Mae Hong Son

A mtn. bike/internet shop. Cool.

I'm in Mae Hong Son. It's a nice, small place but not too small. If I was a Thai person with money saved I think I would think of retiring here. If this place was in America I can't even imagine the price of real estate--2 million baht houses would be over a million USD. That's a big difference in price.

The dusk view of Mae Hong Son from a small mtn. in the middle of town.

15km out of town from M. H. Son

Today I'm headed to THE FISH CAVE! I hope it matches the THE MYSTERY SPOT, a geologic, -graphic, -mancic oddity in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan (taken from some website....In the early 1950's, three surveyors from California stumbled across an area of land where their surveying equipment didn't seem to work properly.....they noticed a constant feeling of being light headed...). Actually the Fish Cave isn't my destination but the village of Mae Aw. It's a village high in the mountains settled earlier by Chinese KMT soldiers. It's famous for its Chinese tea and Yunnan dishes.

If you look at the dates of my entries I disappeared for about 10 days. During that time I was in a meditation course that I had totally not planned to do. I was riding my bike as it was getting late one day and in the middle of the country I saw a sign that said "Meditation Center" in English, Thai, and Hebrew. Turns out, it was Buddhist monk from Israel who had opened the center. He was a great teacher and it was quite fun. As is popular in Theravada buddhism (the kind in Thailand not Tibet) we did a lot of walking meditation which focuses on mindfullness and the present moment. Now I'm trying to figure out how to adapt this technique to riding a bicycle! I think it is possible.

Mobile Fireman on-call

One day we were taking a break and we noticed a semi-huge fire coming over the ridge near where we sleep--approaching fast as it's starting on the dry season. We (foreigners) were getting a little antsy (as we sleep in bamboo huts with thatched roofs) but the Karen villagers who live there didn't seem so concerned. They said different plants and things had been planted at the border where the huts are, and the fire will turn and go up the hill away from us. This I just had to see. And that's what actually happened.

They will periodically burn out all the underbrush to lessen the amount of burnable stuff in the event of a real fire. Anyway this was the most exciting day, especially after meditating 10+ hours a day.

Next update from Pai.