Change of Plans

Yesterday I rented a scooter, just like I planned. Within the first 10 minutes I almost caused a crash. Amazing start. Some time later, I drove to Chiang Mai’s China Town. It’s basically a giant market, where you can buy all sorts of things.

I walked trough these halls for some time and then made my way back to my scooter. Guess what? I got a parking ticket. And that’s not all. Seems like when the police gives you a parking ticket for a scooter, they lock the fucking thing, so you can’t drive away until have payed your fee. So all I could do was the walk of shame to the police station, where I submissively payed the fee. At least it was only about 5€, so it’s not THAT bad.

I drove back to the guest house and arrived there by about 6pm. At night I wanted to go see some Thai boxing, which started at 9pm, so I had some time left. So I thought it would be a good time to try the one hour foot massage, which I did then and it was really nice.

Then it was time to see some action-packed muay thai. The first two fights were kind of strange, I thought they could’ve been rigged. But after that the pace really picked up. There were two guys that went ham on each other, but even though they landed some good hits, this was the first fight that went the full distance. The main fight was a bit slower paced, because these guys actually seemed to respect each other. It ended with a knockout by knee to the head.

So that was yesterday.

This morning when I woke up I looked through my plan of the Mae Hong Son loop and I came to the conclusion, that it would be better to do it the other way around. There’s a few reasons for that: the first 60km out of Chiang Mai towards Mae Chaem are real-fucking easy. It’s just a straight road. For a beginner, like myself, that’s good to get a feeling for driving. The way to Pai (the other direction) in contrast is supposed to be the hardest part. Another reason is, that on 8./9. Jan there’s a Reggae festival in Pai. I would’ve missed it by one day, if I started with Pai. This way I will be in Pai on 9. Jan.

After having another Thai breakfast at my guest house in Chiang Mai, I started my trip to Mae Chaem. I filled up my fuel for about 40 Baht, which is about 1€, and got some water for the trip. Within the first 10km, I got pulled over by the police and asked to show my international driving license, which I had, so I could just carry on. It just surprised me very much, because online everybody said no-one would want to see that.

After about 70-80km I entered the Doi Inthanon national park, which I hadn’t even planned on doing anything in. Oh boy, was I wrong. I drove in and saw a sign to the Mae Klang waterfall. Of course I went to go look at it and this time, it was a real waterfall.

Later I saw another waterfall, which also looked amazing.

At the park exit, I asked a guard for the way to Mae Chaem. He showed me which road to go, but as I thanked him and wanted to go, he asked me if I didn’t want to visit the “top”. So of course I visited the top. I would’ve missed out real bad if he wouldn’t have said that. There where two big temples on the top and the view was incredible!

As I arrived at the temple, I noticed I only had 100 Baht (~2.50€) left and I had to pay 40 Baht entry fee. Adding to that my gas was also kind of low. The national park really got me by surprise, I expected more gas stations and more 7elevens (they always have an ATM).

So I just hoped I would reach Mae Chaem before my gas is empty. The road-sign said it would be 22km. This part of the trip was really curvy, with very sharp turns, on some there were signs telling you to honk, to warn oncoming traffic.

When I arrived at the first Mae Chaem signs, is slowly became clear to me that Mae Chaem is really not a city, but more of a spread out district. Luckily, I came by the Mae Chaem police station, which I think has 3 employees, and could ask for directions to the next gas station.

After I bought gas for 20 of my 60 remaining Baht, I saw the “Mae Chaem Tourist Information”. I was so happy, because there was an ATM next to it and they surely would know where I could stay for the night. Well, even though I was there in their opening hours, it was closed and there was no-one there.

I almost stayed at a home-stay for 400 Baht per night, which would’ve been even more expansive than Bangkok! But then I found the “Mae Chaem Hotel” and my dreams came true. A room for 250 Baht / night with wifi and as I learned later, they even have a pool. Perfect.

So this is where I am right now. It’s pretty empty here, even though this seems to be the only hotel. That’s it - I’m tired as fuck!