The road to Pai

Monday morning we packed up again and were met at 8am by our guide for today, Nobe. He will be both guide and driver. The distance from Mae Hong Son is about 130 miles but is likely to take four hours plus for we head over mountains.
Once again the weather was quite cool (16 degrees) and misty, usually by 10 am the mist has lifted and the temperature risen.
It was an interesting drive initially through agricultural areas where rice and soya beans were growing and there were teak tree forests and then we started to climb up into the mountains. There are apparently 1864 curves between Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai, some of them quite dramatic. At one point we saw a buffalo wandering along the side of the road. Nobe was surprised to see one on its own as usually the stay in pairs as protection from leopards that are in this area!
After a couple of hours driving we stopped at a remote village, Ban Jabo for here we are to go walking. Nobe introduced us our local guide who was to lead us on this walk. He carried a large wicker basket on his back in which he had a number of water bottles and what we subsequently discovered, lunch. He provided us with bamboo canes which were essential on this walk. Jane was very grateful that he carried her bag and water bottle in basket.
We set off again firstly through jungle then through corn fields. This was like sweetcorn but was produced for animal feed as it is very hard, and was being picked by hand by women mainly. The corn is packed into large bags then rolled down the hills to be collected by farm trucks.
The walking was a lot more strenuous than we were anticipating but we had a few stops and drank a lot of water.
We came across a pig farm a long way from the village. There were about two dozen pigs of various size and age. The pig farmer will come every evening to feed them. The pigs are reared some for sale and some for consumption by the village people, another example of self sufficiency.
It was interesting to hear Nobe talking about bamboo and how important it is to the Thai people from cradle to grave. Midwives will use a sharpened piece of bamboo to cut the umbilical cord and coffins will be made of bamboo. We have seen houses, fences and many other items made from bamboo.
Back to the walk and there are a number structures with a bench and a roof over it for the farm workers to use for rest and eating food. We took advantage of one to have our lunch. Our local guide produced food prepared by his wife. There was pumpkin, squash, sticky rice all wrapped in banana leaves and hard boiled eggs and fruit. A veritable feast and very welcome!
We now walked back to the village and due to the dust on the paths our feet and ankles were filthy! All in all we had walked for about four hours.
At the village our local guide was keen to show us his house and his handiwork which included weaving which we had a go out but found it quite difficult. He also played some of the home made wind instruments that they play at celebrations like New Year.
It is interesting in the houses. They often have large fridges but cook over an open fire, sometimes several like the 4 rings on a cooker.They often have more than one electric rice cooker as well.
We said our farewells and drove to our next hotel at Pai where we are staying two nights.
This morning, Tuesday we were out of the hotel at 6:30 to do the morning alms with some local monks at a village about thirty minutes away. Our guide from the hotel walked us through the village first which was very tidy in comparison to some we have seen. She explained this area of Thailand has the lowest GDP in the country but ranks highest for happiness!
We met three monks (2 junior and 1 senior) and handed them some fruit and drink. The senior monk then said a prayer. The offerings are for them and for them to distribute to the poor and needy.
The community have constructed a bamboo walkway about half a mile long to enable the monks to access the village easily rather than walking across the rice fields in their bare feet. This has become (unintentionally) quite a tourist attraction and becomes very busy later in the day. There are several Instagram spots with hearts.
Our hotel in Pai was the Reverie Siam. It was very comfortable.Leer más