Visa time again, I really should head down to Penang and get a real visa but these monthly trips break up the months with some nice side trips. This Month I thoght it would be nice to head down to Mae Sod along the Burmese border. The "Wild West" border.
When I first Broached the idea to my mate her eyes grew wide and she answered and emphatic "NO!"
The area in the past has enjoyed a reputation as a place where border skirmishes, bandits and smugglers would be willing to rob, shoot or kidnap the odd farang. It was also known to harbor the odd communist rebel. Ancient history really. I explained that these types of things are in the past and the area is pacified and just a sleepy unexploered area and we'd have a nice peacful ride.
I was right, she was wrong.
We headed south out of Chiangmai taking the outer-ring (canal) road and came out onto the main hiway (108) south to Hod/Mae Sariang. The trip took us through the Southern tip of Mae Hong Son and through Tak. On arrival in Mae Sariang we took the Hiway to Sop Moei (hiway 105). The roads got a bit narrows and overgrown.
This is a stretch of road just south of Mae Sariang. One of the nicer stretches, actually. The road was like this until Sop Moei. After that, it got interesting. With occasional dirt patches, fallen trees and landslides to maneuver around/through. But our litte beater Hyundai made it through with flying colors.
Along the way we were offered fantastic views:
The road was rough and twisted. In this 53 Km stretch we only saw one other vehicle, a few cows, a pink water buffalo and the odd village and rice field. Truly a beautiful ride. But with a destination a few hundred km away, and unknown adventures ahead of us, we stopped only for a picture a two. I took about 100 pics of panoramas and jungle enclosed roads. The rain was light to fierce at times, I won't bore you with all the shots of the views.
After about 2 hours of twisted road we cam out onto a wider, smoother road, right on the Moei river, The river is the border between Myanmar and Thailand.
Never saw a border patrol, or ANYTHING at all along this stretch. Again dramitic views and misty mountains in all directions. Thing about the drive, we never saw a gas station, roadside restaurant, store or anything approaching a modern settlement for hours.
As we approached Mae Ramat signs of civilisation began to show. Still no restaurants (thankfully I'd made a huge salami sandwhich that kept us alive during our arduous journey). The first real settlement was this Karien village just north of Mae Ramat.
The village was huge and stretched between the mountains behind, and the hiway in front for about a mile There's gotta be 30,000 folks living there.
It was about 4:30 = 5:00 PM and the road was full of the Burmese Kariens returning home from working the rice fields (Or wherever it was they were working)
We were about an hour out of Mae sod and quite another adventure.