DIA 21 (06-12-2018): MAE HONG SON TO SOPPONG

Hoy llega Kim, de modo que toca recoger maletas, y cambiar de ubicación. No sin antes llenar estómago y actualizar le blog....que no se diga...

Mientras desayuno, recibo mensaje de Kim, que le parece bien que alquilemos coche, más bien una pick up, porque el coche estaba reservado. Lo malo que éste no es automático, pero seguro que consigo conducirlo.

Así que a las 9.00 estoy en la recepción del hotel para que el transfer me lleve al aeropuerto, y me hago unas fotillos con las chicas de la recepción.

Y al aeropuerto se ha dicho...al rato llega la chica del alquiler del coches con el pick-up. Como lo veo un poco enorme doy una vuelta al aeropuerto, lo aparco y me acerco a llegadas.

Aterriza el vuelo y sale Kim

y aprovechando que tenemos coche, 

en lugar de ir directamente a Soppong, nos vamos a ver el Wat Phra That Doi Kong Mu, que destaca por su dos pagodas. La más grande construida en 1860 y la más pequeña en 1874.

Y como el calor se nota de forma exagerada a las 10 de la mañana....a las 11 y pico decidimos poner rumbo a nuestro nuevo alojamiento: Cave Lodge

En el camino hacemos una parada para disfrutar de las vistas y estirar las piernas

Y vemos que en la acera de en frente hay como un mercadillo, así que cruzamos a ver que venden...

Y ésta foto directa para Irene comosuena....para que vea que las siguen usando... jeje

Y volvemos a la carretera y llegamos al pueblo cercano al alojamiento y pensamos en comer,...pero nos entretenemos en el mercado.....

Me hace gracia el sistema de ventilación de la "carnicería"

en la farmacia...que me hace mucha gracia que te hagan quitar los zapatos

y como no vimos muchos sitios que nos inspiraran para comer, volvimos sobre nuestros pasos a un Coffee que sí nos gustó.

Y ya con las tripitas llenas, rumbo al alojamiento...

Y parece que alguien está agotada....jajaja

Nos reímos bastante cuando al salir de nuestro bungalow nos damos cuenta que nos han dado la "Batman room" como en Puerto Rico....jajaja

Y nos dirigimos a la recepción para hacer el check-in y averiguar las excursiones para mañana. En principio me apetecía ir a la cueva  Tham Nam Hoo pero cuando me entero que tenemos que ser 5 personas para poderla hacer y aunque despliego todas mis artes de convicción a ver si consigo que 3 personas más se animen, pero os adelanto que no lo consigo. 

Para hacer otra de las excurisiones a otras cuevas se necesitaba ser 3 y eso sí lo conseguimos, de modo que quedamos con Vincent, un Canadiense que vive en Australia para mañana a las 9.00 irnos de excursión.

Y en la zona común del alojamiento terminamos la tarde-noche, ya que poco a poco va llegando gente y empezamos a hablar con todos.

La verdad que pasamos un rato agradable, cenamos y nos fuimos a la camita que hacía un frío que pelaba.

Day 2: Kim’s Arrival and Pick up

After a quick nap of 4-hours and another shower, I have a breakfast and coffee at the hotel. Gather the bags, quick look out the window to find the beautiful sunrise.

Quick taxi ride to the airport. For domestic flight, they have a quick security check in before you check in. I discover that my check bag is slightly overweight and I have decided to also check my trolley. I have to pay but it is worth it for the travel. 

Once I have checked in, I desire more coffee. I find a little local shop and get a cup. Turn the corner to look for a place to sit and relax and find Starbucks. Damn American commercialism!! But they have sweet treats that they do not have in America, so I indulge in a waffle with mochi…..delicious!!  And finally good Wi-Fi so I get updates and such.

After a nice relaxing time and some phone business, I am off to find the gate. I also find the lounge for the airlines – Bangkok Airlines. Any passenger can use the lounge. The lounge is nicely decorated and also had Wi-Fi. Quick peak in the shops and then I am off to tackle security and the gate.

I get through security fine and track down the gate. The board tells me it is Gate 11. But…..I reach Gate 11 and it is for a different airline that is having a flight to a different place. I decide to start walking around and look for Bangkok Airlines and my flight number. Success!!! Gate 14 is the lucky winner.

The bus arrives to take us to the plane. We are off to find our little ride to Mae Hong Son!! Many seats empty on the flight so my aisle seat has turned into my own row of seats – only 2 seats – so I move over to the window to take some photos of the view. 

After a quick and uneventful flight, I land on Mae Hong Son and find Cris waiting for me. I gather my bags, load them in the rented truck and we are off to explore and drive to Cave Lodge.

We find a local temple first and explore for a few minutes. But the heat and humid starts to take its toll so we hit the road for the drive. We start up some mountain roads with many curves and many scooters!! Finally, we arrive at the vista and I ask Cris to stop so we can take in the view. What a view too – see Cris’s blog for photos.

After a quick stop, we hit the road again to continue on our way to the lodge. We start to get hungry and we see signs for a coffee shop with food. We pass it and get to the next town. We park and start to walk around looking for a place eat and come across a market. Nothing looks very good in town so we backtrack a bit to get to the coffee shop.

We take a coffee and have some pad thai with some spring rolls – wonderful and fresh!! We were so hungry that Cris forgot to take photos of the food ☹ Bad Cris and her paparazzi ways!!!

After taking coffee and a bite, we hit the road again only to find some road construction!!. We get Cris through the construction site and keep trucking along until we finally come to Cave Lodge.

Check in and settle in we do and we make our way to the common area to see what we can see and to start figuring out what we can do for the next few days. We meet Daniel – American who lives in Amsterdam who is on a 8 month travel trip. Gus and Matisse arrive – both Americans we just met a few days before and decided to start traveling together. We start to discuss some caving options. The caving trip we wish to do requests that minimum 5 people sign up and many people feel that the price is too much but there is a 3 Caves in 1 Day trip that looks very interesting too.

We take a quick walk to the nearby cave and find that it is closing so we decide to not go in and hope that we may be able to take a trip there in the next few days.

We wander back to the common area and meet more people. A couple from Australia on a year travel trip, a couple from Canada on a 3-month travel trip, a single Brazilian woman just starting a year travel. Wonderful group of people. We talk until late.

We end up signing up for the 3 Caves in 1 Day trip!!! Looks very exciting. We are to start at 09:00 the next day so we head to the room to make final touches on the evening and get some rest.