One Sandal

An entertaining final day in Chiang Mai. One of my friends from my trek (from my first trip to Chiang Mai) was passing through on her way back from Burma, en route to Bangkok. Brenna had about four hours to kill in Chiang Mai before her bus left, and I agreed to be her host for the layover. We sat down for a couple of drinks at a backpacker bar near the Tae Pae Gate, and didn't get up until the two of us had polished off "see Tai beer yai" (the only sentence I can actually say in Thai is ordering drinks) and a small bottle of Sang Som. We barely finished dinner before we had to get a tuk-tuk back to my guest house to get her bags and get her to the travel agency for her bus. But alas, off she went to Bangkok, and I spent the remainder of the evening wandering the Chiang Mai Sunday Night Market (and got a great deal on a pair of rather stylish leather sandals.)
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This morning I was off to Mae Hong Song, a rather busy, if tiny, town near the Burmese border. There isn't all that much to see here, so I rented a motorbike and headed out of town. About 50 kms from MHS is a Chinese village right on the border with Burma. It turns out that not all of the Chinese Nationalists fled to Taiwan when the Communists won the Chinese civil war: quite a few of them set up camp here in Thailand (among other places). The journey to Mae Aw (Chinese Name)/Ban Rak Thai (Thai Name) cut through some rather twisty bit of mountain, and the motorbike was frequently confronted with chickens, horses and an occasional pig along the way. The scenery was remarkable, although the mountainous panoramas were occasionally blocked by the smoke of slash-and-burn agriculture that is so prevelent in this part of the globe. Towards the top of the mountain, about 8 kms from the village, the cabbage patches of the bottom gave way for the lush greenery of tea plantations. The village itself isn't particularly remarkable, but it does sit on a pleasant, small reservoir and there are about a half dozen shops selling trinkets, teas sets and Chinese noodles, as well as ching sing tea that is branded (in Thai, English and Chinese) "Made by the Chinese KPT" [Nationalists]. It was actually a rather long day of motorbiking, but after today I really feel like I've gotten the hang of it - and it's just such a sensible form of personal transport. Perhaps tonight I'll find a place for Thai massage before bed, as I hope to set out early tomorrow for a visit to a Hmong village and maybe go see the famous long-necked women.