Getting There

Most people begin their trip to Soppong from Chiang Mai. Here are some options for getting to Soppong from Chiang Mai : - fly to Mae Hong Son. Thai Airways presently fly to Mae Hong Son four times daily. The flight takes about 25 minutes and costs about US$20. Once in Mae Hong Son, you can rent a 4WD Suzuki at the airport (from Avis, and the drive requires a little more than an hour), you can take the public bus (about two hours and 35 baht), or hire some transport. You can arrange a private lift to Soppong at the airport via pickup for about 1200 baht, or by mini-van for 1500 baht. - hire a car there and drive. This is a great option so that you can see the sites along the way and travel at your own pace. The road is good, so no problems there. Not including any stops along the way (and you will want to, of course), the journey takes about 3 hours to drive from Chiang Mai. Driving is a great option, as it really gives you a lot of freedom, and you could even do some easy 4WDing to some sights and hilltribe villages in the Soppong/Pangmapha area. If you are driving to Soppong, be certain to follow signs for "Pangmapha" in the Thai and English signs (and in Thai on the small kilometre posts) along the way. - take the bus. It's cheap (about 100 baht), but quite long and the buses are slow and most are unairconditioned. There are a couple of A/C buses, charging about 100 baht, but as far as we can tell there is no set schedule for those. Figure on taking maybe 6 hours from Chiang Mai to Soppong. The buses make a couple of stops along the way (in Mae Malai, Mae Sae and Pai) for pit stops and quick food.