Today we checked out of our Chiang Mai guesthouse, the Hollandra Montri, which has been our home for almost three weeks. I felt sad to leave, as we've gotten to know some great people here and have had a great time. But more adventures await us, and we want to take advantage of being in this part of Thailand by seeing some of the surrounding country. We decided to travel light on this leg of the trip, which meant leaving our bags in the storage area of the guesthouse and basically just bringing day packs with us for the next four days!! Hope I decided the correct things to bring!! Wishing my day pack was just a little bit bigger.
We walked to the bus station again, this time to catch a "VIP" van instead of the bus. This meant a four-hour trip instead of a six-hour one. Frankly, the bus was a bit more comfortable, but I began to see the advantage to the van as soon as we started on the road north to Pai (another good destination on the way, where we will be headed on Saturday). Our trip today is about 200 km, on the windingest road I have ever seen. Hairpin turns and practically switchbacks, one after the next, for most of the way. Motorists in Thailand drive on the left side of the road, which makes these drives particularly dangerous for those like us who drive on the right. Easy to get confused, and I had several moments today where I thought a crash was imminent, since it seemed like everyone coming around a curve was coming from the wrong angle! We frequently passed slower moving vehicles, like busses and scooters, and I was glad not to be one of the ones driving a scooter on this road!
Our destination was the stop before the end of the line near the Myanmar border with Thailand; a little town previously called Soppong, and now called Pang Mapha. Our van driver stopped briefly here in Pang Mapha (PMP) for some reason. We had been seeing signs for our lodge and for the town, so we disembarked too. As we were looking around to get our bearings and deciding our plans for our return bus trip on Saturday, it became clear that our driver was trying to call us back to the van. I had not yet learned that Soppong and PMP were in fact the same place, and I thought maybe he knew something we didn't, about obtaining transport to our lodge, or getting return tickets or something. But the proximity of the road to our lodge seemed closer at this current stop, so we insisted that he leave us behind. I found out later that had we gotten back on the van, we would have been taken all the way to Mae Hong San, the end of the line, over an hour away.
It didn't seem like we had a lot of options at our current location, for information or for transport to our lodging, which was still 9 km up a side road. Didn't see any pickups for hire, let alone taxis or tuk-tuks. Would we have to hitch a ride? Pay some random local person to take us? Walk the rest of the way? We have no phones, remember. We have decided to leave PMP on Saturday for a day back in Pai, halfway between here and Chiang Mai, so as to be a little closer to Chiang Mai to catch our 5:00 Sunday train back to Bangkok. The place our van driver stopped seemed like the first place to go to try to book the return trip, but the woman at the desk had left a note saying she had stepped out to eat. (By the way, it was written in Thai, and I actually understood it. A happy moment!) So we go about the business of securing our more immediate transport needs, to the lodge. We see a sign for "local guide, trek, and transport" and go to see if someone is there to help. And there sits Toy, a very friendly and helpful man who agrees to take us there, and even arrange to come pick us up on Saturday morning to catch our return bus! Mission accomplished. He said he'd give us a few minutes to go get our bus tickets straightened out and then meet us "under the big tree." Ummmm, which tree would that be exactly...??? My plan was just to go out and stand by the street looking conspicuous, but then he showed up at the ticket desk.
And the place we are staying for the next three nights: the Cave Lodge. Wow. This place is amazing!!! I wish we had more time here, but we are going to try to take advantage of the time we do have. There are little bungalow cabins and some backpacker-type dorm accommodations, and the whole thing overlooks the Lang River with a jungly backdrop. There are over 200 caves in this area, some of which have cave art, navigable rivers flowing through them, spectacular cave formations, prehistoric coffins(!!), and varying degrees of spelunking difficulty. Some have sections that involve crawling or water. Aaron and I signed up for an accessible-sounding guided trip in the morning where we will visit 3 caves. With my extra-light packing, I sure hope I brought the right clothes for this. Should be amazing! I'm so glad we decided to get out of the city. It's quite beautiful here. Apparently there are gibbons here, too. I'm hoping to see one!!
