Bangkok to Chiang Mai to Soppong

I had a very uneventful journey back from Ko Samet to Bangkok - all except for Taxi drivers once again trying to rip me off when I got off the bus...they all hang around the bus station ready to pounce and wanted to charge me an extortionate amount to get back to the Hostel.  After about 10 minutes trying 3 different people I gave up and decided to walk towards the street to hail a cab instead, a much better plan as although he wouldn't use his meter, he charged me a reasonable price. Lesson learnt - never get transport straight from outside your bus stop!

I turned up back at the same hostel - Niras Boutique - without a booking and luckily enough they had a bed available in the dorm and the girls were so nice moving around someone who was due in the room as I asked if I could have a bottom bunk (me trying to get on the top bunk would not be a pretty sight!)

That evening I ended up chatting to 2 guys in the hostel bar and although I was intending on staying in I ended up joining them for a drink on Khaosan Road, but not too late - only about 1am :-)  Interestingly enough they had both been pestered by ladyboys the night before and I told them that with a woman with them the "ladies" wouldn't come near them - low and behold I was right - but I couldn't help but think the guys were a bit disappointed!

The next day I had a flight booked to Chiang Mai - I suddenly thought that I didn't know which airport I was supposed to go to - there are 2 in Bangkok, the old one which is used mainly for domestic flights and the new one.  There was a guy on the desk that morning and unfortunately not as knowledgeable as the 2 girls as he was sure I had to go to the old airport (there was something in the back of my head that said I should have checked myself online but decided to go with him against my better judgement).  I caught a taxi and of course I turned up at the airport and was at the wrong one! Thankfully I had allowed plenty of time to get there so jumped in another cab and headed over the right airport!  Arrived in time to check in, grab a burger, go to the loo and get on the plane :-)

Chiang Mai was a bit of a welcome relief as you get there and its a really small airport and quiet outside.  I booked a place just outside the city centre at a place called A9 Place.  I was bliss - really quiet, really nice rooms with a lovely big comfy bed and a decent hot shower - just what I needed after cold showers and a hard bed on the island.  That evening i just stayed in at the place chilling out and had dinner and I ended up talked to 2 girls from the Netherlands and had a nice early night, i needed to recover after my excesses!

The previous afternoon I was asking the people in the guesthouse how to get to Soppong as my plan was not to stay in Chiang Mai for very long, and I asked about a driver to get me there instead of buses (I decided against the £60 cost for this though!).  Anyway the next morning the brother of the owner came up to me whilst i was having breakfast to say that the next day he was going north as well and he could give me a lift part of the way (although it was only about 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai!) Then he said he was heading to a national park area to build some bungalows, it was a really pretty area and if I wanted to I could go and join him there!  I think it was a genuine offer to just do something different and go somewhere nice, but I have to say I wasn't quite adventurous enough to take him up on his offer.  He did however give me a lift into central Chiang Mai as he was going there as well.

I had a good walk around that day and saw some nice temples but thats all there is to say really about the centre of town.  Its not that an attractive place and apart from the temples in the town there wasn't much to do from what I could see.

I investigated my options for getting to Soppong and it seemed like there were no private mini buses going all the way there and I had to get to Pai and then get a bus from there.  It wasn't very clear at the time what I needed to do but I was sure all would become apparent.

The next day I was picked up from the guesthouse and taken to the minibus, and the 3 hour journey to Pai was pretty uneventful apart from some beautiful scenery along the very bendy road - i think there's something like over 700 bends in the 80 mile journey!  From Pai I found that the only way to get to Soppong was by local bus :-)  A very interesting experience!!!  Thankfully there were 2 other western woman at the bus station also getting on which gave me a bit of reassurance.  The bus finally arrived and we piled on to an already full bus. 2 of us got seats but one of the women had to sit in the stair well of the bus entrance!

I actually took this photo before the bus got completely full - it was even more packed than this with people standing in the aisles.  there was definitely no room to relax and read and the roads were so bendy on the way to Soppong I had to hang on to the seat in front so I didn't fall off of it.  However, if i thought the views were beautiful from Chiang Mai to Pai, it was even more amazing on the way to Soppong.  We arrived an hour and a half later so it wasn't too much of a horrendous journey which made it a great experience! At Soppong I then had to find out how to get to the lodge another 8km away!  I was trying to get to Cave Lodge, somewhere I had read about on the internet and just sounded like the most amazing place.

I asked at the stall outside where the bus stopped about a taxi and they went and got a man who came with a truck to take me up there.  I arrived and I was in heaven.  Its in the middle of nowhere with a little village at the top of the road but not much else around.  The lodge is really basic and rustic but so beautiful in the most amazing setting.  There are cattle all around and apart from some birds tweeting, the only noises come from the bells around the cattles necks.  Lovely!  That evening I went for a bit of a walk with one of the girls who had been staying there for a few days down to the river and along the bank near to where the entrance of the cave Tham Lod is.  The whole place was totally relaxing and quiet.

Later that night I got chatting to an older english woman who was staying there and she was asking me about what I had been up to so far and I said about just coming from Ko Samet......she asked what I thought about it and where I stayed.  I told her Naga Bungalows and low and behold - she was the owner!!!!!!  It was a very strange coincidence.  I mean its not unusual to bump into the same people along your travels but i did think it was unusual to bump into the owner of where you have just stayed!  She was so entertaining to talk to with lots of interesting stories.  But talking of bumping into people - as I'm writing this sitting in Vang Vieng in Laos I just bumped into another guy who was staying in Cave Lodge at the same time as me!

I was really disappointed however as I found out that the owner of the Lodge John wasn't there at the moment as he had just gone back to Oz for a holiday - but would be back in just over a weeks time - it was such a shame as he seemed like such an interesting guy and one who I really wanted to talk to.

Still, the next day I decided to go for a walk and explore a little bit:

    

When I got back some more people had turned up at the lodge that I got chatting to all from England so I finally had some people to do stuff with as i wanted to go to Tham Lod to see the birds and the bats enter and exit the cave.  Its an amazing spectacle that happens at dusk where thousands of swifts fly into the cave to nest for the night and then thousands of bats fly out of the cave.  We headed down there and explored some of the caves a bit with a guide and then rafted out to the exit of the cave to view this.  It really was an amazing experience and you can't really see it from the photos here.

   

From there we had to head back to the lodge in the pitch black just using our torches.  In the end I decided to leave the next day just spending 2 nights there.  As much as I wanted to be a real adventure traveller, I realised being this far out was a little bit out of my comfort zone, however I was pleased I went.  I decided to get the bus back to Pai the next day....next stop....a week of over indulgence and lots of good live music!