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Roadtrip: Chiang Mai > Pai > Mae Hong Son
There's nothing quite like a road trip: the open highway - windows down - music up. It might seem surprising that we wanted to hit the road, having traveled all over Asia by land for the last 9 months... but it's one of the things we miss from home: road trips to Nevada's deserts and California's mountains and forests... So we rented a car and headed north. The only things we were missing on this road trip were beef jerky and speed limits (well, we weren't really 'missing' the speed limits).
The thing about driving in Thailand is that they drive on the opposite side of the road -- some would call this the 'wrong side of the road', but who am I to make judgments? Once I got used to it, it didn't really feel 'wrong' anyway -- disagreeable, awkward, and unsound are better words to describe the feeling. There's a constant nagging in the back of your head telling you that something isn't quite right. It's a bit like showing up to work with your shirt on backwards by accident -- on your way there, something feels odd, but you can't put your finger on it until a kind soul points out that the tag on your shirt makes a nice pendant (and cheap, too, without the chain).
The strangest part is sitting behind a steering wheel in what I've always known to be the passenger seat. Inside the car, everything is reversed -- even the volume knob on the stereo was in a different place. And every time I tried to signal a turn, I did so with the windshield wipers -- none of the other drivers really understood I wanted to go left when they were on 'intermittent' and that I wanted to go right when they were on 'fast'. I haven't even mentioned the fact that we rented a manual transmission. This decision was reached after a few glasses of wine the previous night. It seemed like a good idea at the time, as most ideas after wine do.
The trick is to ignore it and not let your mind dwell on what you're doing. Once you get going for a while, and assuming there are few right hand turns at busy intersections with lots of motorbikes, it becomes almost familiar. Almost. I think it's worse for the passenger who sees everything from a new perspective as well. The trees, for example, appear to be scraping the window because the driver cannot correctly assess her position on the road. A few times Benjamin yelled, "Jesus, woman!" or more to the point, "AAAaaayyyiiiaaa!" followed by "Stay on the road, will you?" and, "You almost took the mirror off on the side of that truck!"
These kinds of outbursts are always unwelcome whilst operating heavy machinery in busy traffic. I had at least one heart attack and several other times I literally jumped out of my skin in fright -- the part of me that jumped was curled up and whimpering in the foot well of the back seat. My only concern was hitting a human being and luckily, that didn't happen. For his part, Benjamin was an excellent driver, both back seat and actual, and I kept my outbursts to a quiet mutter or gasp when he was behind the wheel -- there's only so much room in the back seat where out of body experiences are concerned.
The purpose of our trip was to do 'the loop' -- a drive through forested, mountainous terrain from Chiang Mai to a little town in the northeast called Pai. We stayed there for a few days before continuing east to Mae Hong Son and then back to Chiang Mai. The roads are not for the squeamish -- they rise and dive and twist and turn like a Slinky on a spiral staircase, but with better views. They are outstanding.
At first glance, Pai looked to be one of the last hippy hang-outs on the face of the earth. There appeared to be enough dreadlocks and armpit hair to keep a whole village of plumbers busy unclogging drains. Yoga and reflexology and meditation flyers hang alongside elephant ride and trekking posters. The town is nestled in the rolling hills of a valley, amidst forest, jungle, fields, and paddies. There are waterfalls and hot springs, temples and villages nearby. A ride around town on a motorbike is like driving through a garden -- flowering trees of yellow and hot pink, dusky cattails, and ornamented reeds.
Pai is one of those places that has atmosphere -- in fact, some of the hippies say it's one of those few, special places in the world that vibrates or some such thing. I agree it is has a special vibe; sitting at a cafe one day with a good view of the road, nearly everyone who passed by had a smile on their face. It's mellow, relaxed, and living is simple.
We left Pai hesitantly, but we had to move on. The drive to Mae Hong Son was long and arduous -- the steep mountain road was recently destroyed in heavy rains and resulting mud slides. Deforestation is to blame. The forests around Pai used to be full of Teak but nowadays, there is none left. I don't think we hit one patch of straight asphalt the entire four hours to Mae Hong Son and again, the views were outstanding. With time constraints, we spent only one night in Mae Hong Son and were again back on the road to Chiang Mai and -- you guessed it -- along crazy twisty roads with beautiful scenery.
We are safe and sound back in Chiang Mai and happy to put the car keys away. Our eyes are somewhat crossed from all of the twists and turns -- hopefully they won't 'stick that way' as our mothers warned us when we were tots.
The thing about driving in Thailand is that they drive on the opposite side of the road -- some would call this the 'wrong side of the road', but who am I to make judgments? Once I got used to it, it didn't really feel 'wrong' anyway -- disagreeable, awkward, and unsound are better words to describe the feeling. There's a constant nagging in the back of your head telling you that something isn't quite right. It's a bit like showing up to work with your shirt on backwards by accident -- on your way there, something feels odd, but you can't put your finger on it until a kind soul points out that the tag on your shirt makes a nice pendant (and cheap, too, without the chain).
The strangest part is sitting behind a steering wheel in what I've always known to be the passenger seat. Inside the car, everything is reversed -- even the volume knob on the stereo was in a different place. And every time I tried to signal a turn, I did so with the windshield wipers -- none of the other drivers really understood I wanted to go left when they were on 'intermittent' and that I wanted to go right when they were on 'fast'. I haven't even mentioned the fact that we rented a manual transmission. This decision was reached after a few glasses of wine the previous night. It seemed like a good idea at the time, as most ideas after wine do.
The trick is to ignore it and not let your mind dwell on what you're doing. Once you get going for a while, and assuming there are few right hand turns at busy intersections with lots of motorbikes, it becomes almost familiar. Almost. I think it's worse for the passenger who sees everything from a new perspective as well. The trees, for example, appear to be scraping the window because the driver cannot correctly assess her position on the road. A few times Benjamin yelled, "Jesus, woman!" or more to the point, "AAAaaayyyiiiaaa!" followed by "Stay on the road, will you?" and, "You almost took the mirror off on the side of that truck!"
These kinds of outbursts are always unwelcome whilst operating heavy machinery in busy traffic. I had at least one heart attack and several other times I literally jumped out of my skin in fright -- the part of me that jumped was curled up and whimpering in the foot well of the back seat. My only concern was hitting a human being and luckily, that didn't happen. For his part, Benjamin was an excellent driver, both back seat and actual, and I kept my outbursts to a quiet mutter or gasp when he was behind the wheel -- there's only so much room in the back seat where out of body experiences are concerned.
The purpose of our trip was to do 'the loop' -- a drive through forested, mountainous terrain from Chiang Mai to a little town in the northeast called Pai. We stayed there for a few days before continuing east to Mae Hong Son and then back to Chiang Mai. The roads are not for the squeamish -- they rise and dive and twist and turn like a Slinky on a spiral staircase, but with better views. They are outstanding.
At first glance, Pai looked to be one of the last hippy hang-outs on the face of the earth. There appeared to be enough dreadlocks and armpit hair to keep a whole village of plumbers busy unclogging drains. Yoga and reflexology and meditation flyers hang alongside elephant ride and trekking posters. The town is nestled in the rolling hills of a valley, amidst forest, jungle, fields, and paddies. There are waterfalls and hot springs, temples and villages nearby. A ride around town on a motorbike is like driving through a garden -- flowering trees of yellow and hot pink, dusky cattails, and ornamented reeds.
Pai is one of those places that has atmosphere -- in fact, some of the hippies say it's one of those few, special places in the world that vibrates or some such thing. I agree it is has a special vibe; sitting at a cafe one day with a good view of the road, nearly everyone who passed by had a smile on their face. It's mellow, relaxed, and living is simple.
We left Pai hesitantly, but we had to move on. The drive to Mae Hong Son was long and arduous -- the steep mountain road was recently destroyed in heavy rains and resulting mud slides. Deforestation is to blame. The forests around Pai used to be full of Teak but nowadays, there is none left. I don't think we hit one patch of straight asphalt the entire four hours to Mae Hong Son and again, the views were outstanding. With time constraints, we spent only one night in Mae Hong Son and were again back on the road to Chiang Mai and -- you guessed it -- along crazy twisty roads with beautiful scenery.
We are safe and sound back in Chiang Mai and happy to put the car keys away. Our eyes are somewhat crossed from all of the twists and turns -- hopefully they won't 'stick that way' as our mothers warned us when we were tots.
posted by Cheryn at 7:57 PM
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