I spent the last week in Mae Hong Son, located in the far northwest corner of the country. Up until a few years ago, this town was barely noticed by tourists, in part to its inaccessibility. Even today, the roads are steep, winding and of poor quality, though it is changing with new pavement being laid down in some areas.Of tourists spots, MHS is probably the least visited by non-Thais. Evidence of this is that I only counted maybe ten westerners in my week there, this pales in comparison to the ten I see every minute in Chiang Mai. The people that do come here are mainly Thais and Japanese.
{On a side note, people always wonder what nationality I am. It has turned into a game for me. People will look at me and assume that I am Thai. Then I open my mouth and if I speak Thai (what little I know), Thais will look at me funny like I am mentally retarded or have a speech impediment. They will ask me where I am from. I will reply that I'm American. They will give a second funny look, as I was lying or jerking their chain. Then I will tell them that my parents are born in Hong Kong. Their faces light up, as if they guessed correctly on a game show saying (translated), "Ahh, I knew you are Chinese!" and start smiling. However, in the northern towns, there are people that will assume that I am Japanese, presumably because of the huge numbers of Japanese tourists that come thru.}
I met up with my Hungarian friend, Gabor, for a few days. He's also a photographer/reporter (the only Hungarian correspondant in Southeast Asia he contends). Basically, we did the same thing as we did in Pai - look for interesting photo ops via obscure trails in the mountains or in villages.
One place was called Maeo Microwave, the latter word added because it was adjacent to three microwave towers on top of a mountain.
The road to the village was so steep that our motorcycle stopped dead on a few hills, either because of us being too heavy on the steep angle or else the gas in the bike was so far back in the gas tank, that the engine ran out of juice.After Gabor left, I explored the countryside via bicycle. Just like Pai, the rolling hills were fun, though at times intense. One climb was a solid fourteen kilometers up, more than half of it was on dirt trails. It was so steep that the rims on the bike were almost melting the break pads on the way down.
I visited one of the famous long-neck hill tribes, which is sorta like a tourist rip-off/exploitation of a poor population. The village doesn't have much of an economy (blow is a picture of clothes being made), though they have realized that tourists will pay money take pictures of the villagers. This has turned into a big money maker for these villages, but the social cost is that hordes of tourists (both Thai and outsiders) invade the village to take a bunch of snapshots. I am reminded of Lisa Simpson asking Homer, "How would you like it if slack-jawed yokels came into your home to take pictures of you?" Yeah, yeah, I know I am part of the problem in this sense, but the reality is that the village is gteting money... money they would not otherwise have.
