Navigating Life and Turns on the Mae Hong Son Loop: Mae Hong Son to Mae Sariang
We awoke to the sounds of motorcycles grumbling to life, as if some grand mechanical beast had chosen this particular dawn to rouse itself. I smiled at the commotion, while Dalma, who treats early mornings with the enthusiasm of a tax audit, managed only a pained grimace. A morning person, she is not. I went to fetch coffee for her and soon her expression had transformed into something resembling cheerfulness — the smile that launched a hundred voyages, I thought. Or at least the one. But it was a good ‘un.
We’d had a minor setback. Mr Simmons had recommended a hotel called The Teak Room in Mae Sariang. Our attempts to book rooms, however, were unsuccessful. As it turned out, everyone else had the same idea. But that’s travel for you – a mix of meticulously laid plans and the intransigencies of fate.
Nine o’clock saw us standing by our bikes, tying down straps, ensuring a lack of movement. I wasn’t sure if it was more Boy Scouts or BDSM. Or possibly, I thought, both. The morning mountain air was still cool enough to be refreshing and require Dalma to put on her mid-layers. I don’t feel the cold much. Or the heat, come to that. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not about to start motorcycling in a mankini or anything, but I’m also not about to put on unnecessary layers. Just as we were gearing up, an American rider named Mike, riding a Honda 800cc adventure bike, started his own routine of gimp-slash-reef knots. We started talking about this and that, and we were soon joined by his partner Mariet, a Russian from the Caucus region. They’d ridden the same route as we had the day before, and Mariet wished she’d ridden her own bike, as she got motion sickness pillioning on the Honda. Dalma silently added that to the long scroll of reasons she’ll never pillion. We made our goodbyes and twisted the throttles.
The roads meandered in the cool morning air. Perhaps the allure of twisties, at least for me, lies in their metaphor for life. These roads are unpredictable, require focus, and invariably lead to something new. Alan Watts, a philosopher who bridged Eastern and Western thought, once said, “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” This idea resonated with me as I navigated each serpentine curve. Just like life’s unexpected turns, every twist in the road demands adaptability, a willingness to embrace the unknown.
By the time we arrived in Mae Sariang around 3pm, we were buzzing with the high that only motorcyclists know after a short and exhilarating run. Our hotel for the night, astride the main road, looked like it had been designed in 1973 and meticulously maintained. After settling in, we went for a walk, and stumbled across The Teak House with its restaurant overlooking the river. We decided to have a drink. If you can’t sleep there, at least sip there, right?
As fate would have it, going out to dinner, we ran into Mike and Mariet again. Over excellent Thai food and multiple beers/gin and tonics, we discussed Mike’s academic career, the problems of the Israel/Palestine and Ukrainian conflicts, riding in Thailand, their jobs in Japan, and solving the world’s problems one sip at a time. It’s one of travel’s lesser-known bonuses – turning complete strangers into friends and, given the right amount of lubrication, into sage advisers of worldly affairs, each of us dispensing our own brand of barstool wisdom.
Post-dinner, as we wandered back to our hotel, the evening’s chatter in our heads, there’s something quite magical about a night that unfurls in such an unexpected and fun way. In our bed, we found ourselves in that twilight zone between the day’s last conscious thought and the first dream of the night. It’s in these quiet moments that the essence of travel lies. It’s not just the postcard-perfect scenes, the curated photos, or the pins on a map; it’s the unexpected turns, the chance encounters, and the stories that emerge.
The next day promised new roads brimming with their own set of stories and surprises. Yet, for the moment, we were content to lie there, enveloped in the warm afterglow of today’s experiences, our minds a pleasant jumble of new knowledge and shared laughter. There’s a certain satisfaction in knowing that each day on the road adds another vibrant thread to the tapestry of our grand adventure.