The Mae Hong Son Loop to Pai

What I briefly mentioned last post was my plans for the past week; the Mae Hong Son loop. This loop begins and ends in Chiang Mai and passes through a majority of the towns in the province of Mae Hong Son - with most being further off the tourist trail than many travellers bother with.

I convinced the two English lads I met on Koh Tao, Luke and Will, to join me for the adventure - somehow I don't think they regret it.

June 22. Chiang Mai to Mae Sariang. 248km.

I picked up my Honda CRF250M super-motard from Pop motorcycle rentals in Chiang Mai. ~$200 for the week. I was in love. The size, the sound, the feel - all a little better than the old Honda Win I learnt to ride on in Vietnam.

I chose Pop because they had both big bikes, full face helmets and a lightweight mesh riding jacket for hire - added safety wasn't going to hurt with the new speeds I planned on going... 

The ride out of Chiang Mai was nothing special. Straight smooth roads with little traffic for ~70km. Then the fun began - a turn off into the Doi Inthanon national park. The roads were perfect; smooth tarmac, cambered corners, jungle scenery. 

Unfortunately because the first day was a big one, I didn't really have time to stop at any of the waterfalls or other sites along the way. 

The first days riding took a mere 6 hours. The pace you can keep on a real bike is amazing; the same ride on my old Win would have been at least 9!

June 23. Mae Sariang to Mae Hong Son. 163km.

I thought the roads on the first day of riding were amazing - they got better on the way to Mae Hong Son. More flowy, banked corners to throw the bike through, denser jungle, more national parks...

Later that afternoon we headed up to a nearby mountain adorned with the Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu temple - a Burmese style temple, explained by the town's close proximity to Burma, and largely Burmese/Thai Shan ethnic group populous.

After checking out the temple, we bought up a few beers, played cards while watching the sunset over the mountains. Not a bad way to end a couple days of big rides.

June 24. Mae Hong Son to Pai. 106km.

This was both the most action-packed and memorable day I have had in Thailand. The ride out to Pai is not a long one, so we had time to stop and visit some of the sites along the way. After riding 40km out of Mae Hong Son, we took a tiny turn off to head towards the Susa waterfall.

When I say tiny turn off, I mean tiny. The road for the first couple kilometres was through a small farming village, about a cars width wide. The farmers had big smiles seeing us foreigners riding through - something I haven't experienced in Thailand to date...

Further up, the road turned into a dirt track - complete with water crossings and big up and down hills. The whole time I was wishing I went for the off-road CRF instead of my motard!

Eventually, 12km down the track, we made it to the waterfall. Ten more minutes up the dirt path we came across a spot to enter the waterfall and go for a swim!

After we'd got our fix of belting down with water, we headed back for the bikes and this is where the magic started. I saw a monkey swinging through the suspension bridge near the entrance, toward us and the bikes. I approached it gingerly, wanting to get a good photo with him. He just casually lay down. 

He didn't seem to show any signs of aggression that I had seen in other monkeys in my travels, but we were all still very wary. I put my stuff away and approached. He grabbed my hand.

After taking a few more photos with him, I was ready to say goodbye, but he wasn't. He reached out to grab my other hand and swung up, holding himself in my arms!

I put him down, and he walked over toward my bike and decided to jump on...

... at which time I had to get him off...

The three of us were just in awe. This monkey had just come along to play with us, swinging in from the nearby jungle. After doing some research, it turns out it was a Gibbon, the most endangered ape in existence and very rare - maybe they are too friendly for their own good?!

Next stop along the way, about 40km out from Pai, was the Tham Lod Cave. Given I had been to plenty of big caves in Vietnam I was not all that excited for this particular cave - how wrong I was!

The Tham Lod cave must be traversed with a raft and a local guide equipped with a lantern. We boarded the raft and were taken into the mouth of the cave.

We jumped off and walked through the pitch black cave, with the only source of light from our guide.

Unfortunately the photos really don't do caves any justice, but overall it was incredible. The cave network was massive and the ceiling very high up. 

From Soppong and Tham Lod we headed on our final leg of riding, to Pai. The remainder of the road was a steep climb followed by an equally steep decent down the mountain. More great fun roads and amazing views!

We made it into Pai just before nightfall and ended the day with a few well deserved beers. 550km down, last stop before heading back to Chiang Mai!

The Bay

After arriving back in Hanoi I organised to go on a Ha Long Bay tour - a castaway party cruise more specifically.

I was picked up at my hostel in Hanoi, jumped on a bus and headed to Ha Long City, around three hours. From here I boarded the boat.

Our first destination was the Surprise Cave; this was cool but overly touristy... plus I'd seen it all at Phong Nha!

After, we jumped back on the boat and had lunch. The boat anchored up and we had the chance to swim in the bay, and kayak around, prior to our three hours of free booze starting!

The view around the bay really is stunning. This afternoon was easily the highlight of the time on the cruise. 

After a few drinks people began to mingle a lot more, dancing ensued and overall a pretty decent night was had. The boat had sleeper accommodation, pretty nice little rooms with AC and en-suite, not too shabby...

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The next morning we ate our breakfast and were taken to Cat Ba island, near to the bay. We disembarked and were taken to a national park where we were told to either wait two hours or trek up a mountain. Despite feeling a little sorry for myself I did the trek.

We walked through a lush forest landscape to the top of a the mountain for the next hour - not exactly easy wearing a pair of thongs... The view up top was nice, and I like being active and feeling accomplished!

We hopped back on the bus and were taken to a hotel for lunch. The food was pretty average like the rest of what we'd been eating - not enough meat! From here our group was divided in three - not exactly sure why, perhaps due to how much people had paid for the trip...

Two groups stayed in hotels on the island while my group of eight was ferried back on another boat to the private Monkey Island bungalow resort. 

Rocking up I was really excited to stay in what looked like a great place. Upon checking in we were shown to our room out in the sticks .. essentially a tin shed in a tiny room packed full of four bunk beds with barely enough room to turn around!

Luckily our group made the most of our stay here, and we all enjoyed a great buffet dinner with local food as well as bbq chicken breast - finally some meat!

The next day we reunited with the rest of the group, had an early lunch on board the party boat and headed back through the bay to the mainland.

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I spent the remaining two nights in Hanoi at a party hostel - Hanoi Rocks. This place was a brand new hotel converted hostel with proper hot showers with decent pressure, comfortable beds and cold AC - you don't often get all three in the same place!

I spent my last day in Hanoi at the cinema, watching San Andreas in a "4DX" theatre complete with moving/vibrating seats, blowing wind and smoke - pretty cool!

All in all I loved Vietnam. I made some good friends, saw some stunning sights on the bike, and ate some great food. However, two months is a long time in one country and I was definitely ready to leave!

The next morning I boarded my flight and was set off, back to Bangkok, ready to tackle the north of Thailand!

Exploring the North

From Sapa I caught a local bus to Lao Cai, followed by another local bus to Bac Ha.

The bus to Lao Cai was only a couple hours, but still not exactly a great experience. At one point we passed a motorcyclist and I'm pretty sure I heard a thud from the back of the bus as we clipped it going past. The driver and co-pilot exchanged some words and we kept going...

For Vietnamese, the busses are a hop-on-hop-off setup, where people can jump on and off the route as they please. One guy jumped on and sat up front next to driver.. and proceeded to fall asleep on the dash. Going around a corner he literally fell onto the steering wheel. The driver casually pushed him off. And here I thought riding a bike was dangerous...

Upon arriving in Lao Cai, we asked where the bus station was. The driver flagged down a bus that was going to Bac Ha and told us to get on.

The bus wasn't exactly what I'd call a normal bus either.

It was more of a cargo bus than passenger bus. Carrying four scooters, a bunch of tiles, rice noodles and goodness knows what else. Shortly after leaving the city, it pulled into a workshop and loaded the roof with steel beams...

We made it almost all the way to Bac Ha, and some 20km out of the city the driver pulled over, next to a small stream. From here, they proceeded to upon up the compartment housing the engine and undo the radiator cap. 

... and fill it up with water collected from the stream.

Never a dull moment...

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The next day in Bac Ha I hired a scooter to join Rosie on a tour to Ha Giang. 

The ride itself was not all that exciting. The tour dude with her on the back went pretty slow, I guess being cautious. 

We stopped off at a local market, followed by a waterfall, before riding to a small village where our homestay was for the night.

The homestay was a great experience. The house was made entirely out of wood; a lot of which being bamboo. The family grows all their own vegetables, farm their own chickens, catch the fish we ate, make the corn wine we drank!

Dinner was amazing. So much very tasty authentic Vietnamese food. I was totally stuffed after!

From here we made the rest of the journey to Ha Giang in the north.

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I once again hired a scooter and was on the road again. It really made me miss the Win ... the scooter was horrible to ride!

Starting from Ha Giang town, I headed up to Yenh Minh and stayed a night. The roads up in the north are no where the quality as the rest of Vietnam in terms of road conditions. Constant potholes and broken road makes riding a little stressful! 

The next day I headed up to a little town called Lung Cu - the northern most town in all of Vietnam! At the top of a mountain there is a tower with a massive Vietnam flag on it, overlooking the Chinese border. I almost feel like this is an intentional middle finger to China...

The road following that stretch was absolutely incredible - another beautiful mountain pass. I then spent the night in Meo Vac.

The final day of riding was a lot less interesting - simply a transit back to Ha Giang. Again, difficult roads made riding very mentally and physically exhausting. By the time I got back I had spent five straight days on a bike; it was intense!

I caught a night bus back to Hanoi that night. Much to my pleasure I was instructed to sit up the back of the bus where there are five beds next to each other with enough leg room for even me to stretch out!

From the City to the Hilltops

Hanoi really isnt as interesting of a city as Saigon. In terms of tourist attractions there are mainly just museums to visit and drinking to be done at night.

One of the museums I visited was the old French prison museum. The prison was built in the late 1800's by the French to house prisoners, with a focus on political activists.

The prison had displays that showed how prisoners were kept and treated during their stay at the prison. To be honest it really wasn't that interesting.

From here I went to the war museum. This had old war artefacts from past wars, with an obvious focus on the American/Vietnam war. Once more, this was more of the same from what I had seen in Saigon at the war remnants museum.

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After selling my bike, I was able to leave Hanoi, catching a bus up to Sa Pa in the country's north east. It was weird to be catching my first bus to a new town in a country that I'd been in over a month and seen so much! 

Sa Pa is stunning. The (now overly touristy) town is set in the mountains, almost above the clouds. The streets are lined with French colonial buildings, and hotels with stunning views aplenty. 

On the second day I went on a "trekking" tour to visit the more remote villages, rice terraces and just to see more of this incredible place. I joined my friend Rosie on this, going with a tour company she was recommended by a traveller she met. 

We started off by walking down the main road and taking a turn off onto a dirt track, into the national park area. I'll let the photos do the talking here . . . stunning. I cant imagine how much more beautiful this area would be in a few months time after the rice has started to grow and the whole area is lush with green. 

           

As part of the tour, we stayed at a home-stay with a local family. Unfortunately, due to the size of our group (eleven!), this didn't really have the homely feel that I have heard so much about from other travellers that have done similar. To make matters worse, it wasn't just our group staying at the home-stay, there were a total of about twenty tourists!

On the second day we walked a little further and caught a bus back to the Sa Pa town, about fifteen kilometres back. 

Instead of staying in the hostel I started in, looking at a concrete wall from an adjacent building out the window, I checked into a hotel. Split between Rosie and I we had a room with two single beds for the same price as a dorm with six. And the view was a little better . . . 

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The next day I hired a bike and went off exploring the surrounding areas of Sa Pa, including the waterfalls and the famous Tram Ton Pass.

After riding the Hai Van Pass and a decent chunk of the Ho Chi Minh trail I honestly didnt think that I was going to come across another road in Vietnam that would make my jaw drop. I was wrong.

The pass weaves through the mountains with mind-blowing scenery throughout, and great fun winding roads to put the bike through. I wish I still had my Win!