Escape to Mae Hong Son

The MHS motorbike loop is one of the best motorcycle routes in the world. It’s 400 miles with 1847 twists, turns, switchbacks and curls through the mountainous paradise of northern Thailand. Driving through deeply forested overhanging roads on good tarmac, glimpsing mountain tops before more twists and dark dappled roads pan out before you. It’s amazing. Steep climbs and deeper twisty drops add to the drama. You pass National parks, waterfalls, caves and lakes it’s immense. I have absolute faith in Chris and his driving skills and can’t wait for this next adventure. The road from Pai to MHS is the most scenic and exciting stretch.

The road out of Pai is cold, I have all the clothes I possess on. I’m excited. It’s a 3-4 hour drive.

Mae Hong Son is a remote mountainous area which borders Burma in the far north and is the westernmost Provence. It is 925km from Bangkok and lies next to the Shan hills. It is a culturally diverse region with Shan and Hmong tribes and the Kayan people who escaped from Burma across the mountains and over the River Pai. There is plenty to see and experience.

You pass the Caves of Lod, Tham Lod which was recently on David Attenboroughs ‘Asia’ series. You go in by small boat and it’s an enormous cave system on 3 levels. It was really busy as we passed, with tourist buses lining the roads. This is a picture from inside the cave looking out. We visited 7 years ago but not this time.

We booked in a small upmarket hotel very near the lake in MHS.

We met up with friends from Abersoch, father and son, John and Tom. They were on much bigger bikes so we didn’t ride together but met up in the evenings

The lake is the centre of town with a street food market every evening and a couple of bars with live music.

It’s a sleepy easy going town with little traffic. there is of course the ubiquitous night market for souvenirs and other tourist must haves.

Sitting above the town on the hill is a famous wat. We drove up and had our pictures taken with an enthusiastic bunch of ladies who were on a day out.

They always want you in their pictures. There were monks on tour taking pictures of themselves having fun.

On a more sombre note there is a memorial to all the bike riders who have died riding the MHS loop.

The only problem I have with the town is that the food choices are limited compared to Chiang Mai otherwise we would definitely stay longer.

There is a famous Burmese Wat opposite the lake with some of the strangest carved wooden figures and statues brought from Burma in 1857, they all tell a story.

We went on a trip out of town. The long neck Karen people fled Burma from persecution and have a village close to the Burmese border, by the Pai river.

The Kayan people who first escaped could never get papers or a Thai ID so were forced to stay in their village relying on tourist money to survive. Fortunately their children who were born in Thailand can get a Thai ID and get a Thai education. They cannot get a passport so cannot leave Thailand. It’s still much better than it was. It’s an interesting village with interesting people.

You pay 200 baht each (£4.50) to enter the village and 50 baht for the river crossing.

It’s a small village with a school and playing fields and all of the women sit weaving and making jewellery and handicrafts.

They are eager to chat and the younger girls have much better English than they ever used to have. The neck rings they wear weigh 2 kilos. I tried a half one on 1kg it felt heavy. They speak their own language, Kayan.

After leaving the village a couple of miles up the river, was a bridge. The closest point to Burma by road. A very wobbly bridge that Chris decided he wanted to cross.

We enjoyed our stay in MHS we had a few rides out and met friends a good time was had by all. We decided we would ride back in one go, it was going to be a very long day. We missed out on a bit of the loop back but felt we had ridden the most scenic parts.

It was a 9 hour ride back, stopping for lunch. As we approached Doi Inthanon in the distance, mist clad at 2,565m high we knew we were getting closer.

The end of the loop towards Chiang Mai goes almost to the summit of the mountain brrr it was chilly. It was only a couple of hours to home. Whoopee. It was fun.