2022 Northern Thailand Ride Part 1

After 4 long years, I'm finally back at Thailand again to tour the beautiful northern region.

For this trip I retraced my 2018 ride when I did the exact same route in addition to an extended MHS loop.

Route overview:

Chiang Mai - Mae Salong - Chiang Khong - Nan - Nan - Chiang Mai 

Useful information:
Cool season Nov-Feb, pleasantly cool weather and no rain.
Hot season Mar-Jun, highest recorded temperature in Thailand at Mae Hong Son.
Wet season Jul-Oct, sucks to be drenched all the time.

Before my ride I flew to Bangkok for some sightseeing & shopping for a couple of days. 

Then I went north for my solo ride. Firstly the flight to Chiang Mai. My Kriega 20L tailbag was filled to the brim and I most likely had exceeded the 7kg carry-on limit, but thankfully nobody checked. How did I bring all my stuff without any check-in luggage? Well first I removed the armours from my jacket & jeans and stacked them into the helmet alongside my gloves. That makes the jacket (with back protector still in place) much easier to be packed along with most other items including 360 camera & mount, phone mount, first-aid kit etc. I wore my riding jeans, boots and a T shirt, slung my tailbag over my shoulder and handheld my helmet for the flight. I also carried a waistpack with my wallet/phone/passport etc inside, it honestly is so damn convenient & useful that I swear by it now and can never live without a waistpack ever again. So far the above setup worked well for me and I've never encountered any issue for all my flights.

An hour later I landed at Chiang Mai. Always feels great to be back here no matter how many times I've visited, and this is my 5th. Perhaps it's the combination of pleasant cool weather and relaxed atmosphere, and maybe also the anticipation of riding those magnificent mountain roads. 

DAY 1

I start my journey by riding to Doi Ang Khang mountain close to the Burmese border and pass by the spot where I crashed in 2018 to understand more about the incident, before making my way to the cool hilltop town of Mae Salong.

I reached POP big bike rental at 8:30am right when they opened their doors. I've reserved a Honda CB650R, a bike that I've been wanting to ride ever since it was launched in 2019. 4 cylinders, 94hp, sporty attitude- perfect for the kind of riding that I intend to do. Not to mention that it looks absolutely fantastic too. After making payment and depositing my passport I took some time to secure my Kriega tailbag, attach my phone mount and my Insta360 camera. The bike came with POP's own phone mount which looked very rigid and from experience this is a surefire way to destroy a phone camera, hence I asked them to remove it and used my own mount instead. I was also surprised to find out that it came with fresh rubber (manufacture code 1122 which is less than 1 month ago) which is always nice, however it turned out that these OEM Dunlop tyres are anything but good. More on that later.

Almost every rental company in Thailand will handover the bike with bare minimum of fuel to reach the nearest petrol station, probably because they siphon out all the fuel for their own use when a bike is returned. Hence everytime the first stop is always a nearby petrol station. Quick petrol stop later I started my tour in earnest and navigated my way out of Chiang Mai. 

A gentle reminder to allow myself time to get used to the handling of a new bike. Case in point I almost binned the bike on the very first corner when taking a 90 degree right turn at speed. The bike just dropped into the corner much quicker than I was expecting and it caught me by surprise. It's the combination of a very agile chassis and (as I found out much later) an overinflated tyre with a sharp tyre profile that produced this unnerving situation. Coming from a first generation Ducati Monster with its long and stable chassis, this is something that I needed to adapt to and throughout the day I find myself having to consciously lean into the corner first before tipping in the bike. By the end of day it slowly became second nature as I gradually appreciated its nimble handling. 

Over the next 2 hours I made my way north on route 107 and turned off to 1178. Passed by couple of familiar places including the magnificent Doi Chiang Dao mountain. Then turned to 1340 towards Myanmar border and Doi Ang Khang peak. Road surface was bumpy initially however after Ban Sinchai it became smooth and was pretty good fun although road a little narrow. I reached Doi Ang Khang around noon and had a nice long rest stop at 1800m elevation with fantastic cool weather. There's couple of glamping spots with superb view. Also there's a barracks right beside the tents hence this is probably the safest ever campground in Thailand. 

Shortly after 1pm I made my way down the steep and tortuous 1249. Some very steep sections and switchbacks later I reached the spot where I crashed a rental Yamaha R3 in early 2018. Analysing the location I understood the reason for my crash. Preceding the crash there was a long straight which happen to be right after a series of technical, tight downhill hairpin corners. I gave in to temptation, went full gas on the straight and reached about 120km/h before a gentle right uphill bend. The problem is, just before the bend the road goes over a bridge. Its expansion joints & slight uneven surface unsettled the bike right at the moment of turn in when you want your bike to be most stable. As a result the bike ran wide, flipped over some bush and I ended up in a ditch. Thankfully there wasn't any hazard such as ARMCO killer barrier or cement-lined drain to seriously injure me. I managed to walk away and even rode the bike to Chiang Rai right after the crash.

1. First long straight after series of tight turns.
2. Reached 120km/h just before the bend.
3. Uneven surface on bridge unsettled the bike right at the point of turning.
4. Crash.

After this I reached the lowlands again and went past couple of boring towns (Fang, Mae Ai, Thaton). Initially planned to stay overnight at Thaton as per previous trip however as it was still early I booked a hotel at the cool hill town of Mae Salong and headed there instead. Nice cool weather up in the mountains at around 900-1200m elevation, I stayed at AMA hotel that comes with a balcony above the room with great view.

DAY 2

Today I continued on the Daen Lao mountain range and ride on the ridge bordering Myanmar. I then make my way to Golden Triangle tripoint where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet before heading to the border town of Chiang Khong. 

I had simple Yunnan style noodle soup for breakfast and had a nice chat with the hotel owner to learn more about the history of this little village. Turns out many villagers of Mae Salong were descendants of ex-Kuomintang soldiers (more specifically the 93rd division) who retreated from southern China during the civil war in the 1950s. After crossing the border into Myanmar, Laos and Thailand they formed small militia units deep in the mountains and were fully autonomous. Financial income was mainly through opium farming with infamous drug lord Khun Sa. Life was not easy in those days, as from the account of the hotel owner she had to spend a whole day just to get groceries from the nearest village: Wake up at 5am, start climbing up and down countless hills to a nearby Miao village (which is now only 20 minutes drive away) and catch a bus to reach a market at a Thai village down at the foothills. Repeat the same process when coming back, and by the time she reached back home it was usually 6pm already. One has to remember that these militia villages was deep in the mountain with no through road to the outside world and even the Thai army would not dare come close.

Then in 1970s General Duan lead the militia and assisted the Thai army to defeat local communist rebels, in exchange for citizenship, financial aid and a better life. Since then the ex-soldiers laid down their weapons and turned to farming and tourism, the central government supported these businesses and built roads and schools to these communities as well. The late Thai king and queen used to visit this town regularly to thank the old soldiers for helping Thailand to defeat the communist forces. Definitely quite an interesting history here, and perhaps why it's not surprising that most villagers speak fluent mandarin with a similar southern Chinese accent as my own. 

Tea has replaced opium farming

Starting the day I continued on the windy but smooth 1130 and turned to 1338 towards Doi Tung. Road surface was great and there were countless hills after hills after hills, before reaching the top of Doi Tung at 1389m where a beautiful temple is located. 

After resting at the temple I continued on 1149 that goes on the very ridge that separates Thailand and Myanmar. I was mere metres away from Burmese territory and there were a number of military outposts along the road from both sides, all within literal stone throw away from each other. As per previous rides there were about 4 military checkpoints that I had to go through, but this time instead of just waving me through the guards actually wanted to see my passport and take my photo for their record. It was pretty irritating to have to repeatedly stop, turn off engine, remove gloves and take out my passport at every checkpoint, but the worst was at the first stop where the guard even asked me to remove my helmet & balaclava to take photo of my face. A major pain in the ass and a new development over the past 2 years, perhaps due to increased security concerns over the border at Myanmar as it's in an ongoing civil war.

The roads there onwards seemed a little worse than I remembered, with plenty of uneven surfaces and loose stones in the corners. Had to go real slow especially at the very steep downhill hairpins.

The steep downhill hairpin corners here were quite sketchy

After the obligatory photo stop at Pha Hee Village turnoff I continued down this series of very steep and tight switchbacks with lots of potholes and gravels. Usually I'd have no issue with this level of gradient or tightness however as the surface was so bad I found myself having to really concentrate and use gear 1 all the way down. Thankfully after this the road improved significantly, it became smooth and flowing with great curves and scenic views over both sides as it's on top of a ridge. There's also a short section that passes through lots of pine trees which momentarily transported me to Europe haha. The road then gradually descended to the border town of Mae Sai where I found a large and comfortable restaurant called Baan Patimagum and had some very yummy Khao Soi (northern Thailand curry noodle). 

Golden triangle- the meeting point of 3 countries

When moving off from the restaurant I gave the bike some gas and the rear started spinning. TC kicked in and all was good however I do feel that these OEM Dunlops really do not give a lot of confidence. I moved along 1290 towards the Golden Triangle tripoint where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar and Laos meet on the confluence of Ruak & Mekong rivers. Quick stop later I continued on 1290 towards Chiang Khong and what a blast it was, the last 15-20km consist of a few hillocks and a very fast flowing section of road along the Mekong river, all with great surfaces and superb visibility. At one tight uphill left hander as I was leaning the bike over I felt a sudden drop to the side, as though the bike fell of the edge of the tyre even though I was not leaning that far over. Quite an unnerving sensation which further reduced my confidence in these tyres. That aside however, it was in this stretch of road that I first managed to repeatedly explore the higher rpm ranges and hold on to gear 3 all the way to redline, where the engine was really pulling hard.  A real adrenaline rush before I enter the town and check-in to my riverside accommodation overlooking the Mekong river and Laotian town of Huay Xai opposite. 

 

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Continued in part 2.

LY