Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Say Good-Pai to Soppong
The bus ride from Mae Hong Son to Pai was about 4 hours, so I decided to split it up by staying last night at Soppong, a market town en route here in Northern Thailand's mountains. It wasn't a particularly impressive place, but I splurged on a guest house with pool, which was worth every baht. I mostly just lounged around yesterday, and this morning I rented a motorbike and visited some of the surrounding villages of "hill tribe" people. [By way of background, this part of Thailand has a variety of non-Thai ethnicities, mostly nomadic people from all over Asia who live in rather insular mountain villages. In addition, there are tribes of people known as Tai Yai ("Big Thai") who are more like a traditional Thai people rather than a disitinct ethno-linguistic group (but wear colorful clothes and live in small villages as well, so are often included when one speaks of the hill tribes).
Riding around in the mountians on a motorbike is fun (and the scenery spectacular), but I have to say when I got to the villages I was both a little disapointed, and felt a little strange. For one thing, most of the villagers were off tending the fields or at market, so there isn't all that much to see except the children playing, and most of the young ones don't wear the interesting clothing that is so indicative of these different peoples. And these villages are small places and much of the life is done outside, so you feel a little like you are riding a motorbike through someone's living room.
I made it back to my guest house (and took one more dip in the pool), before heading off to the "bus station" (the same stretch of dirt and gravel where I was dropped off the day before) to get the bus to Pai (pronounced, "bye," hence the title).
Fortunately, my bus was rather late, so I got to sit and watch the Tai Yai, Lisu and ordinary Thais conduct business at the markets, which was a much more natural and comfortable way to view these interesting people.
Now, my ride to Soppong was rather interesting as there was actually a dude on the bus with a chicken on his lap, but this ride to Pai puts that one to shame. There were no seats available, so, following the lead of a soldier who climbed on in front of me, I propped on top of the luggage pile at the back of the bus. It's also the time of the year for harvesting onions, which made for an entertaining scent when riding through one of the hill tribe villages, but it was quite a different thing for a 2 hour, winding, up-and-down bus ride though the mountains. The tribal couple in front of me had a sick five-year old with them, and eventually he, too, was piled on the luggage so he could sleep through whatever it was that was ailing him.
But I'm in Pai now, which is a nice enough place but after being one of 5 or so farang in Soppong, I was a little overwhelmed by the backpackerness of this place. The skies look rather ominous as well, so I'm inclined to see the town a bit, rather than rent a motorbike, with hopes of better weather tomorrow. On the other hand, as I've indicated earlier I'm starting to get turned off of driving through people's living rooms, so I might just lay around here tomorrow for a bit and push on to Chiang Rai.
Riding around in the mountians on a motorbike is fun (and the scenery spectacular), but I have to say when I got to the villages I was both a little disapointed, and felt a little strange. For one thing, most of the villagers were off tending the fields or at market, so there isn't all that much to see except the children playing, and most of the young ones don't wear the interesting clothing that is so indicative of these different peoples. And these villages are small places and much of the life is done outside, so you feel a little like you are riding a motorbike through someone's living room.
I made it back to my guest house (and took one more dip in the pool), before heading off to the "bus station" (the same stretch of dirt and gravel where I was dropped off the day before) to get the bus to Pai (pronounced, "bye," hence the title).
Fortunately, my bus was rather late, so I got to sit and watch the Tai Yai, Lisu and ordinary Thais conduct business at the markets, which was a much more natural and comfortable way to view these interesting people.
Now, my ride to Soppong was rather interesting as there was actually a dude on the bus with a chicken on his lap, but this ride to Pai puts that one to shame. There were no seats available, so, following the lead of a soldier who climbed on in front of me, I propped on top of the luggage pile at the back of the bus. It's also the time of the year for harvesting onions, which made for an entertaining scent when riding through one of the hill tribe villages, but it was quite a different thing for a 2 hour, winding, up-and-down bus ride though the mountains. The tribal couple in front of me had a sick five-year old with them, and eventually he, too, was piled on the luggage so he could sleep through whatever it was that was ailing him.
But I'm in Pai now, which is a nice enough place but after being one of 5 or so farang in Soppong, I was a little overwhelmed by the backpackerness of this place. The skies look rather ominous as well, so I'm inclined to see the town a bit, rather than rent a motorbike, with hopes of better weather tomorrow. On the other hand, as I've indicated earlier I'm starting to get turned off of driving through people's living rooms, so I might just lay around here tomorrow for a bit and push on to Chiang Rai.
