Caverns of Sappong

Soppong, a short stop on our way to Mae Hong Song with caverns to explore and the prettiest guesthouse we've stayed at. 

Little Eden, this guesthouse even had it's own hiking trail complete with a bamboo bridge!

First "cave" of the day, Coffin Cave. Mostly just short walk throughs, this cave has 4 different teak coffins that were dated to be over 2000 years old. This was about the best view we got of one of the coffins. 

Perilous bamboo bridge crossing. 

 Transit for the day, Nick continues to improve his motorbike skills on some crazy roads. 

 Our drive to the town of Mae Lana, home to many caves including the cave we toured, Coral Cave. 

After searching the town for cave guides we finally were able to get a good look inside a notable cave. Here is one of the many Coral Cave spiders. 

Nick stopping for a pose while our guide continues on. 

Nice stalagmite. 

Entrance to Tham Lod cave, our first experience on a bamboo raft. 

Light filtering through the entrance gives way to the dark chasm of Tham Lod

The cave fish flock in the river here, where tourists are encouraged to feed them with handfuls of dog food

The far side of the cave has a much larger mouth, where unseen bats screech overhead.

A Piece of Pai

Pai, apparently pronounced more like bye, was the next stop on the itinerary. Opting for the comfort of AC and faster ride we chose to take a mini-bus there. This turned out to be the scariest ride endured in Thailand. Everything started out fine on a normal highway, then we hit the steep mountain curves, something like 860 of them. Passengers were complaining of dizziness and holding onto the seat backs for dear life while our driver threw us from side to side. Three hours later we arrived unscathed and thankful to be rid of the drive.

Not wanting to search long we took the first bungalow offered to us. Cute from the outside, a little dirtier feeling on the inside but still quite manageable. 

Picture of the bridge crossing to get to our sleeping corridors. 

Not wasting time we went and got our first motorbike of the trip. Nick is now a pro driver, Kaitlin... not so much. 

The first and probably only hot springs stop of the trip, quite a nice place to watch the night falling.

 Unfortunately our night to party with the real dirty hippies was cut short by a rainstorm so we opted to get up early and check out a mountain temple, Wat Phra That Mae Yen, with great views from the top. 

Lovely set of stairs we climbed to get the temple. 

Oddly enough, the only people we met on the bus (and Pai) were also the one's we kept running into for the rest of this visit. They were nice enough to take our picture at our favorite spot in Pai, Pai Canyon. 

The trail, sheer walls on either side of the small path. Not to worry, most of the falls wouldn't have been from  very high up. 

Most of them.. The trail was wider here at least. 

Next on the day's agenda, waterfalls. Here's a picture of the nicest one, Nam Tok Mo Paeng.

View from the top of the fall. 

And some of Thailand's great English phrases. 

The final stop was in a Chinese village outside of Pai, Ban Santichon. What you're looking at is actually a man powered Ferris wheel. Not sure that would fly in the USA. 

Yunnanese lunch, a whole fish covered in chili. Guess who ate rice after our waiter forgot the other dish and the fish was deemed "cat food"?

We arrived back in town and ran to the 'last bus' to Soppong our next stop. Last bus is in quotes because we rode in the back of a truck with bench seats and were also pretty sure we could have caught a ride in an actual mini bus. Gotta love that language barrier. 

Chilling in Chiang Mai

Anxious to check out the culture center of the north, we hopped on a purple-clad bus and booked it to Chiang Mai.  

Along our way we encountered Dillon, a backpacker from Chicago.  Dillon had just finished teaching english in Korea, and subsequently, traveling for a month through India.  He and had plenty of stories to tell about the crowds, the culture, and the general lack of hygiene there.  

Upon our arrival, we found Chiang Mai utterly overrun with backpackers.   In fact, we probably spent an hour searching for a place to crash.  Once situated, we headed to Nimmanhaemin road for some night life, Chiang Mai style.  Pictured below from left to right: Dillon, us, Guy, and Luca.

We woke up early the next day to try and book our next couple of nights.  As it turned out, we spent a total of four nights in Chiang Mai, each at a different guesthouse on account of the crowds.  

Day 2: What trip to Chiang Mai would not be complete without some Wats? The Wats in the north are highly ornate, covered in colorful glass pieces that glitter in the sun.  

Then it was rime for the Sunday walking market.  This market was enormous, featuring plenty of hand-made crafts, and far less of the gimmicky souvenirs and counterfeit brand name items found in Bangkok.  Here a street performer sits in the middle of the bustle.

 Day 3: A self-guided trek past Montathan and Sai Yoi waterfalls, climbing up towards Wat Doi Suthep, a temple standing watch over the city.

 After a long jungle climb, we arrived here only to find that we had more climbing to do before reaching the Wat!

 Ahh finally, Wat Doi Suthep!

The central golden chedi

Here on this decorative stair railing, a dragon gives birth to four little ones from its mouth! Or is it eating them? 

Hey we found some jack fruit! Or is it durian?

The dogs here really know how to beg.

We descended the mount by bus, and heading for even more Wats in the old city.  Here is the centrally located Wat Chiang Man.

Wat Phan Tao, with its rustic teak composure

Wat Chedi Luang...one of the few ruins, aside from the ancient wall surrounding the old city.  

Here we found a charming story about this portly Buddhist monk.  

Day 4: Time to learn how to whip up some tasty Thai grub.  Our first stop in the morning was at a Thai food market, where our instructor explained how to find typical ingredients in Thai food.  

We then proceeded to the location of cooking operations, where they provided us with an apron and these fun hats.  The hats turned out to not be that useful in the kitchen...

Our instructor explains the ingredients in the on-site organic garden (which, by the way, did not provide us with the ingredients for our meals, as we were led to believe...oh well)

The virgin kitchens await...

Wait, why doesn't my curry paste look like yours?

Our green and yellow curry pastes, freshly ground from the mortar and pestle.

 Yum Yum!

Wok 'n roll baby

Lunch is served!

Later that evening, after we checked into our last hotel, Foreign fruit test #2: Not sure what this is called...

But the white membrane stuff it quite delicious!

One last night on the town

Good bye, wonderful Chiang Mai! See You again after the Mae Hong Son loop.