Readme before you journey
Ban Cha Bo wasn't named after anyone's rank but the word "Cha" means "Mr.". The ladies would be called "Na". "Cha Bo", the chief of a village, was just passed away a few years ago.
This village is inhabitant by "Lahu Tribe". They have their own language, costumes, and traditions. They still believe in ghosts. There are 226 people and 53 households.
Ban Cha Bo is a member of CBT (Community - Based Tourism). Put it simply, this village is open for tourists to come and feel its community mainly using the village resources. It is a joint management system where you cannot choose where to stay when you come, the community will arrange for you. The cost is calculated by person, it's not expensive at all and super worthy.
Another more famous village is Ban Mae Kamphong which is also a member of CBT. For more information, please click http://www.cbt-i.org/
(You can also ready my review about Ban Mae Kamphong here บิดสองล้อไปนอนเล่น เดินเล่น ที่บ้านแม่กำปอง)
That we home stay with local people, we get to feel their way of lives, food, culture, and several traditions. Everyone in this village is very informative and eager to talk and welcome the tourists.
It is about 71 km from Ban Rak Thai to Ban Cha Bo. A further deeper destination to this road is Myanmar border and still, there're several villages located along the route.
Since we spent quite a time at Mae Hong Son, we must hurry and reach this village before dark. So today, we get to enjoy the sunset along the way on the scooter instead.
Before we could arrive at Ban Cha Bo, it is already dark. Let's enjoy the sunrise tomorrow. It is said that this village has such a beautiful sea fog. Then, we go stay at the house per arrangement.
Here is the landmark of this place. It is a legs hanging down noodle shop. We can eat our noodle while enjoying the sea fog. Do not worry if they would have food ready that early, they start cooking since 03.00 a.m. If noodle is too heavy for the early morning, then you can also enjoy a cup of coffee first.
The evening atmosphere at the viewpoint is cool and very peaceful.
Then, we unpack stuff, wash our faces, and enjoy our dinner at the house. Then, the community invite us out to join "Chaki Dancing". It is a tradition of this village to dance and give blessings to sick people to recover soon (it is the belief of this tribe). I must apology that I didn't remember much of its details so I'm just going to skip this part. However, I do have the atmosphere to share with you guys. Quite a few tourists come to join this activity.
After that, we go back to sleep so that we can wake up early for the sunrise.
It takes a while to wait for the sunrise scene because we should come early. Then, we can only take the repeated views, the only different thing is lighting (I look at my photos later to find that I have so many repeated scenes).
If the sea fog comes in full stream, it would reach to this wooden balcony. But it seems like the luck is not on our side today T_T.
Here it comes, the sun!
We were looking at the tribe costume that the noodle shop provide for the tourists since we came. But I guess everyone think the same. Before we could get it on, the sun is quite strong now, we must hurry.
Then, we go for photography. This costume makes us fit in this atmosphere even more.
When the sun is getting stronger, we walk back to our home stay and wandering around to enjoy the morning atmosphere.
Did you see a cat in above photo? She's hiding there and sunbathing near the house.
The house on the right is the house we are staying.
Every time I see the countryside people put their kids to learn to stand inside a basket, I think it's so cute. This basket is a thing that every house has. It's so different from the kids in Bangkok which has so many options. Before a kid grows up, the parents find hundreds or even thousands of toys for them (which is nothing wrong). But for the rural kids, just a basket and careful hands of a mother is enough (I've asked for a permission for this photo already).
After that, we pack, take a shower and get ready to leave this place. But before that, we try to ride deeper inside the village to enjoy the view along the way. If we keep riding in, we will reach Myanmar border. The road is not good but the view is spectacular.
Then, we ride back and see the noodle shop again.
Turning left, we could go to Muang Pangmapha District and forward towards Pai District.
This village is our 5th day destination. We have high expectation to see the sea fog as we have failed for 5 days already. We only saw few of them but nothing considered sea fog. I've seen from the review and photos saying this village offers lots of fog and it expand all over.
But...we failed again. It was no sea fog due to the weather dropped too drastically at night so there's no sea fog in the morning.. I'm so sad.
However, I've already satisfied from what we have seen. It's also beautiful in its way. What I'm impressed the most is the fact that we got to stay with local people, fully enjoyed the nature. It's so simple. Simply watching the sunrise could magically calm us down, it's so serene.
Therefore, if chances allow for you to see sea fog, regardless of where, do not fail to wake up early. Due to different geography, sea fog in each place also offers different beauty. So, please wake up early, we could sleep more while we are at home.
Please follow my other days review here:
7วัน วงกลมตามเข็ม เชียงใหม่-แม่ฮ่องสอน ::::::::Day1::::::::เชียงใหม่ สวนสน อุทยานแห่งชาติแม่โถ
7วัน วงกลมตามเข็ม เชียงใหม่-แม่ฮ่องสอน ::::::::Day2::::::::บ้านห้วยห้อม
7วัน วงกลมตามเข็ม เชียงใหม่-แม่ฮ่องสอน ::::::::Day3:::::::: ทุ่งดอกบัวตอง-ภูชี้เพ้อ
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Wednesday, January 25, 2017 4:17 PM
