I did this route with a couple of mates in early November and really enjoyed it. Out through Samoeng, which is a nice introduction if you haven't ridden Nth Thailand before. More later.
Yesterday I drove a car down from Pai via Wat Chan(Galyani Vadhana) and it wasn't that enjoyable, lots of rough roads, dust. Where did I go wrong, I wondered? Getting to Wat Chan from Pai is fairly straight forward, you can turn right not long after the old bridge, which is a pleasant meander through country roads, steep in places and very little traffic. It merges with the R1265 quite close to the roadside hot spring. Alternative keep heading out of Pai on the R1095 until you get to the R1265 turn off. It's a good road to Wat Chan and once through town the road becomes the R1349. Around 15Ks down the road is a left turn onto the R4029. This is where I went wrong, I went on with the R1349. In places the road was good but there were a lot of very poor ash felt, pot holed, dusty seemingly forever. There was a harvest on so there were plenty of trucks hammering along as well. The lesson, if you are doing this ride, make sure to use the R4029 to bypass the poor section of the R1349, unless you love pine trees. Not sure if they are plantations but there must be 60ks of them.
Wazza
Yesterday I drove a car down from Pai via Wat Chan(Galyani Vadhana) and it wasn't that enjoyable, lots of rough roads, dust. Where did I go wrong, I wondered? Getting to Wat Chan from Pai is fairly straight forward, you can turn right not long after the old bridge, which is a pleasant meander through country roads, steep in places and very little traffic. It merges with the R1265 quite close to the roadside hot spring. Alternative keep heading out of Pai on the R1095 until you get to the R1265 turn off. It's a good road to Wat Chan and once through town the road becomes the R1349. Around 15Ks down the road is a left turn onto the R4029. This is where I went wrong, I went on with the R1349. In places the road was good but there were a lot of very poor ash felt, pot holed, dusty seemingly forever. There was a harvest on so there were plenty of trucks hammering along as well. The lesson, if you are doing this ride, make sure to use the R4029 to bypass the poor section of the R1349, unless you love pine trees. Not sure if they are plantations but there must be 60ks of them.
Wazza