The road tracklog
From Mae Hong Son to Chiang Mai
from 01/01 to 06/01/2008

January first, 2008 I left Mae Hong Son to see in the mountain close to the Burmese border “Longneck Karen”, some women who carry a brass coil around the neck. The vertebrae are disjoined; one says that if they remove the coil they die suffocated. The village of Ban Nai Soi is composed of about thirty families. The site is very tourist, the families live from handicraft. The admission fee is charged by an association for a creation of a Karen State in Myanmar. I went back to HW 1095 to stop to have lunch at the park “Fish cave”. I decided to bivouac there.

 
Longneck Karen 
Ban Nai Soi 
the 01/01/2008 

 
Water Organ
Fish Cave 
the 01/01/2008 

The following day I intended to visit Lod Cave close to Pang Ma Pha to see “coffins” out of wooden dating back to 1200 to 2200 years ago. Alas the road was too narrow for my truck and a streamer was tended to less than three meters high. I gave up. I headed as far as Pai where I lunched in a restaurant recommended by the LP, Baan Benjarong, highly recommendable. I establish my bivouac in Tha Pai Hot Spring. It is a small park with two wells of hot water at the short-nap cloth of the ground. The admission fee is 200 bahts for foreigners, prohibit for what there is to see. Despite everything I remained because the temperature was very pleasant before finding heat in Chiang Rai.

 
 
Tha Pai Hot Spring 
the 02/01/2008 

The target of the day 01/03 was Chiang Dao and the caves of Tham Chiang Dao. Alas, the connector of the power supply of the laptop did not function any more in spite of a repair made in Kuala Lumpur. I stopped it to save the battery in order to recover information in waiting of a repair in Chiang Rai. Consequently, I decided to go there as soon as possible to find a workshop to repair it. I drove until 17:00 and I found a sympathetic bivouac close to a geyser at the edge of the road.

The morning I should to leave around 07:00, alas the air desiccator did not work. I have to preheat the engine and to wait. I left about 7:50 to arrive at the TAT, Tourism Autority of Thailand, in Chiang Rai around 09:10. I found a bivouac in the vicinity in Maekok Villa. Then I looked for a computer workshop for my laptop. Alas the consulted workshops did not want to undertake and they wanted to send it in Bangkok. The afternoon was devoted to the visit of the main monuments to knowing the three more important monasteries. I “stole” a picture of the Emerald Buddha at the museum of Wat Phra Kaew. I strolled in the city by bicycle that I did not recognized 20 years afterwards. At the end of the day, I paid a visit of courtesy to the Alliance Française. Finally, I finished this day in an Internet café to send emails for Happy New Year 2008. The day was radiant with a pleasant temperature.

 
Emerald Buddha
Chiang Rai 
the 04/01/2008 

 
 
Wat Jet Yot 
Chaing Rai 
the 04/01/2008 

he 05/01 as of 08:00 I went to a hospital for the fourth vaccine against the rage. It remained one to make the 21/01 in Cambodia! After having regulated various businesses, I left Chiang Rai around 10:20 to arrive in Chiang Mai about 14:00 at the TAT. A possibility of bivouac was given me however it did not exist. I found a carpark close in Sirimankhalajam rd. I went then to the Computer Park to find a workshop for the laptop. At 16:00, I concluded the deal for the following day, Sunday, at 11:00 O'clock. I was in the expectancy. Then I strolled in a shopping centre by eating skewers.

The day of January 06 was devoted to the rediscovery of the temples in Chiang Mai. On the 300 temples which the city accounts I visited 4 inside the old city and 3 outside. Few tourists encumbered the sites, a true happiness. The laptop had been repaired, another true happiness. The Gods were with me! This Sunday was radiant and the move by bicycle was easy.

 
Wat Chiang Man 
Chiang Mai 
the 06/01/2008 

 
 
 
Chiang Mai 
the 06/01/2008 

The following week I head towards the border of Cambodia.