The long and winding road..

Setting off to the North from Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son we were up and on our way by 7.30 with 5 roughly hours of steep winding road ahead.. Hearing the roads were bad we were ready for bumpy dusty tracks and sheer cliff faces, got to say I did feel uneasy about the idea.. In fact, other than occasional military check-points along the way the scariest thing was probably the bugs in one of the roadside toilets and on average the roads were better than our own potholed pavings people are up in arms about after a heavy winter. It was a brilliant ride, bit on the speedy side but we were getting a discount as our driver had an afternoon pick up from Pai, a main town we passed by on the way. Slowly winding and creeping upward - an automatic car can be a bit of a bain on this terrain - passing the cloud level and ear pressure needing to be equalized the heat picked up as ever going into the afternoon but a much cooler wind replaced the cities warmer climes.
We arrived around 2 in the end and found ourselves in a true paradise... Red/purple dragonflies?! Gims Resort has been running for three years and was set up by the land owner Koh Ho (sp?) originally from Bangkok. When i say land owner, when a guy has rice fields being harvested outside your window i think you get the picture. You could smell it, so fresh.. With free bicycles available the 10minute ride to town was great fun and gave a great feeling of liberty after the madness of the streets in Phuket and Chiang Mai; since it was a small town - made up of two villages and overlooked by a mountain top Wat - there was less pressure to feel obligated by rights of way and traffic lights had a slight roulette feel to them!!
We only had two days to make the most of this place so plans started to form that night over the first full meal i had managed in 3 days - this stomach was back in business.