Mae Hong Son province, the City of Three Mists
Mae Hong Son Province
New Year just pasted but the cold weather is still lingering around us, especially the East coast of the U.S. For Thai people around the city, we enjoy the temperature drop, indeed. The cold weather makes me want to talk about some place that will be suitable for the weather like this. Let go north and soak up the atmosphere of the fog bed at sun rise in the morning. The province I want to take you guys to, is Mae Hong Son province. Mae Hong Son, located northern part of Thailand that has many outstanding features such as the terrain and variety of people from different ethnic groups. The interesting statistic about Mae Hong Son province are province that sparsely populated in the country, its racked fifth in less populated areas in Thailand. Mae Hong Son province is also known as the City of Three Mists due to the mountain and complex terrain; make the fog cover the area most of the year.
What do they have in the City of Three Mists?
The City of Three Mists, I think they not overstated to call Mae Hong Son that. The city located in the valley and surrounded by mountains stretched along with Thanon Thong Chai Range and Daen Lao Range. With Pai river pass through the province, Mae Hong Son also has forest that is considering the most fertile in the country. Fog in the summer is a fog from the wild fire which happening every year. Fog in the raining season is from the rain combine with cold weather in the morning or evening then Whala! Stunting view. Lastly, indeed the fog in winter, this is the real deal, the fog is so thick and in the morning dew will turn to little ice. These make most of photography want to come here and capture the scenery from this magical place.
Mae Hong Son province has many visiting spots especially the natural attractions. Mae Hong Son province has three attractions that consider being Unseen Thailand.
- Kaeo Komon Cave forest park, Mae La Noi district
- Phu Klon Country Club, Mae Hong Son district
- Tham Lot cave, Pang Mapha district
The cultural and tradition from local people in Mae Hong Son province has been passed on from generation to generation of Thai Yai or Shan, a traditional tribe from Mae Hong Son province. If you visit Mae Hong Son, you can still see the traditional lifestyle. Their house will mostly build from wood, it either single floor or two floors, build with a basement raise up high. Most of them still have traditional outfit. With all the old traditional is still preserved and hardly get lost in time. It makes many tourists fall in love at this little peaceful province. Trust me, if you from a busy city, Mea Hong Son, will slow your time down like a good wizard put a good spell on you.
How to get there?
By car, Mae Hong Son was considered a secret and remote city in the tourist eyes, because, there was the only Highway 108 that will go to Mae Hong Son province. The high way cut through many districts of Chiang Mai province. The road is steep with total distant of 349 kilometers or about 217 miles. The road considers dangerous and need an experience drive to drive through this road because of the sharp curve and turn. Local people said the total curves of this highway are about 1,864 curves. The tradeoff for this dangerous road is the side view that so beautiful, that make passengers fall in love with this place even more but the driver may hate to drive up here again. It a love hate relationship, I’m sure some of you may understand, lol. Nowadays, Mae Hong Son province has an additional highway added which s Highway 1095. This highway will still pass through Chiang Mai province but it will take a different route. The highway will be only about 245 kilometers or about 152 miles. This can save you guys sometime if anyone of you interesting to drive up here.Bus you guys can take a bus from bus terminal, in this case if you start your trip from Bangkok, there are several options. First, you can just take a bus from Bangkok straight to Mea Hong Son province or, you can take a bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai province then from here you can choose to take an air condition van up there or the bus (no air condition) or a minibus to Mea Hong Son. My recommendation to you, take a bus to Chiang Mai then find your way up to Mea Hong Son province. That way, you can enjoy the view and absorb the entire atmosphere around you and if you lucky, the driver may stop at a little shack so you can buy some local fruits there as well.
Plane, if you want to go there quick and spend most time there, plane is another option you can choose. However, I believe, there is no direct flight from Bangkok to Mea Hong Son. You have to fly from Bangkok to Chiang Mai then connect the flight to Mea Hong Son. The cold weather at Mea Hong Son province but the magnificent scenery help set your mood and you know, it a great idea if you want to spend time with your love one on Valentine day at Mea Hong Son. I recommend every one of you visit this place at least once. Lastly, whoever went there or planning to go there, if you have pictures and story to share, even the question about the place. Please please please… let me, Curious Cat and my Magnifier Thailand know about. We would LOVE to hear from you guys. I will see you on next blog, happy traveling!
