New Year Holiday Trip (2nd Day) - On the way to MHS

We accidently stopped the car and saw the sign "Thai Southern Food" at the street side shed. We were laughing to drive all the way up to the north and still want to eat the southern food, but that's ok, we needed spices to start up our day and we all satisfied with various curries that morning.

Our journey begins... We took the route#105 along the border and this car was with us half way to Mae Hong Sorn (MHS). It was like a private road...we rarely saw other cars passing by...

This was the road condition during the Mae Sot - MHS route before New Year 2010.

We had lunch at the Inthira Restaurant, Mae Sariang District. We had luck on the food again!...I-Din enjoyed fresh veggies stir-fried while Num was happy with tom-yum fish from Salawin River...Yummy!! This route has beautiful country scenery, but with 1,865 curves!! Num was an excellent driver..he could keep food in our stomach on this curvy road.

We stopped at the most famous cave in Mae La Noi District that late afternoon. The cave is fulled with sparkling "Calcite". We walked down the stairs 250 meters and could feel less air down there. I-Din was fascinating by "lots of diamonds!!" from those sparkling stones. We were not allowed to touch the stones 'cause it will damage the calcite and slow down its growth rate. I believe the guide said it grows 1 cm (or 1 inch) every 30 years!! The video/camera is not allowed in the cave, so it's only in our memory.

We had to take this car up the hill to the cave...personal car is not allowed for safety reason (they provided "mobile stair" too..see this photo), but Num said "I think our car is safer than this one!" Anyway, we arrived MHS safely that evening.

We checked-in the little hotel, Rimtarn Residence, in MHS town, then went for a walk and had dinner at the MHS Night Market. This market is preserved for local MHS vendors only, so you deal directly with the local sellers...many of them are hill tribe people. It was pretty quiet on Sunday night (Dec 20) and we got good bargain of various hill tribes products from this store. The weather was quite cold at night...but so hot during the day!!

This shirt says... throw up (from curvy road) + sleep (from sleeping pill) = Mae Hong Sorn (MHS)