Mae Hong Son province

Mae Hong Son was a small city south of the monestry. Got a ride with a local named DaneiDanei, it was a nice ride. He didn't speak English and my Thai is not any better. So hello hello was the only thing I understood. But we had nice talks. Monologues only. I arrived around eleven o'clock so I had plenty of time to look for a hostel. Internet was not very helpful so I just walked around, after the whole week of meditation I was ready for some good social interaction and good food. All the guesthouses I asked only had private rooms and no dormitory. Still cheap cheap. After the check-in and a little powernap at Friendshouse I went for some food and WiFi. The people that I saw in the guesthouse were only solo travellers who were a bit too old for me. Sorry guys. It was not a big village and I was trying to deal with the fact that I was going to be alone for some days. At that point I ran into Emilia, a girl that I saw at the monestry for 7 days but we never talked. She was still looking for a guesthouse and we decided to share my room. The next day we rented a scooter and with 3 of her friends she met on the bus we drove around all day. Beautiful surroundings, good weather and a lovely company made it a nice day. Three motorbikes, five people, two small crashes without any damage, delicious food, laughters, lots of tea plantages and cabbage plantages, crazy Asian kind of grouppicture's, thanks Emilia, KK, Gabi and Amila.

The next day we would witness KK first hitchhike,  it was only 12km till the hotsprings. Two soldiers offers us a ride. The weather was actually too hot for a hotspring, but a nice swim and cooling down in the shades felt good. After that I was making my way down towards Khun Yuam with Emilia. An even smaller village, there was not much going on and unfortunately no place were we could rent a motorbike to visit the waterfalls. So we would just walk around a bit and leave the next day again. In the evening we met three local guys who spoke really good English, they paid for our food, gave us some snacks and one of the guys had a copy shop. The next morning I was visiting his shop for my visa for Myanmar. In one week I would go back to the country were my whole journey started. Again he was super friendly and didn't want me to pay. Emilia and I walked around all day and we found this guesthouse with an amazing view, the owner didn't mind it if we would spent a couple of hours there. The atmosphere of the entire place was incredible, the owner said that her daily meditation was the reason for the positive energy hanging around there and she was very happy that we noticed it.
Khun Yuam, Goodview guesthouse and camping. Definitely go there if you're in the area!

Later Geert would join us, he was a friend of Emilia, they met before we went to the monestry in Pai. He had a scooter and came from Mae Sariang. Our plan was to go there as well in the next couple of days. Emilia joint him on the motorbike and I took a hitchhike towards the next village, for me that was going to be Mae La Noi. I had a ride with a very friendly teacher from Khun Yuam and decided that I would go straight to Mae Sariang, he was going further towards his house in Lamphun.

Mae Sariang, never thought this was gonna be one of my favourite places of Thailand. I stayed at a hostel with free access to the gym next door. I was missing working out more than i expected and went to the gym twice a day. I rented a motorbike and went for a small trip on my own. I was on my way to a waterfall and from what I saw online I was ready to face many tourists along the way, but at one point I thought I was going wrong because locals were waving and I saw literally no tourist. The waterfall turns out to be a good and beautiful place with no one around me. I had an amazing time at the place. It was just me, myself and I and a lot of water falling down. I enjoyed the sound of the water. I enjoyed my own company. Some moments are memorable and this is for sure one of the best ones for me. These moments make my travel very beautiful and unforgettable.

Leaving Mae Sariang to go to Song Yang. It took me three rides. The first one was not so talkative, the second one was very short and he kicked me out in a village called Ban Um Ki. I just started walking in the right direction and it took me a hour the catch the third ride, apparently not so much traffic around Um Ki. This old pick up truck stopped and the guys inside were even older. His Englisch was amazing and the were happy to give me a ride. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere they stopped and I thought he was going to leave me there. He just needed a short break. Smoked some weird herbs and had some fruits. He dropped me off in the centre of Song Yang, a small village with one hotel and one guesthouse. Not a lot of options.

The guesthouse was outdated and expensive for Asian standards, I checked in anyway. I left for a walk and found out that there was nothing much going on besides a lot of people crossing the river, with a boat or swimming. Burma was on the other side. Nobody spoke English, I just watched and wandered. Where they illegally working on the other side and now making there way back home? Where they just visiting friends or family? It would have been a unique way to cross the border.

The next day I left early to check out this point of view that I saw on Google maps. I was almost there and a car stopped, where you going? The main question people say when you're walking with a massive backpack along the highway. They fool me a couple of times already making me think their English is good enough to have a conversation. She was sweet and the car was comfortable and I went in one ride to Mae Ramat. I dropped my backpack at a small restaurant had some lunch there and walked around a bit. Not much going on so I was not planning on searching for a hostel. It was only 30 minutes to Mae Sot. Back to the restaurant for my backpack and this time I was going with the local taxi. I was sure they would drop me off at the busstation and next to the busstation was the green guesthouse were I stayed last month as well.

I would meet up with Emilia and Geert again, they were camping all week after Khun Yuam. We had some diner and went to bed early, next day we would visit the gibbon sanctuary and some waterfalls. I had planned the whole trip and knew were to go. First waterfall was a total disaster. It was a stream the size of a shower. Hahaha. They still trusted me, the gibbon sanctuary was amazing. So that worked out well. They woman was American and gave me a bit of a sad impression. The animals were staying in the sanctuary till they die, the oldest one was already 48. She had no money and room to take in new ones and the area wasn't suitable for them to go back into the wild. She didn't even had enough enclosures to separate the males and females, so we saw two babies as well. That was gonna be a problem in the future I guess. Neutering was also not possible, too expensive and the ride to Bangkok was very stressful. She had no support of a vet nearby. She was doing the best she could, still the sanctuary felt depressing.
It was time for the second waterfall. I was pretty sure it would be better than the first one. Not hard to beat though. Haha 😂 and it turned out to be one of the best ones ever. Lucky me as a tour guide! We enjoyed it a lot. And again no tourists.
It was a big waterfall with a lot of layers in the forest, trees were growing in the middle of the waterfall. Nature amazed me again.

Last night in Thailand already. I loved the Mae Hong Son province a lot, thanks everyone! I was not expecting this after my visit two years ago.
Burma, here I am again!