Oberon resident Kay Jones, who is travelling overseas, has been sharing her experiences with Oberon Review readers.
I'm laying on my bed flat out like a wet, limp rag doll. The wall fan is going flat out and I have the air-con on power blast.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
I'm staying in Mae Hong Son, Thailand's most northern province, and my day started this morning with a private tour up to the Burma-Thailand border to visit three hill tribe villages belonging to the Shan, Thai and Chinese minority groups. The last one was right on the border, however, it is illegal to cross over the border into Myanmar and one is likely to get shot by Burmese soldiers if one does.
We climbed up the steep, windy mountain pass, with thick jungle growing on both sides of the road, leaving the heat of Mae Hong Son behind.
Bamboo grows thickly here, thriving especially in the rainy season, and we are now just coming to the end of the monsoon rains. In some parts it grows so high and thick that it bends over the road completely in an arch. Vines grow over these arches, so it was like driving through the jungle itself.
The blessing from the monsoon rains is that it cools everything down. This year Mae Hong Son recorded Thailand's highest temperature ever of 44.5 degrees in April. Today it was something like 37 degrees, and hot and sticky.
It was lovely and cool when we reached the Shan village. It was a pleasure to get out of the car and stroll down the road through the village to the lake, where there was a wharf and fishing boats.
Once upon a time this village grew the opium poppy as its main source of income. Now the village grows coffee beans. The King, in an effort to stop the drugs and firearms coming into Thailand from Burma and China, started projects where the Shan people are given free land and help to grow alternative crops like the coffee beans.
They have also been encouraged to start businesses. There is a restaurant in the village and many villagers have opened up their homes to backpacker-style home stays.
On our way back down the mountain we stopped at the Pu Khlon Hot Springs. I was hoping to have a swim in their pool, but it was closed for repairs during the low season. So I had a 20-minute soak in a private hot mineral bath.
The temperature in these pools reaches 99 degrees - far too hot just to soak in, but great for cooking an egg or two. Fortunately, I didn't have to get into a bath that hot. Staff there draw the bath for you and add cool water to bring the temperature down.
Nevertheless, by the time I got out of the bath and dressed, I felt like a rag doll, with no energy left to do anything but get back to my guesthouse and collapse on the bed with the air-con on.
