14 Days In Northern Thailand

This entry is part 3 of 22 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #10

Bow down and kiss the trail. His majesty the King of Thailand, or one of his influential subjects, must be an adventure-motorcycling aficionado. Twogether Tour’s Philip King outlines a dream landscape of riding in what was once Siam.

Golden Budha at Chiang Saen

To experience the thousands of kilometres of Thailand’s fantastic riding is one of adventure motorcycling’s greatest life pleasures. Riders can be stunned by the superb roads, easy riding and spectacular scenery to be found in northern Thailand.

Using Chiang Mai as an operational base, seven-day, 14-day or longer tours can be enjoyed most of the year. Maybe giving the greatest bang for the buck, 14 days in total with nine days riding is optimal. Seven days with five riding can be a wonderful taster of greater things to come, and while some undoubtedly cannot squeeze the extra time away, 26 days leads to another dimension as to what might be on offer.

Fine line

Enough to satisfy any appetite, 14 days probably offers the best result for the time most riders could find. A typical itinerary might follow a course like this one…

Fly into Bangkok and make a short, 55-minute hop to be met at Chiang Mai. On arrival, a wonderful 700- year-old moated and walled city greets you that evening. Cooler than the much stickier lower reaches of southern Thailand and Bangkok, Chiang Mai has pretty much all the sights, sounds and smells you might associate with Asian fusion culture. The pace is slower, and while the traffic congestion is still pretty high at rush hour it’s an easy assimilation into northern Thailand.

Grab a scooter for the first day and take in the local sites, getting used to the closeness of the city riding.

Finding your way around the old moated city is fun as the jet lag wears off.

An interesting change over recent times has been the wearing of helmets.

It’s now mandatory but widely flouted, with the 400 baht ($16) infringement ignored. Now well over half the bike-riding citizens are complying during the day. However, come evening, the rules seem to change – or at least when the young and glamorous are out and about, as they still have little regard for the rules. And yes, you do see three- or four-up on scooters much of the time and it seems perfectly accepted.

You bet

Doi Suthep (Doi Mountain) and the Mae Rim loop of about 130km gives a little taste of things to come. Elephants, water buffaloes, overladen Toyota Hiluxes and temples abound as you flick through hillside-hugging, sweeping curves and cruise by sleepy villages.

Stepping up to ‘real’ bikes (generally around 650cc, big for Thailand and always interesting for the locals) for the next nine days, head north to Chiang Rai, closer to the infamous Golden Triangle. Opium and the great Mekong River are synonymous, however opium is now replaced by legal crops of coffee and tea, although the illegal drug trade still seems to be alive and well. Crystal meth has replaced opium, it seems.

Little load on the Mae Sai/Myanmar border.

The guns are real and loaded. Near Mae Salong.

White Temple at Chiang Rai.

Girls out riding at Chiang Mai.

The Golden Triangle sits at the confluence of Thailand, Laos and Myanmar (Burma), just north of the lovely old riverside town of Chiang Saen. A rider can spend much of a day cruising around this area, and can drop by the opium museums for an hour or two and gain a greater appreciation of the surprising British influence on the historic drug trade.

Briefly crossing the Mekong over to Laos can be fun. Check out the snake-and scorpion-infused whisky or pick up a gorgeous, real leather handbag or two for next to nothing. More fun can be had travelling up-river by long-tail boat to the casino, actually in Myanmar, although somewhat illegally accessed by Thai folk of an evening.

Happy travellers and hosts near Saraphi.

Longnecks

Sweeping back toward the west on tight, back-country lanes, riders can head right up to the chaotic Thai-Myanmar border town of Mae Sai.

Crossing into Myanmar for half a day is generally enough with the cultural cringe still a little high for some. Young children with their legs broken and cruelly unset, angled to the point of disablement, beg on the Tachilek streets, and touts hassle with gigantic Viagra tablets and soft-porn playing cards. However, among the markets hugging the river banks some great bargains are to be had. The quality is excellent and prices ridiculous.

Between the greater Chiang Mai valley and Myanmar border running north-south, the beautiful mountains and valleys of Mae Salong are the next roads to enjoy.

Experience a tea tasting with what seems dozens of different blends to tempt you.

And see the tea and coffee pickers hard at work on the very steep, but beautifully planted, plantations.

Stop off at Thaton for the night and visit the seven Wats (temples) and the Karen long-neck tribe women with heavy brass windings pressing their collarbones down, but giving the impression of hugely elon-gated necks. Their silk and cotton weavings, throws and pashminas are beautiful – and we’re sure the brass neck adornments, which originally were to support heavy head loads, are also a display of beauty for their men.

Happy travellers and hosts near Saraphi.

Typical village accommodation in the Thaton mountains.

700 years of history at Sukhothai.

True banana love close to Pai.

Cool pools

Riding into the mountains the air is crisper and we’re pretty sure the bikes run stronger through steep passes, switchback corners, sweeping downhill sections and towering escarpments. Every moment is just joy on wheels. It’s so hard to suppress the ear-to-ear smiles as you slow to greet very well-armed police and army at the regular control points.

Pai is a hamlet of romance set neatly on the Pai River. It’s a magnet for locals enjoying a weekend retreat and European tourists alike, and it’s an easy place to spend a couple of days and explore the wonderful art and cultural opportunities that abound nearby – if a break in everyday riding is desired. Otherwise just explore. The riding is great.

Mae Hong Son is next and the area boasts wonderful eco resorts.

Cool swimming pools, green, green rice paddies and gorgeous teak chalets slip gently into the jungle enjoyed with a post-ride beer or two, soothing away the road grime.

Riders will wonder where the week went.

Say, Wat?

Days dawn in misty silence, and Mae Hong Son offers a sumptuous early breakfast at the outdoor restaurant. The riding planned for the day is 169km of smooth, winding bliss, challenging in its varying altitude, and popular T-shirts claim 1080 corners. Thailand’s liberal approach to speed limits can increase the immeasurable enjoyment, and a variety of surfaces keep everyone alert. Maybe even a mountain rain shower or two will add to the experience. Thick jungle canopy above and ground-level foliage creeps right to the roadside, and riders aim to clip the apexes of those tighter curves every time. Now and then there are small villages to enjoy.

Never has adventure riding been this good.

Mae Sariang signals a turn back to the east for the run across country to Chiang Mai. It means another day of great riding, and the fantastic scenery seems endless as the road descends into the food-bowl area of Hot and Chom Thong for a night or two of well-deserved luxury.

Next comes an overnight cloverleaf ride with an easy cruise to the town of Lampang. Lampang is off the main tourist tracks and many suggest it’s a more industrial city – not so! It has World Heritage Wats, hundreds of years old, delightful people and fantastic hosts.

Wake up

Chiang Mai beckons and sadly the bikes will have to go back for the next lucky rider – we know you will have bonded and it’s hard!

With still two or three days in Chiang Mai, a massage or two, a spot of last-minute shopping and the experience of a few hidden ‘locals only’ restaurant treasures and then, as if needed, a farewell silver-service dinner at the best restaurant around makes for life-long memories.

In case you’re still unsure, the roads of northern Thailand cater for all tastes. Highway 1334 will test most (if you can find it). It has ruts and washouts, broken bitumen, moss and extreme narrowness to contend with. Concrete and cobbled laneways cling to cliff sides.

Neck-craning, first-gear switchbacks with super-steep gradients and mountain descents on carpet-smooth bitumen will also keep riders on their toes regardless of skills.

Fear not, however, an average skill set will be fine. Even novices will be okay, but those more adventurous will not be disappointed either. There are fantastic roads and destinations for all.

Have we remembered to tell you about the two or three abreast oncoming traffic on your side of the road? Maybe we’ll leave that for another time, and of course we also forgot about the food. Yes, the city street food is only surpassed by the roadside-village fare enjoyed daily.

Fourteen days, 2300km of adventure-motorcycling heaven, nothing better.

Dream or reality?

That’s up to you.

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