On 21-23 of Januari a group of motorcyclers drove to Soppong to witness the Lisu new year festivities. This is a report on our trip.
The man with the plan was, you guessed it, David Unkovich. According to David it would be fun and somewhat entertaining. Both would turn out to be correct. I was a little reluctant at first to join because I've been only been riding for less than a year and all the others are very very experienced riders. But since David invited me through the message board I decided to come along. Didn't regret it a single minute. About 10 am I parked my bike outside the Kafe and soon all the guys started dropping in, David being the last which I understood is sort of a tradition -
. According to plan we drove off about 11.30 in a group of seven. After we had lunch in Pai we arrived at Soppong at 4 pm. David had arranged accomodation and we split the group between Little Eden and Soppong River Inn
which both have nice huts for about 400 Baht a night. Not long after dinner at Little Eden everybody went to bed. The fireworks that kept some of us awake at night indicated we missed a good party and the next morning we learned that the locals had been at it until seven o'clock in the morning. But no worries, the next night they would be doing it all over again. After breakfast we all went up the road opposite the River Inn. It takes only 800 meters to arrive at the first village, Nong Tong. Their collective hangover didn't stop the villagers from being extremely friendly and open towards us. The Lisu girls were all dressed beautifully and had no problem at all to have their pictures taken. The friendliness of these people was illustrated by the little boy (about 4 years old) who offered to share his icecream with David (or was he just intimidated by the size of the man? -). Soon we were all invited by two Lisu girls to have a drink at their house and the local whiskey was poured out quickly. That the stuff was too strong for me came as no surprise, but even the experienced whiskey drinkers (everybody else in the group) struggled to keep a straight face after drinking it. Man, this stuff was strong. After a siesta we all had diner at the River Inn, which was absolutely fantastic and I can recommend to anyone that spends a night in Soppong. After diner we went up to the village again to see what was going on. The people were going from house to house, dancing in a big circle
to music made on some kind of banjo. Of course, the whiskey was flowing again and generously offered to the farangs. We didn't stick around long enough to find out at what time the party ended this time, but the emptiness of the streets in the village the next morning/ early afternoon suggested that they went for it all the way again.
The next day we drove up to Mae Hong Son. A very pleasant town that deserves spending there a day, which we did. The next morning the group split up. Some had to backtrack to Chiang Mai to be back in time, David stayed to explore some tracks and the others completed the Mae Hong Son loop.
I wanna thank the group for having me along and not bitching about me slowing them down -. I had a very good time.
Moral of the story: everybody should do the Mae Hong Son loop and if you're interested in visiting hill tribes, Nong Tong at Soppong will be excellent. To those who passed on the opportunity: don't miss your chance next time.
Maarten
The man with the plan was, you guessed it, David Unkovich. According to David it would be fun and somewhat entertaining. Both would turn out to be correct. I was a little reluctant at first to join because I've been only been riding for less than a year and all the others are very very experienced riders. But since David invited me through the message board I decided to come along. Didn't regret it a single minute. About 10 am I parked my bike outside the Kafe and soon all the guys started dropping in, David being the last which I understood is sort of a tradition -
. According to plan we drove off about 11.30 in a group of seven. After we had lunch in Pai we arrived at Soppong at 4 pm. David had arranged accomodation and we split the group between Little Eden and Soppong River Inn
which both have nice huts for about 400 Baht a night. Not long after dinner at Little Eden everybody went to bed. The fireworks that kept some of us awake at night indicated we missed a good party and the next morning we learned that the locals had been at it until seven o'clock in the morning. But no worries, the next night they would be doing it all over again. After breakfast we all went up the road opposite the River Inn. It takes only 800 meters to arrive at the first village, Nong Tong. Their collective hangover didn't stop the villagers from being extremely friendly and open towards us. The Lisu girls were all dressed beautifully and had no problem at all to have their pictures taken. The friendliness of these people was illustrated by the little boy (about 4 years old) who offered to share his icecream with David (or was he just intimidated by the size of the man? -
). Soon we were all invited by two Lisu girls to have a drink at their house and the local whiskey was poured out quickly. That the stuff was too strong for me came as no surprise, but even the experienced whiskey drinkers (everybody else in the group) struggled to keep a straight face after drinking it. Man, this stuff was strong. After a siesta we all had diner at the River Inn, which was absolutely fantastic and I can recommend to anyone that spends a night in Soppong. After diner we went up to the village again to see what was going on. The people were going from house to house, dancing in a big circle
to music made on some kind of banjo. Of course, the whiskey was flowing again and generously offered to the farangs. We didn't stick around long enough to find out at what time the party ended this time, but the emptiness of the streets in the village the next morning/ early afternoon suggested that they went for it all the way again.
The next day we drove up to Mae Hong Son. A very pleasant town that deserves spending there a day, which we did. The next morning the group split up. Some had to backtrack to Chiang Mai to be back in time, David stayed to explore some tracks and the others completed the Mae Hong Son loop.
I wanna thank the group for having me along and not bitching about me slowing them down -
. I had a very good time.Moral of the story: everybody should do the Mae Hong Son loop and if you're interested in visiting hill tribes, Nong Tong at Soppong will be excellent. To those who passed on the opportunity: don't miss your chance next time.
Maarten
