Mae Sariang

Mae Sariang is a sleepy town southwest of Chiang Mai. Because of the lack of activities it gets very few tourists for this area. This is an email I sent home after I got there:

Ahh, it's good to be free from Chiang Mai. Having completed my classes and run-out the lease on my apartment, I hopped on a bus and headed west into the mountains.

Old wooden cart

Mae Sariang is a small town that sits in a wide river valley, about 50 kilometers from the Burmese border. I'm staying in a guesthouse by the river, and have a room that's spotless save for a small epitaph grafitied on the wall near my bed that reads "Don't shit where you eat my friend" (wasn't that a Ween song?).

A map to the waterfall

I rented a motorcycle this morning and drove all over the surrounding area trying to find this waterfall that was supposed to be nearby. At the edge of town a group of about a half-dozen kids spotted me and all started waving and shouting hello, I smiled and helloed back. I gave up on the waterfall when I found the trail and discovered the motorcycle would never be able to do it and I'd have to walk. Rolling back into town the same bunch of grinning children were still there, waving and shouting and dousing me with a hose as I drove past.

Distant Buddha statue

It was midday when I got back to my hotel and my room was about a zillion degrees so I got back on the motorcycle and decided to go see if I could figure out what the pointy, gold and white thing up in the hills was. I wound up at a local temple, and wasn't terribly surprised to discover that it was a Buddha statue wearing a pointy, gold hat. Why the buddha statue had a large pair of naked breasts is something I'm still trying to work out though. On the way out I helped some monks who were trying to move a large pavilion tent without having it collapse on top of them.

Buddha statue close-up

Songkran celebrations in the local river (check out the picnic platforms)

It's very quiet here most of the time, except for the parades that go through banging gongs and drums two or three times a day. Young men with shaved heads and wearing colorful dresses are carried on peoples shoulders, while everyone else around them dances and makes noise. From what I can gather they're celebrating the upcoming Thai New Year (next week) and the young men are planning to ordain as monks on that auspicious day.

Scott