Alli's Excellent Adventures!

Saturday, February 1, 2025

Ban Mueang Pon to Pia, Thailand

Breakfast was included in my room rate-

Cold eggs- at least they were not deep fried, served with cucumber, zesty cabbage, and spinach soup with chunks of boiled pork and rice. My host was very generous, offering donuts, oranges, bananas and water-

She has a “pet” monkey that she’s had for 21 years. She never takes it out of its cage. What torture-

Last night was too dark for a picture of the house-

Today’s ride was a dream come true for a biker. I started at the far left dot, went north to both dots then east to the arrow for a total of 247 km-

Today’s ride was 100% better than yesterday and yesterday was pretty good. I was more confident and didn’t feel pressured to get somewhere as I knew I would get to Pai easily this afternoon. I spent the night 80 km from Mae Hong Son and it took almost 2 hours to get from Ban Mueang Pon to Mae Son Hong.

Along the way

Temples are literally everywhere-

Biking up, down, around and through the mountains-

There isn’t much to see in Mae Hong Son except Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu which sits high above town-

where the view is great-

The airport runs through town-

Flag decorations-

Beautiful orchids are sold to leave as an offering-

I had a coffee to sit and enjoy the view. I was also served a small cup of tea-

I headed to Ban Rak Thai which is one kilometre from the Myanmar border. The village sits on a lake-

You can take a boat-

out in the lake-

The weather is cooler because we are up in the mountains so there’s a lot of tea growing-

and for sale-

The Chinese like their candy-

Sushi flavoured chips-

Ban Rak Thai was founded by former KMT ( Kuomintang - the Chinese Nationalist Party from 1925 to 1947) soldiers after the Chinese civil war. Mandarin is on the signs-

and the people remind me of those in Western China.

Quite a few buildings were shingled with banana leaves-

I returned to the main road and headed to Pai. Along the way-

I stopped to check out a waterfall but it cost 100 Baht! No thank you!

There are a lot of curves along the Mae Hong Son Loop-

Carrying on-

My next stop was at Ban Ja Bo which is a village perched on the side of a mountain-

The views are great-

My butt was killing me so I stopped at a viewpoint to eat. I had Thai sausage which was delicious. It’s the dark red one in the middle top-

Steamed buns - I had a green one filled with black bean paste but it wasn’t that great-

and pork balls which were very tasty-

The view here was nice too-

More tea-

I arrived in Pai with plenty of daylight left and checked into Moon Garden Hostel-

The bathroom is great too-

I went exploring and just around the corner is the night market. Prices are cheaper than in Chiang Mai and there were a lot of Muslims making Halal food. I even saw a couple women wearing a niqab-