Mae Hong Son Loop

The Mae Hong Son loop is an incredibly scenic and thrilling motorbike ride through the rural mountains of Northwest Thailand. The full loop is over 600 km featuring 1,864 curves, some of which are steep hairpin turns that get your heart pumping. There is little traffic and the roller coaster scenic roads make you feel like you are in a motorcycle commercial. I had heard about the Mae Hong Son loop from fellow travelers and as my confidence on a bike has steadily increased during our 10 weeks in Southeast Asia, I was highly interested.

We rented a 125cc semi-automatic Honda Wave from Mr. Mechanic in Chiang Mai, as this place was the cheapest and was the only place to have the semi-automatic bike we wanted and insurance. With insurance, it came to 230 baht ($7) a day. We ended up deciding to do the 510 kilometer loop for 7 days. The trip can be done in as few as 4 days but we didn't want to rush it. We opted to take the slightly shorter route as it cut through the Doi Inthanon national park, home to the highest peak in Thailand and many waterfalls. This would also give us more time to hike, explore along the way and chill in Pai for a few nights at the end of our trip. 

Day 1 - The Near Death Experience

Rain. Lots of rain. After an hour and a half of an easy ride south on the major highway my fears quickly became a reality. We climbed through the hills and as the wind grew colder, the rain grew stronger. We were soaked. Once inside the Doi Inthanon national park, the rain let up in time for us to check out a couple of waterfalls. However, the skies opened up once again as we made our ascent up the highest peak in Thailand. 

We originally wanted to hike to the top, but you would have to walk along the road as there are no hiking trails. At one point the road turned into a shallow river. We leaned forward in first gear and tried not to make any sudden jerky movements. When we arrived at the top we realized we were the only crazy visitors. Shivering and dripping we ran to the "highest point in Thailand" sign to snap the obligatory picture and retreat.

On the way down I instinctively gripped the brake as if my life depended on it. When I finally let up on it at the first flat section, I quickly realized we had no brakes. While my initial reaction was to crash on purpose before we got going any faster, I was calmed by my better half behind me, who convinced me not to panic. We put our feet on the slippery road to try and slow the bike. Luckily our plan of patience was rewarded by a heaven-sent dip in the road. The slight uphill slowed us to a stop. We were alive! While pushing the bike 2 kilometers to the ranger station checkpoint, I realized the brakes had come back. I wondered if it was because I didn't pump the breaks. A nice man at the checkpoint looked at our bike. He said it was fine and added that I should pump both the hand break and the foot break as well. Foot break? Oh, that's what that is. How embarrassing. Lesson learned. Get a thorough tutorial before riding a new style of bike.

We safely made it Mae Chaem after some seriously dangerous, steep, curvy and wet roads. Day 1 complete. Crisis averted. 

Day 2 - The Wild Elephant

Our second day started off great. We had delicious noodle soup in town. We hit the road at 9 and within an hour it was cold and raining. Not again. We rode slow and steady through the slick curves praying for a roadside coffee stand that never came. On one of the many shivering hills I heard Alex's surprise, "oh my god, oh my god!" She spotted a wild elephant standing amongst the trees just off the side of the road. It was big, beautiful and close (5-7 meters away). We were later told by a tour guide that we saw one of the 3,000 wild elephants left in Thailand. After spotting this rare beast, our trip started turning around for us. We stopped at Khun Yuam for an accidental order of preserved egg (don't ever order this) and continued North to Mae Hong Son. We arrived in the sleepy, beautiful city and settled into The Like View guesthouse. We briefly considered doing a guided trek through the indigenous villages, but after doing some research we decided we didn't want to be a part of that type of tourism. We could do a cheaper trek ourselves by continuing only 60 kilometers to Soppong in the direction of Pai. Although we loved the low key feel of Mae Hong Son, we decided to spend the next night in the more remote, jungle village of Soppong. 

Day 3 - The Hot Spring

We had a delicious breakfast in the market, and a quick look at both the temples on the lake as well as the temple on the hill. Afterwards, we got green teas (in thai iced tea style), our bags and we were off. Alex took the handlebars and 12 kilometers later we turned off towards a hot spring. Alex got a mud mask for 80 baht and I had the hot mineral outdoor pool all to myself for 60. It proved to be one of our better detours. We then went to the Fish Cave which was disappointing and not really worth it as you didn't actually enter a cave. We arrived in Soppong in the late afternoon and moved into a guesthouse 10 minutes before it began to rain. We then stumbled next door to a restaurant that only served spicy pork noodle soup. We ordered by saying "two please" and it was one of the best soups we had in 3 months in Southeast Asia. Our luck had officially turned around. 

Day 4 - The Cave

We got an early start and headed 10 clicks back from where we came to seek out Mae Lana Cave, the longest cave in all of Asia. We rode back up a series of steep hairpin turns and turned off the main road following signs for the cave. The road to the cave was littered with deep pot holes and had some of the steepest sections we had driven. After 5 or 6 kilometers, we went through a remote village where there were breathtaking views of the surrounding mountains. Here the untraveled road was full of chickens and sleeping dogs. We followed a sign and turned right onto what looked more like a cement sidewalk than a road. It was narrow, muddy and steep. 

A kilometer of white knuckles and fast heartbeats later, we arrived at a gate for the cave. There we paid a guide 600 baht to take us in for a two hour exploration. At this point my stomach was in a knot just thinking about the ride back. Our guide gave us water shoes, opened the gate, and we followed him on motorbike on an even more treacherous stretch of this cement sidewalk. Slow and steady. We made it down to the bottom, were given headlamps and climbed down into the cave. We were instantly knee deep in water, walked down a river in a cave. At points, the water was almost up to our waste and we had to hike up our shorts and tip toe to higher ground. We saw tons of stalagmites and stalactites, spiders and bats. The bats swooped inches from our faces. I felt like Indiana Jones. We were the only people in the cave and I have never felt further away from civilization. We walked for an hour before turning around. On the way out, our guide spotted a bright green snake. This was one of the coolest experiences of our trip.

The way back was another story. It was so steep that our bike couldn't get us up a straight hill in first gear. We started rolling backwards. I grabbed the hand break yet we kept rolling. Alex tried to jump off and in desperation I hit the foot break (the rear break) which lifted our bike up like a wild stallion. Rather than have the bike do a backflip and land on me, I jumped off too and threw the bike to its side. We both had a few scrapes but we were okay. The bike also had a scrape or two but no big deal. Our guide heard the ruckus and came back to help us. He put Alex on the back of his bike and I followed them back up. After knowing our bike's limitations, I had an easier time than expected of getting us back to the main road from there. All in all, that was one of our craziest outings. 

We then headed to yet another cave, just past Soppong where we hired another guide, took a short bamboo raft trip into the massive cave (again with a river through it). The cave was significantly wider and taller and at points felt like we were inside a stadium. It was however, much easier to get to with paved roads all the way and hence much more touristy. There were other tour groups inside and our guide seemed to be on auto pilot like she'd done this 20 times already that day. It was nothing compared to our adventure earlier that morning. We did however, see a cave painting that was thousands of years old. Pretty cool. 

Afterwards Alex drove us to Pai. We arrived in the late afternoon and found a huge, clean and comfortable bungalow on the river at Golden Hut. We would get a break from riding and spend the next 4 nights in this beautiful, country, hippy town. We loved Pai so much that we extended our bike rental by one day and spent one less night in Chiang Mai before our train to Bangkok.

Pai was a lot like Vang Vieng, Laos. It was a hippy town surrounded by mountains and divided by a small, clean river. There were tons of foreigners (even though it was the low season), delicious restaurants, shopping and plenty of daily excursions. 

Day 5 - The Waterfall

Our best hike was here in Pai. Alex found a trek to a waterfall on a blog and we followed suit. We took the motorbike over the bridge and turned off the main road by the Fountain pool. Within a few kilometers we made it to a motorbike parking by the river. There was a sign warning of the length of the hike and encouraging people to bring water. We brought 1.5 liters for the two of us and that was about 1/3 of what we should have brought. The hike was beautiful and took us 2 hours into remote forest. We had to cross the river maybe 2 dozen times to stay on the path. Luckily we were wearing our hiking sandals. This is not a hike to do in sneakers. We were often getting our feet wet while using stepping stones to cross the shallow creek. However, the water got deeper the further upriver we went. 

After about an hour and a half of zig zagging across the river in beautiful scenery, we arrived at a sign that pointed us up a steep path claiming one hour more to reach the falls. Ugh. Lucky for us, we moved quickly and made it in a half hour to one of the most beautiful and remote waterfalls I've seen. There we met 3 cool people who had made the hike also. We hung out for a short while and swam in the falls before realizing we were desperately low on water. We sadly had to leave prematurely. We promised each other we would go back one day and do this hike with sufficient water and food to spend the day there. It was paradise. 

Day 6 - The Cooking Class

The next day we took an afternoon cooking class at the Pai Cookery school. We had planned to take a famous class for twice as much money in Chiang Mai, but decided that saving money and spending an extra day in Pai was a win win. We were the only two signed up so we got a private lesson. We learned to cook pad thai, tom yum, tom kah, green curry, sweet and sour and mango and sticky rice. We also got shown around the evening market and she pointed out all the spices we would need to cook these dishes back home. It was a fantastic experience and value and we can't wait to try cooking these ourselves. 

Day 7 - The Elephant Bath

The following day we headed 20 minutes out of town to find elephants to bathe with. We settled on Twin Chang elephant camp because they all seemed the same. We were looking for an elephant reserve where the elephants were well cared for but that experience was astronomically more expensive. So we settled for this. We rode our elephant bare back for 10 minutes to the river where she climbed in and immediately threw us off. We took turns taking pictures on her and when it was my turn she reared back and threw me back into shallow rocky water. I landed on my wrist and it was swollen but okay. Our guide had one of those sharp hammers and the whole experience was kind of a bummer. It was cool to be so close to such a powerful animal but it felt a little off. I couldn't tell if she threw me to be playful or if she was just sick of it all. 

After that we went to the hot springs resort to use their pool and hot spring pools to both cool off and loosen up. At only 100 baht ($3) it was a far more relaxing experience than going to the official government run hot spring for 300 baht. The resort was beautiful and empty and the pools were beautiful and clean. 

Day 8 - The Canyon

It was sadly time to leave Pai. We had to get back to Chiang Mai by 6 PM to return the bike and we had a train to Bangkok the following evening. On our way out of town, we stopped at the beautiful Pai Canyon. There were paths with many narrow ridges and cliffs on both sides. At times we had to essentially rock climb up and down to continue on the path. It was exhilarating. After about an hour in the sun, and once it got steep with loose gravel, we turned back. We continued on the road to Chiang Mai. 20 or so kilometers later, we stumbled on a sign for a geyser in a national park. Since we had time we decided to once again go off the path in search of adventure. This semi-paved road was similar to the last with a few kilometers of pot holes and steep curves. We made it to the ranger station and paid the entrance fee of 300 baht each. We considered not paying that much but figured we were already there. It turned out to be worth it. We parked our bike and walked to a hot geyser. We then had a nice hike into the park and ended up at an empty hot spring facility. The water wasn't too hot but it was fun to explore the different pools. We dried off, hopped on the bike and within an hour and a half were back in Chiang Mai. 

This was a blood pumping, eye opening, living on the edge adventure that I wouldn't trade for the world. If you get a chance (and feel comfortable on a motorbike) I highly encourage you to do this loop. It was without a doubt a top highlight of our 3 months in southeast Asia. 

Next stop, Chiang Mai to Bangkok to NYC, our new home.