Date	02/Jan/12
2 Riders	Mack15, Pounce
Rider of the day	Mack15
Stack of the day	Not awarded

Mae Hong Son - NW of Chiang Mai

Before heading off to Laos I had sort of planned to do some trail riding back in Thailand in the new year before coming home. Phil mentioned he wanted to head north west over to the Myanmar

(Burma) border & do some exploring, to map some new trails & waypoint fuel, lodging & other things needed for the North Thailand GPS map. Why not, sounds like a good thing to do.
As it's a long ride over there, we loaded the bikes into his ute for the 360klm drive to Mae Hong Son on New Years day.



After a lot of traffic, detours to avoid all the Thai tourists & 7 hours of driving, we arrive in MHS. The Pana Huts Guest House has been recommended to us so we head out there to find a room.

We're standing there when some dude pulls up on a KLX250 & says "I hope you're not looking for a room as we are full" in an Aussie accent. I turns out he's a Perth bloke that has been living there

with his wif for a while who owns the guest house.


We hit Mack up for some insider info on where to go exploring & then he offers to take us around & show some of his favourite areas. What more can you ask for, a local guide who rides? We

accept his offer then go down the road a bit to the Mae Hong Son guest house & get 2 rooms there.



Day 1.
We meet up with Mack around 7 then head out riding.

We head North of MHS up R 5001 to the Royal Gardens.


Early morning looking over Ban Na Pa Paek on R 5001



Fuel is available in Ban Na Pa Paek - Good to be full when off exploring


Mack takes us on a range of roads, tracks & trails.



Phil misses the small bridge hidden in the undergrowth.






Mack takes us to one of his friends places. This is in a small enclosed valley where he grows tea, fruit & an assortment of other things. He's also in the process of setting up a Home Stay for hikers

& backpackers to spend time there.







The Home Stay huts.


We then head up to Ban Rak Thai on the border where we stop for some food.




Fuel here comes in old soft drink bottles.


Border crossing for locals only into Shan State, Myanmar


We then poked around a little to the west of Ban Rak Thai & found another border checkpoint just near an army outpost.



Then off exploring, there is a large Chinese influence in this area, this is a Chinese memorial.



Phil has a lie down, he didn't see Mack stopped just ahead as the trail is blocked.



Big arsed bamboo, this stuff is amazing.


We then into a small village to see Mac's trecking guide friend Ben who also runs a small scholl to teach the local kids english.





We then head off again to do some more trail exploring.








We then head into a small Red Karen village for a look, this sits very close to the border.



The lump on this ladies thought is caused by an iodine deficiency, in the western world we tend to get our iodine fix from iodine salt



We see a sign on the road that's at the start of a nice lookig track. Mack trys reading it but fails so we head down for a look. Well it comes out what is an army training camp. We are told rather

quickly "You go now, leave!" by th big boss. Fair enough, we turn around & ride out. This track is great, we cross the same creek about 11 times along it.

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We head back into MHS, we've invited Mack & his wife out for dinner tonight.

The old suspension bridge to the NW of MHS, yeah, I'm not going across that! There is a main road, so I don't have to




MHS at night.



Day 2.
Today Mack is taking us south west of MHS into some of his other riding areas.

First stop, a quick blatt around the local MX track, which I don't do as the KLX bottoms out on pebbles as it is.


We then follow the Mae Nam Pai river towards the Myanmar border again.
The road has it's moments in places.


The sad long neck "refugee" village of Ban Nim Pang Ding west of MHS town. These people in reality aren't refugees, but displaced people with no legal status. The village draws huge sums of

money as a tourist spectacle, kind of a people zoo. Some say the police and army make a fortune and that's why nothing is done about it.


Fantastic bamboo bridge on the Mae Nam Pai river west of MHS, these get washed away in rainy season and rebuilt in November each year


Then more west to a suspension bridge leading to a Thai Army base. We keep asking "We go Myanmar? That way?" Every one shakes their head vigourosly, say NO! We soon find out why.




There's a road here heading towards the border that Mack has never done as he isn't sure where the border is. This is a bit of a touchy area with border disputes every now & then. we're told

people have heard heavy gun & motor fire at times in the area.
That's not stopping us though.



We end up at an army camp where we find out on the other side it's the Burmese regular army. Apparently these guys don't piss about & will basicallly shoot you if you cross here.




Time to head south to hit some more trails.






Mack & I try riding along a river for a bit, Phil takes the road, which works out good, he gets these photos.















A bamboo gate erected by the locals to keep the water buffalos out (or crazy western trailbike riders.
This is the second time this trip I've had to use the saw on the leatherman.





It doesn't look much, but to my left is a straight 20 foot drop to the river below.



We then hit this amazing section of trail, it's not here anymore. It gets washed away every year & Mack has only been through here with a guide. Looks like we have to find our own wayn through.
Phil gets lost at one stage & we have to walk back about 300 metres to find hime lost in the thick elephant grass. We have to follow the river out of the vally as there's no track anywhere.




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It's getting late as Phil & I need to leave MHS this arvo to be back in Chiang Mai tonight, so we head back to the highway for a road run back to MHS.


It was a great 2 days riding in an amazing country with all sorts thrown at you.
Great thanks to Mack for showing us around as without his guidance, I think our exploring wouldn't have been as exciting as I'm sure we would have missed a lot of top trails.

Mack has now moved back to Perth with his wife & lives in Mundaring, so hopefully I'll get him out on a few rides with us.