We decided to check out of our guesthouse and aim to catch the last bus, departing at 16:00 to Pai.
First stop was to the Kayan hilltribe village, where the long neck tribe resides. I had to pay 250 baht to enter the village and Pong got in free because he was Thai.
It wasn't really that interesting though. You walk through a narrow street about a block long with stall after stall of stuff for sale that were all available in all the night markets. Then you cross a very short bridge to where the long neck people reside. There weren't very many of them. I counted about 4 or 5 of them. They all had their own market stalls as well.
People that had been there described it as the human zoo and now, I agree with them. At first, I thought they were unusual but then I felt sad for them. It must not be very pleasent to have to wear the brass rings around their neck. Then strangers point fingers and take pictures of them. Some of them also wear brass rings on their legs. I could see that the skin was dark where the rings were.
I heard that the government gives the brass wearers money every month because they had become a tourist attraction. But this encourages the mothers to put the brass rings on their young daughters.
I don't think their necks are any longer than ours. The brass rings push down on their collar bones. So it makes their necks appear longer.
Then we went to see the mighty Phasua waterfall. I didn't expect to see a huge waterfall because it's currently the dry season.
However this was it. It was quite petite. Nothing compared to Ribbon Falls in Canada, my favourate place to camp.
Next, we went to tour Ban Rak Thai, a Chinese village. It was founded by a group of Kuomintang soldiers that was fleeing Mao Zedong. We had lunch there too. The guide treated us to a bowl of yellow noodle soup. I had my bowl and was still feeling hungry. But I didn't want to look like a pig by going for a second bowl. So I went tea tasting instead. This was only available in the month of February.
We went to a Shan village in Pang Ung to walk around. They have bungalows availabe for tourists during high season only. So they're only open for business 4 months of the year. Staying in thoses bungalows would set you back 600 baht for a small room or over 1000 bhat for a large one. But if you stay here, I'm not sure what you would be doing for entertainment.
It was 15:00 when we arrived at our last stop, the fish caves in Thampla Namtok Phasuea National Park. No, we didn't go under ground like I thought. It was a bit boring. We walked to an area where there was a little hole in the rocks and there were many fish there. There were also alot of fish in the small lake. Um, we drove all this way to see fish?
Anyway, this was our last stop and we would wait here to catch the last bus of the day to Pai. I decided to quickly finish with the fishes so that I could get something to eat. I was starving! I had a pork dish with rice and that really hit the spot. I was now ready to take on the mountain roads to Pai. Pong was a very unusual guy because he wasn't hungry and didn't get anything to eat. I thought guys are always hungry?
We waited for what seemed like forever before the bus finally arrived. It came at 16:35, so we avoided 35 mins on the bus by not boarding in the main station. Personally, I'd go for the van but like what happened before, none was available.
The bus wasn't packed and we both managed to get a bench to ourselves. ETA, 3 hours. We made a pit stop about 1.5hrs into the trip and I, from the lack of choice, got myself a dry, over cooked piece of chicken wing. This wing was tastless but it helped me get through the rest of the jouney. By the time we got to Pai, I was ready to eat again.
On both the bus ride to Mae Hong Son and back, I noticed at least one local Thai throwing up. They're prepared for the journey because they both had a bag on hand. I was fine because I ate lots beforehand, all the windows were open and I had lots of air blowing on my face.
Hi Olivia, do you you ever think of anything apart from food?
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