What civil war?

I asked a travel agent if it's possible to get from Mae Hong Son to Mae Sot in one day, and he said yes, but it's a "very long day on very local transport". Now, I've ridden a bus or two in my day, and so naturally I scoffed. Bring your local transit, Thailand. Turns out he was right. It was a long day. Started off at 530, tuk-tuk to the bus station for the 6am local bus to Mae Sairang (4.5 hours, hard, small seat but not crowded so it was fine). Arrive in Mae Sairang, have 10 minutes before we leave for Mae Hong Son by sangtaew. A sangtaew is a pickup truck with two hard benches in the back and a little canopy over the bed area. Mostly open. Very windy. 6 hours. Up some mountains, into cold/mist, and then down some mountains, very fast (85mph, I chekced). In the rain. Using both lanes around blind turns. I was concerned. Eventually we made it down and didn't die, and it got warmer and stopped raining. But yes, it was a long day, and very local. It got especially local when about 10 locals plus me and Rudi and our packs were jammed in there.

That night in Mae Sot, I was sitting in the common area and started talking to the leader of a tour group that was staying there. I said I was going to Burma tomorrow. He said the border is closed. I said ...say what?? I had asked two or three Thai people (travel agents, etc) and they all said it was open. Nope, closed. Civil war. That completely blew my plans out of the water. Now I had far too much time to kill in far too small of a town and I didn't want to rush back to Bangkok either and what was I going to do??? Naturally, I decided to mope around for the day I was supposed to be in Burma. Lay on the sundeck. Read. As I was about to go do this, the tour leader showed up again and asked if I was just going to hang around the hostel all day. It sounded like an okay plan to me, until he said it out loud, then I realized it was maybe less than ideal. Ever helpful, he suggested I rent a motorbike and go see some waterfalls. Even knew where to rent them and how much they cost.

So I went and rented a motorbike (more of a scooter, it had no clutch besides having 4 gears) for $3. I've heard of people getting ripped off by motorbike rental places who will make up damages and then charge you for them when you turn the bike in, so I made a big deal of inspecting the bike before taking it, hoping to discourage them. The first helmet she gave me was too big, the second one looked like a batting helmet. I took the first one. I had to hold it down with one hand so it wouldn't blow back, but who needs two hands anyway?

At one point as I was heading out of the city, there was a truck coming straight at me. What is this idiot doing in my lane? OH! Thailand is left side drive!! And then I came to a roundabout. Go...left... A couple more times I caught myself crusing on the right, but luckily most of the busy intersections had other people for me to follow. It'd be quite a pickle to pick the wrong side of a divided highway...

The waterfalls were dry, and the hot spring was ugly and too hot to swim in. However, I did enjoy just cruising around the rice paddies and seeing different little villages. At one point while I was looking for a cave I never found, I saw sign, sign, then no sign. Knew I had passed it, but saw the curvy road ahead sign and couldn't help myself. The scooter was no GSXR, but it was still fun whipping around the curves. All the loose gravel added some excitement.

On my way back I ran out of gas. I was a little suspicious of the gauge...hanging out on half a tank for so long (what good gas milage!). Luckily, I was in a little village and not 5km out in the middle of some fields. Extra lucky, I pushed my bike for 20 feet before a nice old Thai couple asked something that seemed to be "what's wrong with your bike?". I pointed to the gas gauge, and they pointed to a gas vending machine (no other way to describe it) literally 50 feet away. Super lucky. On top of it, there was another nice Thai lady around to show me a) where the gas tank was and b) how to use the vending machine. Disaster averted, $1.30 of gas later.
Took the night bus to Bangkok. Hanging out until tomorrow night when Sterling gets in. Trip is winding down fast...