10 April 2013 Kuala Lumpur International Airport

On the way home, looking forward to seeing everyone again, especially the grandkids.

Have been very busy in Chiang Mai, here are a couple of examples -

 

 

 

Until the next trip,

All the Best to you all, John

31 March 2013 Pang Ma Pha day2

Slept like a log in my lodge at Cave Lodge

Cold shower (hot water winter months only!), then up the steep path to the main building

for an excellent breakfast.

Cave Lodge is in Tham Lod Village, a Shan or Tai Yai community.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shan_people

I get to meet some of the people who live in the village.

This is a glorious place to live, the forest environment and views are stunning.

 

 

 

 

I look around a family house which looks very comfortable and surprisingly large. This one under construction gives some idea of the size.

Back on the main road, we stop at a view-point to admire the expansive panorama of forest and mountains. I buy some interesting man-bags for Leon and Harry, and say hello to the lady stall-holder’s baby.

Next a long drive to just beyond Mae Hong Son town, where we climb into our boat for a journey down-river to a very special and remote village.

 

 

 

This Shan village is home to the long neck ladies. From a young age, they gradually add rings to extend their neck.

I buy wrist bands for Jo and Faye, the lady holds them up for me to take a picture

The village school has a classroom specially for displaced children from Burma/Myanmar. We are very near the border here.

On the way back up river, we pass a wild elephant having a bath.

 

 

 

 

Now we are in the Minibus for the long journey back to Chiang Mai. The traditional restaurant we stop at, for lunch, is slightly compromised by it’s Mickey Mouse tablecloths.

After six hours sitting in the Minibus, the evening walk around Chiang Mai Sunday Market and Tha Phae Gate food stalls is welcome exercise.

BFN, All the Best, John

30 March 2013 Pang Ma Pha

Pang Ma Pha is in the Mae Hong Son province, in the top north-west corner of Thailand, next to the Burma/Myanmar border. 5 hours from Chiang Mai in the mini-bus.

The whole area is densely forested hills and mountains. Steep cliff faces, deep valleys, sloping mountainsides, fallen rocks, all covered in trees. Green undulations as far as the eye can see. Largely untouched and unspoilt, very little building or agricultural development, the road is steep and winding, up and down, sharp bends. Astoundingly beautiful. My pics fail to do it justice (But it is the burning season in Thailand and Burma. Smoke from fields far away creates a smog covering thousands of square miles, including these mountains and even Chiang Mai 200 kilometres away).

On the way we stop at the Pai Hot Spring. The water seeps out from deep down at 80 – 100 degrees C.

Further down the stream, you can bathe or dangle your feet in it. It has great healing properties, so I am hoping it will fix my damaged toe nails and so save on my chiropodist bills. The water is 35 degrees here.

Next, the memorial Bridge

 

And lunch in a great restaurant

Then to Cave Lodge, where I am to spend my one night away on this trip. It is a timber built collection of lodges perched on a mountainside, with a huge main building for reception, meals and socialising. This is the link http://www.cavelodge.com/lodge/accomm.html    Here is my lodge

 

 

 

 

 

and the view from my balcony

We walk through the village of Tham Lod

To the cave

We enter the cave on bamboo rafts. The water is about 2 ft deep and full of big fish which we feed.

Out of the boat, we walk and climb steep steps through the heart of the cave. Huge caverns, tiny gaps, fantastic rock formations, stalag mites, tites and all the other ites, created over millions of years, forming incredible structures and shapes. 619 625 613 618

Bats, in bunches of 100s clinging to the cave roof, squeaking………..eerie

And a cave painting, 2 –3 thousand years old

And coffins that look like ancient boats, carved out of trees 1,000 plus years ago. They have found hundreds of them in the many caves around this area. (Sorry no pic.)

The far exit is an incredible sight, not just for the beauty of the trees and river beyond, but also the continuous swarm of swifts returning to the cave for the night. You can’t see them in the photo, but they are dense shrieking waves pouring through the entrance to the cave. Half a million of them returning at dusk.

The whole experience of this cave, and Cave Lodge to which I now return for a meal and sleep, is going to be one of my most memorable travel events.

Another day tomorrow; All the Best,  John