9 minute read
Travelling through Thailand with the Tuk Tuk Club - and Jen
Mark Bibby Jackson spends ten days on a tuk tuk travelling around the hills of northern Thailand with The Tuk Tuk Club and receives a hospitality he has seldom encountered.
By Mark Bibby Jackson
A crowd has gathered around Jen. I am used to this by now for she has up-staged me throughout my tuk tuk travels. Never act with children and animals, they say. Well, don’t travel with a tuk tuk either. All the staff of the Fern Resort have congregated in the car park, two of them pause by Jen as I get behind the wheel and pretend to drive away with them as my passengers, while the smartphone cameras silently click. Then the rest of the staff line up beside the tuk tuks and more photos are taken. Everyone is smiling. It feels good.
If you have not gathered it already, Jen is a tuk tuk, one of the troupe that The Tuk Tuk Club drives around the hills of northern Thailand from their base just outside of Chiang Mai.
I don’t know why this memory stands out so clearly in my mind above all the others on our tuk tuk travels. It could have equally have been the time we stopped for lunch at Mae Chaem, only to discover all the restaurant staff standing beside Jen taking photos of themselves next to her. Or equally at the eclectic Ching Ching bar in Mae Sariang, where our guide Smithy struck up a conversation with a group of young Thais who had seen our small convoy – two bright orange tuk tuks and a support 4VD – entering the border town, and explained how they just loved what we were doing. Or the numerous occasions that local Thais smiled at the crazy foreigners driving their tuk tuks up and down the sweeping mountain roads to Doi Thannon, at 2,565 metres above sea level the highest point in Thailand, and beyond.
This is the Thailand they sell in tourism brochures and on videos – the real Land of Smiles. Not the modern-day Thailand you encounter in Bangkok where people sit on the Skytrain, their faces buried in their mobile phones just like their distant cousins do on the London Underground, the New York Subway or Paris Metro.
Our trip started with an hour’s drive from Chiang Mai to the tiny village of Maewang where our training took place.
Quite understandably she takes umbrage at my cumbersome use of the gear with only passing reference to the clutch. And as for the break, the least said of my heavy right foot, the better. Jen repeatedly judders to a halt on the small basketball court that is our training circuit, in the middle of which a family of Karen farmers are drying some rice.
“Maybe, you can try reverse,” Smithy, who is also my driving instructor, suggests. With little faith, I turn the ignition again and release the clutch, only for the vehicle to ease its way backwards, slowly. Like Tony Curtis steering the motor boat in Some Like It Hot, I have found my metier – driving a tuk tuk in reverse. After all, nobody is perfect.
“Perhaps I can drive backwards on the tour,” I suggest to Smithy.
“That would take 30 days,” he says, a broad smile sweeping across his face. He is right, our tuk tuk adventure is only scheduled for ten.
After receiving a blessing for the journey ahead at nearby Wat Tham Nam Hoo, we drive the following day to the Maevang Elephant Home. Until recently, Maevang was very much like many other places around Chiang Mai providing elephant rides for ill-informed tourists. However, now people come to feed the mammoths and walk beside them to the river where they have their bath .
Meeting the locals in Northern Thailand
“Here you can feel they are like a friend; you can feed them,” explains Num, who works at Maevang.
There is a childlike quality to the elephants’ play. One of the smaller ones tries to duck his younger sibling’s head under the water, just like any ‘normal’ child would in a swimming pool; only this time mum stands by imperviously as she shoots a jet of water at us, rather than yelling at her children to behave. Clearly, they are having fun – something that is not often said of their cousins who trudge their way through the forest carrying gap-year travellers or selfie trigger-happy tourists on their backs.
We spend the third night of our tuk tuk travels at Ban Kuhn Klam, where Jen takes a well-earned rest having climbed her way up more than one thousand metres that day. A small community set in the middle of paddy fields, this is the epitome of rural Thailand. The following day we set off on foot on the Pha Dok Seaw trail in Doi In Thannon national park, following the course of the Mae Klang river.
The following day’s drive is a long 160km drive to Mae Sariang on the Myanmar border. This is the first day that I truly feel comfortable behind the wheels – instead of dreading the emergence of the next tight bend I find myself enjoying the challenge of sliding through the gears, confident in my new-found acumen. I have discovered my driving rhythm, instinctively sensing when Jen wants to change gear and when to give her a bit of welly.
After a night – and too many beers – spent in Ching Ching bar, we head to Mae Hong Son some 170 kilometres to the north.
On the opening stretch we pass through a lovely boulevard of trees, which provides a delightful dappled shade.
We don’t quite reach Mae Hong Son, as our destination is some 10 kilometres before the town – the Fern Resort – for an amazing night’s sleep in a bed once slept in by none other than Angelina Jolie!
Despite the inviting prospect of spending our day of rest lazing by the pool, we opt to hike a trail that leads from the back of Fern Resort. Now, the weirdest thing about the walk is our guides. As we assemble at the starting point, the owner of the resort claps his hands several times and four dogs appear before scampering off down a path, while we duly follow.
The following day’s drive to Pai is the most spectacular on our trip with sweeping panoramas of the verdant countryside. We arrive at the Phu Pai Art Resort, a few kilometres outside of Pai. Set in some farmland, this really is getting back to nature, and as I relax in the pool I feel that I am an intruder in a foreign land, especially as a farmer strims the now unwanted rice paddy in a neighbouring field.
The next day is another one of rest for Jen, which is probably a good idea as the final day’s drive is also the longest. We will travel some 178 kilometres taking the scenic route back to Maewang, avoiding the heavy traffic on the road to Chiang Mai.
A bunch of bikers pass us on the tight bends. Then we ascend some more before pulling over to the side of the road to enjoy the view at the spot Smithy helpfully describes as “the viewpoint” about half way to our destination.
Lush Rice Terraces in Chiang Mai
The bikers have arrived here first. They all congregate around Jen, needing little encouragement to pose for the camera. I am clearly an optional extra.
This will be my most biding memory of the trip; the way that Thais have welcomed the crazy foreigners driving their orange tuk tuks around Thailand. I have never felt so true a welcome in all my travels. There is a genuine warmth but also respect for what we are doing, especially as we are taking Jen and her colleague Flo on roads that no self-respecting urban tuk tuk would ever dream of driving.
Shortly afterwards Jen starts misbehaving. Smithy thinks I have been over-revving the engine as we descended the steep slopes. He takes over driving, relegating me to a role on the bench for the rest of the trip.
What at first feels like a slur on my tuk tuk driving skills – after all I am now a ten-day veteran – soon turns out to be a reward. Sitting in the back I can enjoy our welcome as we pass through some idyllic villages where locals smile or wave at the most unexpected visitors.
Eventually I start to recognise landmarks we passed a week ago. With the chequered flag almost in sight and our tuk tuk travels almost complete, Smithy rediscovers his trust in my driving ability, and he allows me to take Jen home.
Our first hotel now in clear view, I pull Jen into the grass verge by the side of the road, stalling her for one final time as I forget to apply enough clutch and we slam to a halt. At least some things have not changed.
Mark and Jen on their journey
Image: Mark Bibby Jackson
Do you want to join Jen and The Tuk Tuk Club for this amazing journey in Northern Thailand?
We’ve teamed up with The Tuk Tuk Club to offer this very trip as our signature Low Season Journey to Northern Thailand this August.
Learn more about the trip at: https://lowseasontraveller.com/low-season-journey-northern-thailand/
The images in this article have been supplied by The Tuk Tuk Club (unless stated otherwise).
