June 24,

I slept much better!👍🏻 We were up and about by 0730. We had our Javas and then went down to our included breakfast. We had ordered it the night before. I had Garlic Chicken Rice and a cucumber tomato garnish; Jeff had Pad Kra Pow with Rice with the same garnish. We were both given juice and watermelon slices. It was very nice and filling, but way better proportions than our previous breakfast spread in Ban Rak Thai.😂

Finished, we went back up to our room and we're deciding what to do with the day. There was an overcast sky but some sun dabbling through the clouds. Also from our window, we could see a landslide area in a distant mountain. It stood out as an upside-down, v-shaped scar of bare, brown earth amongst the green forests – seeing that kind of helped us decide what to do. We wanted to go for a drive. So we got in our Yaris and took off.

Jeff found a drive. It actually was in Mae Sakut National Forest. We arrived at 1100 at an entry gate. There was a 200 THB charge per person, which was $6.07 each. We decided to go ahead and pay and do the drive. There were hiking trails off the road that one could trek, going to various sites, like waterfalls. You could spend all day here! We chose to not do this because the weather looked like it could rain and the trails looked muddy already. Also I just didn't want to take risks – have issues with my hand. We just enjoyed the drive and the scenery of the mountainside.

The road started out pretty decent asphalt covered. We did come to a viewpoint and got out. So gorgeous! The scenery before us was just this green valley ringed with mountains all around. There was still some mist of clouds dancing on the mountain tops, but the sun had come out to play now, too. Stunning. We got back into the Yaris and drove on.

Then the type of road changed to old cement and started getting a bit rougher with scattered potholes and some slides. But the road kept winding about, snaking up and down pretty steep grades. There was constant signage:↩️↪️〰️, and steep grades- up or down of 8%, but we think that was an average! Some seemed 30%!!!🤯🤣  During these steepest grades, the car could only go 6 to 8 miles per hour! It was crazy!!!  We assumed we were out of the National Forest now. Also we began to see hints of life with one or two houses, a small village here or there, some clearings of forest for rice paddy terraces, one school, even a “Health Promoting” hospital, a coffee roaster called Sezukee Coffee, and scooters parked here and there on the side of the road. We never met any oncoming traffic thankfully though. It was about here we started seeing “evidence” of some kind of a large animal. I was hoping it was elephants but Jeff thought it was cows. Then we saw a cow sign, (🙎🏻‍♀️) and finally we saw a few cows, and even water buffalo. They were using the road as their path and sometimes we came around a bend of the road – they were right there on the road. Seeing the cows struck us both as odd because there's not really much in the way of pastureland. It was still pretty forested. We also saw a few little lizards scurrying across the road; saw and heard many different birds – one being a hawk/bird of prey; and also lots of butterflies.

A little bit further and the road changed again, seeing some construction signs… all in Thai. We could not translate them because we weren't getting any cell signals. We kept going and the road became very new cement, having patches that were just poured. Then we saw the construction equipment that was actually doing the cement work. We got some funny stares from some of the construction people, but no one stopped us. We probably should have turned around here, but we kept on going. We finally arrived in a larger village and the road puttered out became very rough and muddy. Then there was a big water overflow, crossing the road and we knew to turn around here. We assumed this no-name road (according to Google Maps) does go all the way through to another major road, but our little Yaris is not up to this challenge.

So now we did the drive back. What an adventure! Jeff had fun doing this approximate 50 km drive (31miles) one way and 50 km back drive, and we both enjoyed the gorgeous scenery. Back in Mae Hong Son, we decided the town is more vibrant than where we just were.🤭 We went to a local shop and ordered lunch. I had Stir-fried style Thai Rice with chicken; Jeff had Crispy Pork with Rice.We got them as take away and went back to our hotel, ate, and had a siesta. Later we walked around the lake, and got a Pad Thai at another local place. We also got some popcorn. (Our lunch and supper meals cost less than the entry into the National Forest.) We took these back for supper, then watched some movies. It was another good day!