I thought I had made a post about our 4 day car trip through Northern Thailand, however, the post must have been lost. We rented a jeep-like vehicle in Chiang Mai and took a 4 day/3 night trip through Pai, Mae Hong Son, and Mae Chaem. The vehicle allowed us to stop wherever we wanted.. it was great cruising by the standard mini-bus stops where all of the tourists eat and finding other street markets with some great food.

The entire drive weaved its way through mountains with waterfalls and hot springs. We visited the tallest waterfall in the Chiang Mai Province that was over 100 meters tall. We had the waterfalls all to ourselves as there wasn't a single person around.

Pai was a major let-down. I heard great things but I didn't see much I liked. It was full of western tourists, western style restaurants, and hippies. The food was bland, the bars were no different than what you find back home, and the live music we heard was awful. There were few street stalls which made it tough to eat since we basically live off street stalls (the food there is much better than the restaurants) We got out of Pai early the next day and drove to Mae Hong Son. My previous posts talk about our time there.

The road trip was great. We saw a lot of stuff you can't see taking mini-buses or packaged tours. Next time I'd like to take a motorcycle instead.