we took a detour, Snail knew about, on a winding little road. She used to come out this way to promote malaria awareness many years ago when she worked for the WHO. On this road she described a large waterfall that she’d only ever seen from the distance in the wet season, so that became our next destination. After stopping for local advice, we headed off on a side track and sure enough discovered a little sign saying Mae Pan Waterfall.  With nothing more than a directional arrow we parked up and set off for a walk through the jungle.

Tourist trails are for the faint of heart. here we’re tearing up a back road in search of a waterfall that has only been seen by a few at distance.

Now here’s the thing, in Thailand there is very little indication of how far you need to walk to your destination. It’s more of a kinder surprise. Sometimes it’s 200m other times it’s 2km. So, it is best to always be prepared. I’ve learned the hard way to always carry my camelback and some snacks. This little adventure was no different. After trouncing through the jungle for a good 30 minutes we started to see signs of water, pushing on we were greeted around the corner by a magical waterfall that towered up over several tiers and long drops.

I think there is a waterfall down this way, the jungle walk was lovely even if we had no idea of how long we’d be walking for.

It was truly gob smackingly picture perfect. More importantly it was not on a tourist trail so we had this little piece of paradise all to ourselves. Naturally there was no way I wasn’t going to go for a cheeky swim to cool off. So swimming we went and damn if it wasn’t cold but refreshing water.  It was the kind of place you could have taken hammocks and a picnic lunch and whittled an entire day away. Needless to say we spent a good couple of hours there just soaking it all up.

Mae Pan Waterfall screamed cheeky swim so why not live the dream. The water was very refreshing on a stinking hot day.

The only down side of this was it blew out our travelling timeline so we didn’t make Mae Sariang, but were diverted to Mae Chaem. Which in my opinion was a great little substitution. Dinner was a visit to the local markets; the locals enjoyed our custom and were having a ball laughing at Angry Bird trying all the local snacks for the first time. That man sure does like his fried sausage.

Angry Bird choked on his deep fried sausage when he was told it was Buffao penis, even the lady at the store got a laugh out of it.

We got directions to a local bar. How far was it we asked? About a 1km they replied hesitantly. I had a feeling it was a case of it’s the proverbial country mile so when I suggested we ride the bikes. the team hung shit on me and fat boy jokes were flung far and wide. But they all conceded in the end, luckily, they did because the bar was like a solid 4 kms away.  I guess he who laughs last really does laugh loudest in this particular case. A great day had by all and what a cracking start to this Meanderthal adventure. I can’t wait for tomorrow.