LEFTBANKED.

7.13.2021

826. The Road to Pai | Day 3: Ban Rak Thai Tea Village

This little village of Ban Rak Thai was another stop during our Mae Hong Son roadtrip. It's a Thai-Chinese village, populated with migrants from Yunnan province in China. The village is surrounded by tea plantations and offer tea tastings at their tea house. I'm not sure how busy this place gets during tourist season (non-covid times) but I imagine it's not very well known yet. It was quite of a drive in from the main road as well. I really liked it.

I think this is a resort. I would've liked to stay here but I'm not sure if they are currently open. So peaceful and tranquil..

It's up in the mountains so the temperatures were cool. There's usually mist over the lake which creates a nice atmosphere.

This is the tea house where we tasted a few different teas and bought some as souvenirs.

Probably the only shop open. I think it was a noodle restaurant.

Driving by one of the tea plantations

Here we stopped at a "fish cave". It was a park with a river full of fish running through, then at the very end there's a small cave with a lot of fish inside. You can buy buckets of food to feed them (containing fruits, leafy vegetables, dried coconut, kibble and dead cicadas).

At the "cave"

We also visited another bamboo bridge. As usual we were the only ones there. It's known as the longest bamboo bridge in Thailand and people go there to give alms to the monks. It would have been interesting to experience that and a beautiful site (I think at sunset they light up the sides of the bridge with fire). Now the place feels a bit run down. I imagine it hasn't been used in ages.

Some rice paddies near the end of the bridge

1864 curves along the Mae Hong Son loop! It was definitely a fun experience driving along there, and I'm so glad I didn't get carsick. Unfortunately we didn't actually do the full circle/loop though due to time constraints (looking back I guess we should've booked an extra day..I didn't realize the driving took so long). We went from Chiang Mai to Pai, then Pai to Mae Hong Son and turned back from there to take the same route back to Chiang Mai.

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825. The Road to Pai | Day 2: Bamboo Bridge & Mountain Village

Here was day two from our Pai roadtrip! We continued along the Mae Hong Son loop, making several stops along the way. The scenery was all very beautiful. One of the attractions of Pai is the Kho Kuu So bamboo bridge. I guess the attraction is considered "closed" now due to COVID (as there was nobody selling tickets) but we were still able to enter. We were also the only ones there which was nice.

I really love visiting little rural villages, especially those nestled in mountains such as this one.

Scenes along the Mae Hong Son loop. All these stalls closed due to COVID.

A temple on the mountain in Pai. We were the only ones here.

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824. The Road to Pai | Day 1 (& travel update!)

I'm currently in Bangkok as I make this post. We arrived here a few days ago and planning to stay for a month again. As you may know, we've been in Chiang Mai the last month. As luck would have it, Bangkok decided to announce new restrictions literally the day after our arrival. We are now in a semi-lockdown. :( The main thing that affects us is that all restaurants/cafes cannot offer dine-in service anymore, only takeout and delivery. This is very unfortunate and inconvenient for us as we usually go to cafes each day to work on our laptops (or to read). I am way more productive that way. Also when we are out exploring the city, we have to eat as well meaning without dine-in service, we can't really do that. The way takeout orders are packaged, lack of seating and the extremely hot temperatures makes it impossible for anyone to really eat outdoors. They still allow malls to remain open (though all seating is taken away), gyms, pools, parks etc. I wouldn't mind so much if it wasn't so hot though - there's only so much time we can handle being outdoors in a day without anywhere to sit/eat/drink. This is very detrimental to businesses as well (on top of their current struggles with the lack of tourists)..I think it would make more sense if they allow 50% capacity or something.

When this happened back in Toronto, I didn't mind it as much (at all) since I lived there but it's a different case when you're "on vacation". We are currently in Bangkok for 1 month and these restrictions will last for 30 days so pretty much our entire stay lol. It would have been better to remain in Chiang Mai (or have chosen another destination) but now it's too late. I will not complain too much though as we have been pretty lucky with all the previous places visited this trip up until mow.

Anyways maybe now I will have more time to catch up on my blog posts. While in Chiang Mai we did a roadtrip one weekend to visit Pai/do the Mae Hong Son loop. Then to go from Chiang Mai to Bangkok where we are now..we did another week-long roadtrip with several stops along the way. I really loved both roadtrips. We saw a lot of beautiful scenery along the way, many unique sites and rural mountain villages. Northern Thailand is really beautiful. I feel most people visit Bangkok or the islands when they come to Thailand, but I would definitely recommend exploring the north as well.

The journey from Chiang Mai to Pai is super mountainous and consists of over 700 turns. Some very sharp turns and on extremely steep hills. It's very scenic but not fun if you have motion sickness. I get motion sickness SUPER easily so this time I decided to take motion sickness pills as I wanted to enjoy the ride. Luckily it worked and I felt ok the entire journey there. I really enjoyed the drive there. It's one of those times when the journey is equally as nice as the destination.

A very beautiful cafe as we left Chiang Mai. It was like a garden. Very peaceful and relaxing.

A witch-themed cafe along the way. Chiang Mai/Northern Thailand has a lot of cafes, many with cool themes and designs. I think spending a month there got me really into cafes so that's why I'm extra annoyed by the closure of them in Bangkok. I was really looking forward to visiting different ones here.