Just past the actual village of majia there is a 3 way split in the road. I have been taking the far left (which is the one in photos above) for about 1.5 years. it used to have places where half the road was falling down, but i still took my little ford car there... after that there is a switchback section where it zigzags up the mountain a few times. past that you come to a once VERY amazing little waterfall where the road curves into the crotch of the valley, it was just past that where the first part of the road was taken straight down a mudslide. thats all fixed. the second mudslide is too, so its all done right to the end, which is a aboriginal shrine thing, some buildings, and a trail with a sign talking about an old school i really wish to know about.
i prefer scooter almost anytime personally, but i take my car there. the road is a mountain road, so i guess depends how comfortable you are on shitty mtn roads, i myself love them and am used to them. but there are rocks that come down so your car should have some clearance, or a person to go push away the big rocks. but its not that bad most of the way up.
and on the way out, try to catch sunset....it is amazing. the sun sets right where the valley opens up, so you come driving out with a view of the valley, sandimen then pingdong/ktown in the far distance. very pretty.
if you take the opposite side of the valley, through Sandimen, there are a few mountain restaurants. drive past all the main ones, and when you come to trees and no houses keep going. you will pass one on the right, funky and neat and beyond that there is one more on the left. Gi Kua? they have some really good specialty dishes. i wont comment on their cooking, its good but not amazing. but the types of things they have are interesting...plus they have (had?) dark german beer...
lots of little waterfalls to go climbing up as well on these roads, but when heavy rain they can be pretty dangerous.
AMAZING storm watching looking into this valley from the river bellow sandimen as well....sitting up on the burm is the best view
But, at the end there is a real huge one, and its easy to scramble to the riverbed below, we will next time as we got there at about 5 pm.
