Travels in northern Thailand
Though somewhat battered and bruised and in a fair amount of pain after our encounter with the flying moped, we stuck with our plan and made our way out west to the town of Mae Hong Son near the Burmese border. A long and twisty journey in a wee little minibus through lush wooded hillsides, accompanied part way by a disparate bunch of foreigners looking to find fulfillment (and free digs) in a monastery part way along the route. Most of the time, and to our surprise, we just had local Thais for company.
We turned up at a $10 a night place in the centre of town, Boondee House, run by the ever helpful Mr Too and were given an annex room made of wood with walls painted a gorgeous shade of grass green.
Mae Hong Son is a lovely little place – a small, compact town arranged around a lake overlooked by the chedis at Wat Chong Kham and famous for its night market. Low key for Thailand, it still attracts a reasonable amount of backpackers and a slightly older crowd, but only those prepared to make the 6 hour journey from Chiang Mai. We spent many hours in the market, either at the low tables next to the lake, eating charcoal-grilled catfish and red curry, frequenting the dimly lit bars or seeking out the amazing stall where an ever employed middle-aged lady deftly spun her batter mix across two steel hot plates to create the most wondrous crepes this side of Paris. The temples are lit up at night and reflect beautifully in the lake as you munch your way from one stall to the next.
Wat Chong Kham at dusk, Mae Hong Son
Mae Hong Son
Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu, Mae Hong Son
Exploring the monasteries, Mae Hong Son
Aside from visiting a few quiet monasteries on the outskirts of town (places where you find yourself alone with only the occasional flash of saffron robe as a monk hurries from one stupa to the next), we’d wanted to come here to get out into the countryside. There’s an unusual hiking path located here, the Mae Sakut Trail, that can be tackled unaccompanied and with a strong likelihood of having it to yourself. We hired a tuk tuk driver for a day (a mate of Mr Too) to take us there and then on to a local ‘long-necked’ village.
Though a mere 5 and half kilometres long the Mae Sakut Trail is a real challenge. It leads up through dense forest, crossing a dozen or so streams that must be carefully negotiated, past several impressive cascades and along ever narrowing paths, involving some scrambling and steep drop-offs. Add in the humidity and constant, free flowing perspiration and you have a tough little walk indeed. We were muddy and soaked to the skin in the 3 hours it took us to complete it. At least we had it to ourselves though.
Mae Sakut Trail
Mae Sakut Trail
Mae Sakut Trail
Mae Sakut Trail
Huai Ku Keng was a recommended place to visit a Karen village that still retains its character and integrity. There are several similar villages in the area but most are geared up to hard-sell baubles and trinkets to tourists, so this seemed too good a chance to miss. The Karen are a people that celebrate their identity through various means. Some simply wear red clothing, some insert huge rings into their earlobes (‘big-eared Karen’), but here, the practice is for women to wear tall necklaces made of brass rings that give the impression of a strangely stretched neck (hence ‘long-necked Karen’).
The practice is fascinating. From a very young age, girls are encouraged to start wearing a small group of stacked rings and to swap them, as they get older, for ever increasing weights and sizes. Women in their 20s and early 30s wear necklaces that weigh 2 or 3 kilos and clearly looked ‘stretched’. Women in their late 40s reach the peak of neck distension, wearing weights of 5 kilos and looking, as per a news article we read in the village, ‘giraffe-like’. The effect is rather illusory though. Rather than stretch the neck vertebrae themselves, the practice pushes the ribs downwards and straightens the neck out to give the impression of stretch. We talked to several women in the village about it, how they felt about continuing the tradition and how they still encourage their girls to take it up. Once compulsory in long-necked Karen culture, girls now have the option to go without if they so choose. From what we saw in the village it was a fifty-fifty split of those enduring the pain and those going unencumbered. And painful it apparently is, rather unsurprisingly. Helen tried on a half-necklace weighing a half-kilo and found it unbearable. It takes some commitment to agree to a life-time wearing metal rings around your neck that permanently distort your natural body shape. That kind of dedication deserves much respect.
Huai Ku Keng village
Bamboo bridge, Mae Hong Son
The village itself was a fabulous little affair. Fifty or so wooden shacks arranged up a shallow slope and only accessible via a river crossing on a long boat. You’re free to wander at will, and we did, encountering tiny snippets of local life and friendly smiles. The tourism-free experience wasn’t entirely true however. There were stalls selling ornaments and hand-made scarves and there’s now a fee to enter the village itself. However, it wasn’t ‘in your face’ and everyone was happy to chat without pressure or ulterior motives. I don’t think they get that many visitors. We stopped for a coffee in one shack and I photographed a little girl who couldn’t take her eyes off us. Whether intimated or even petrified we knew not, but she was clearly trying to work out what to make of us even with her mother’s encouragement…..
Huai Ku Keng village
We had a touch of nostalgia here too. The women of the village wear a yellowish paste on their cheeks called thanaka to help their complexion and it brought back superb memories of Burma (Myanmar as it’s now called), our favourite place in South East Asia, where the practice is everywhere. Mae Hong Son is only a few miles from the Burmese border in fact, and the Karen are spread across the whole region. Alas, the raging civil war there has meant we could not return on this occasion. That’s going to have to be another trip….
The bigger city of Phayao was next on our agenda, a dizzy and nauseating ride back to Chiang Mai and out east taking an entire day. Phayao is another town wrapped around a man-made lake, but this one is much bigger and the place had a totally different feel. Little to do here, other than visit more temples and take in the lakeside scenery, but we liked it immensely. A university town, it felt young and lively and very Thai – hardly any concession to tourism here at all. We only saw a dribble of other foreigners at dusk in the little fish restaurants lining the lake-shore. But these are places where you find gems. We walked a couple of kilometres out to a temple called Phra That Chom Thong and came across a tremendous stairway, lined with 2 nagas stretching a good hundred meters up to the entrance gate, painted vibrant blue and green. No-one ever walks here and transport takes you a different route so these impressive mega-beasties go completely unnoticed. Then from the sublime to the ridiculous at another temple where a local artist had decided to create a vision of heaven and hell made from concrete. Weird, outlandish and outsize human beings in various states of torture and torment. Plus a couple of dinosaurs thrown in for good measure.
Wat Phra That Chom Thong, Phayao
Phayao Naga statues at dusk
Phayao
Garden of Heaven & Hell, Phayao
Phayao Naga statues at dusk
We’d heard about a trail next to a temple a half-hour out of the city where a number of white buddhas are built into the rock face. Clearly most locals didn’t know about it. Our taxi driver looked at us as if we were insane as he dropped is off at the isolated woodland location we’d found on the map. To be fair, there was absolutely nothing there. He refused to wait for us, perhaps spooked by the situation, perhaps thinking we might murder him and steal his car. After a 10 minute walk and encounters with aggressive dogs we found a sign to the trail, but no discernable temple. A path led downhill and we discovered the first of the buddha statues. A quite amazing place. Massive, contemporary carvings either chiselled out of the rock itself or created as plaster-works in carved-out niches. Some were very traditionally modelled, others were modern new takes on the theme. A 2 metre tall bright white face was a stand-out. An enigmatic smile and oval eyes looking out across woodland in this most beautiful and most hidden of places.
Hidden Buddha Trail, Phayao
We made our way back to the nearest main road, hoping to get a Grab taxi (amazingly we got lucky in this out of the way place) and a few hours later were on our way to another little known sight in the area, a ridge overlooking a flat valley in a place called Phu Langka. Here, at certain times of the year, atmospheric conditions conspire to produce a strange sea of mist that fills the valley overnight and which is slowly revealed to the onlooker in the dawn light. We’d read about it and even seen a few photos, but as with most things in life, there’s no substitute for seeing things with your own eyes. The valley is dotted with small islands of karst rocks and trees, and the mist slowly swirls around them, engulfing some and revealing others. The effect is completely magnificent and the experience was further enhanced by the lovely little place we found ourselves in. There are couple of tented camps on the ridge that overlook the valley, complete with real beds and a breakfast of congee rice porridge brought to you on your deck as you watch the scene unfold. The spectacle only lasts an hour or so and by 8am the mists had already burned off in the increasing heat of the morning sun. But what a marvellous sight. And we were the only people there.
We had less luck trying to get out of Phu Langka. I’d pre-ordered a taxi, knowing that public transport is non-existent (we had to get a taxi to bring us here in the first place), but as the time approached for our pickup it became clear that the chances of anything turning up were becoming more and more remote. After a few concerned enquiries with the staff we discovered that there was actually a bus – one a day and going to Chiang Rai, our next destination, though you had to be lucky to get on as it was always full. We decided to chance it, cadged a lift from the camp to the stop where the bus was supposed to pass a little further up the ridge and waited there in the burning hot morning sun. An hour and a half passed. No bus seemed to be turning up either. I continued to wait roadside whilst Helen went to a cafe to make enquiries about any locals who might be prepared to take us. Then, at the point we’d given up the ghost, a bouncy little bus appeared round the corner, no doubt wondering who on earth was the mad English bloke frantically waving it down. A sprint back from Helen, a throwing on of bags and much clambering over everyone else’s luggage stacked in the aisle and we plonked down on the only 2 seats left. Lucky indeed. And a damn sight cheaper that a 3 hour taxi. Proper travelling.
Chiang Rai saw us thrust back into the tourism mainstream again, but we didn’t mind that so much. We’d spent a good six days without many other tourists at all, a fact that amazed us and proved that it’s still possible to get the experiences we crave even in a mega-destination like Thailand. Equally the town still felt real aside from the fresh-faced backpackers and whole-body tattooed drop-outs that roam the streets. So a few craft beer bars and a pizza later we were still more than happy.
There are many draws here. Some people come for the chance to wash or ride elephants, or go river rafting or visit the golden triangle where Laos, Thailand and Burma meet. We’ve done all that kind of stuff before, so like most others we limited our ventures to the more urban delights of the White Temple (Wat Rong Khun ) and Blue Temple (Wat Rong Suea Ten). And what delights they were.
There’s been a temple of Rong Khun for around 150 years, but the current incarnation is a thing to behold indeed. In an attempt to rescue a crumbling set of structures and provide the town with a real destination statement, local artist Chalermchai Kositpipat gained agreement to rebuild the place using his own money and with carte blanche to do as he pleased. It seems the carte blanche was taken literally as the temple was transformed into the most dazzling edifice we’ve ever seen – a brilliant white paint job studded with shards of mirrors that leave you almost blinded in the glare of the morning sunshine.
Rong Khun temple, Chiang Rai
Rong Khun temple, Chiang Rai
Rong Khun temple, Chiang Rai
Rong Khun temple, Chiang Rai
It’s quirky and it’s charismatic. Walls, roofs, dividing panels, bridges, arches, everything is festooned with the strange, esoteric imaginings of Kositpipat’s mind. Mythical creatures, entirely invented creatures, things that may or may not be creatures are displayed on plinths around the outside, all white, all mirrored, all magical. The entrance has a bridge flanked by giant white tusks. Just before the bridge there are dark ghoulish faces and a sea of hands emerging from the ground, reaching out, representing the idea of unrestrained desire that can be overcome by the act of crossing the bridge. Inside, the temple is rendered gold in the main, but with little paintings of modern icons and events. The destruction of the World Trade Centre in New York, an image of nuclear war, depictions of fantasy scenes and comic book heroes as well as movie stars. Michael Jackson is here, in miniature, as is Jack Sparrow and Neo from The Matrix. There are Pokemon characters and a Hello Kitty. It’s supposed to remind you how evil / bonkers / inconsequential / very consequential mankind can be. It’s confusing, but it’s fabulous.
Its counterpart, the Blue Temple, built by one of Kositpipat’s proteges, is a little less edifying in comparison. No doubt we visited these things the wrong way round as seeing the White Temple first left us spoilt and unsatisfied with anything less. Here there are equally bonkers statues and creatures from Buddhist mythology, many of whom seemed to have muscular six-packs on display, but the colour scheme is inconsistent and at times totally garish. Some elements remind you of those crystal shops you get in places like Glastonbury where bluey-purpley naffness seems all the range. Maybe that’s just me…..
Rong Suea Ten temple
Rong Suea Ten temple
Rong Suea Ten temple
Rong Suea Ten temple
Rong Suea Ten temple
I think we got this one right. Northern Thailand, for us, needed to be a balance between seeing the more obvious sights with the masses and skirting tourist areas to get to little known but wonderful places, where we could feel like we were on our own (and you’ll know that’s often just the distance between ourselves and other westerners) and in that we succeeded. It’s made this place a real pleasure.
Foodnote: Our stay at the Morning Camp at Phu Lanka came with dinner included. We were presented with a do-it-yourself Thai barbeque set – a small steel dome with holes surrounded by a little moat and under which was a substantial amount of glowing hot coals in an iron dish. Our food was a plate of pork and beef cuts and some tofu, along with a basket of lettuce leaves, some morning glory and a few long-stemmed flowers (we know not what they were), a small bag of glass noodles and an egg. We also got a kettle of water. The idea, unsurprisingly, is to place the meat on the dome to cook it. However, our only cooking implements were two standard sized chopsticks. There was no oil either, so the process became a frustrating exercise in prising off meat stuck to steel with two bits of thin wood, half the time losing it in the moat below. The moat itself was more successful. Cooked vegetables, flowers, noodles and egg in a wee boiling circle. Only later we discovered 2 wasps had fallen in as well. Hopefully there were the only two and we didn’t eat any others….
Simon (22nd January 2026)
Glad you’ve had a wonderful time in Northern Thailand. It doesn’t sound like you’re taking it easy while you get over your injuries though! A tough challenging trail and visiting places even the locals don’t know about. Only you two! Xx
Ha ha – best way to recover. Keep on doing!
I’ve read mix reviews on the Karen villages, authentic or staged ? Either way, no suggestions Helen it’s something we try on our next night out. The trail looks beautiful and I’m sure was worth the challenge. Of course, you know I’d be more than happy with miniature Jack Sparrows popping up on my travels.
Yep, we’d heard the same about the Karen, but thought this would be the best chance of authenticity. As far as we could tell, it seemed on the level. I’d think you’d prefer life-size Jack Sparrows would you not?!!
Beautiful photos!
Thanks Claire – it was a very photogenic place as you can see.
As usual a very good story of your adventures. The photos are fabulous.
Thanks – enjoyed taking them
Glad you managed to find your own little areas of tranquility … and the bus eventually turned up. The white palace looks stunning!!
Yes, we were nearly fully baked before the bus came though… The white palace is worth visiting Chiang Rai for alone to be honest. Amazing, but it was so bright we needed to lie down in a darkened room for ages…..
Beautiful photos, just amazing. Great to see you out hiking, especially after all the excitement, trails look fab
Thank you. Vey photogenic place indeed. The trail was fabulous too – but we must have lost our own bodyweight in sweat!