I spent the entire day on a scooter traveling between Pai and the town of Mae Hong Son, which is about 115km one way. The scenery on the way is absolutely beautiful, but I think the exposure factor while on a bike makes it even better. The ride was one of the most fun things I've done in a while. I definitely earned some serious scooter XP today, and once I got the hang of leaning with my whole body over the axis of the bike, it was a ton of fun to navigate the hairpin turns. Circular momentum and centripetal force are cool. The picture below give a decent example of how the roads zig-zagged through the hills -- and it was like that for nearly all 115 km.
Here is a video I took while going around the some moderate turns to Mae Hong Son. I found out fairly quickly that video taping the most extreme turns was too dangerous because I only had one hand to break and stear and accelerate (often going downhill). Self-preservation won out.
The journey is a long day if one is planning on going there and back. For that reason, I was hoping I could find a really cheap guesthouse in Mae Hong Son, since I had already pre-paid on a room in Pai. When I got there I soon found out there wasn't much to do in Mae Hong Son, and things weren't as cheap as I hoped.
The first guesthouse that I stopped at no one was at the reception. I looked around for a few minutes and found no one. Eventually, a pot-bellied, shirtless tenant walked out of his room finishing off the last of two small bags of potato chips and offered his help. I told him what I wanted and he replied in a short tone, "You won't find anything that cheap here. They're trying to keep all the hippies out, that's why they built Pai. You know there's a war going on around here, in the mountains... fighting against Burma. Look up freeburmarangers.org if you want to learn all about it." Based on the guy who gave me the information, I wouldn't have guessed that the organization is totally on the up-and-up, but a cursory search seems to indicate it is legit and doing some valuable humanitarian services.
Anyway, without a place to stay, I made the 115 km back to Pai. Effectively doing no work for the day in terms of physics (Work = Force x Distance). But hell, that is everyday for me right now.
Also, a few days ago, I took a Thai cooking course. Although it was a long day of cooking, and stuffing myself with 6 courses, I learned some things that I wouldn't have extracted from a recipee book. For example, red curry paste is the base for two or three other curry pastes, so making a large batch of red curry paste means one can easily vary the flavor of curry dishes multiple times in a month. Those practical things being said, my favorite thing about the cooking course was meeting a British guy named Ray. And it was not so much Ray, as much as Ray's forearm tattoo that said "Ray/True Love/Karen" and his girlfriend's name was Susan.
Here is a video I took while going around the some moderate turns to Mae Hong Son. I found out fairly quickly that video taping the most extreme turns was too dangerous because I only had one hand to break and stear and accelerate (often going downhill). Self-preservation won out.
The journey is a long day if one is planning on going there and back. For that reason, I was hoping I could find a really cheap guesthouse in Mae Hong Son, since I had already pre-paid on a room in Pai. When I got there I soon found out there wasn't much to do in Mae Hong Son, and things weren't as cheap as I hoped.
The first guesthouse that I stopped at no one was at the reception. I looked around for a few minutes and found no one. Eventually, a pot-bellied, shirtless tenant walked out of his room finishing off the last of two small bags of potato chips and offered his help. I told him what I wanted and he replied in a short tone, "You won't find anything that cheap here. They're trying to keep all the hippies out, that's why they built Pai. You know there's a war going on around here, in the mountains... fighting against Burma. Look up freeburmarangers.org if you want to learn all about it." Based on the guy who gave me the information, I wouldn't have guessed that the organization is totally on the up-and-up, but a cursory search seems to indicate it is legit and doing some valuable humanitarian services.
Anyway, without a place to stay, I made the 115 km back to Pai. Effectively doing no work for the day in terms of physics (Work = Force x Distance). But hell, that is everyday for me right now.
Also, a few days ago, I took a Thai cooking course. Although it was a long day of cooking, and stuffing myself with 6 courses, I learned some things that I wouldn't have extracted from a recipee book. For example, red curry paste is the base for two or three other curry pastes, so making a large batch of red curry paste means one can easily vary the flavor of curry dishes multiple times in a month. Those practical things being said, my favorite thing about the cooking course was meeting a British guy named Ray. And it was not so much Ray, as much as Ray's forearm tattoo that said "Ray/True Love/Karen" and his girlfriend's name was Susan.
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