'Neung, sorng, sahm,' its one, two, three in Thai and whenever Thais take photos they count it out before they take a photo.
Photo next to a tree, photo next to a sign, photo next to a river, photo eating food. I spent the whole weekend on my trip to the north of Thailand posing for photos. I was on a tour in a van in the Mae Hong Son region in far North West corner of Thailand, almost on the border of Myanmar. I had booked the tour through a teacher at the school who told me the trip was going to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai.
Turned out the trip was not going to either of those places but I had a great weekend exploring a part of Thailand I never thought I would get too. Mae Hong Son is actually famous for being so difficult to get to. The road which from the outskirts of Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son has 1864 curves. There are t-shirts and all sorts of gifts with 1864 on it. I slept for most of the drive as we left school at 8pm and drove through the night.
The trip stopped a couple of times at a river, pine forest and cave and as I said plenty of photos were taken. For basically the whole trip I did not know where our next stop would be and on the first day ended up at the Kayan long necked tribe. The women had the coils around their necks which depress their collarbone and rib cage to make their necks look long. The women are refugees of Burma and the town is now a tourist attraction. Being a falang I had to pay 250 Baht to get in while the Thais all got in for free.
The first night we stopped at Mae Hong Song and I spent the night exploring the night market before drinking whisky with the van drivers and some of the other people on the tour. The van driver must have been awake for twenty hours in a row had a few hours sleep before getting back in the bus again.
The second day of the trip was spent visiting temples. I am fairly sure you cannot take a tour in Thailand without visiting a temple. We also stopped at a couple of lookouts again for a photo shot at one point I was offered a free coffee if I posed for a photo with the Thai girl who was serving. I was more than happy to pose. Lunch stop was in Pai and at the end of the day we were again in Pai. I still did not know where the tour was going. Luckily there was a Thai teacher on the bus who was a very good translator and order food for me so I ate something other than chicken and rice.
The Pai night market is extremely popular for Thais at this time of year and the town was abuzz. There was a quite a contrast between Pai in the day and Pai at night. I did not even realised we were in the same town until I saw the same signs. Another night drinking whisky beside the river followed the night market and it was a great laugh.
The final day of the tour was a long drive back to Chachoengsao through the mountains stopping briefly for food and a couple of touristy markets. We also stopped in Lampang for a quick walk through another temple. Lampang is known as horse and cart city, as you could probably guess it’s because of the horse and carts which the Thais seemed happy to pose next to for photos but not actually sit inside.
Back to Chachoengsao after three full on days of exploring some of the most magnificent parts of Thailand. I had a great time but may have to try and book again on a tour going to Chiang Mai.
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