North Thailand, 4000km Motorbike Round Trip 2013

[helbob]

North Thailand, 4000km Motorbike Round Trip 2013, Part 10

Doi Chang Landscape

The panoramic mountain road on the top of the mountain

At the end of the panoramic mountain road, a view back to Doi Chang

Accomodation on Doi Chang, Baan Suan Doi Chaang.

„Use Low Gear“ is recommendable for trucks on Doi Chang

View to Doi Chang Mountain: The panoramic road under construction.

The shortcut from Doi Chang to Wawi, a nice curvy asphalt road

More will follow
helbob

 

[helbob]

North Thailand, 4000km Motorbike Round Trip 2013, Part 11

Flower Festival Chiang Rai near the airport, no fee, a very big festival. The old place was on Chiang Rai Beach and smaller

At 6.30 p.m. Wat Rong Khun (White Temple), very nice in the evening. When you want photographing in the evening: About 7.30 they closed the light!

Good idea . I would stole one but to big for my bag

This picture was a fake pic. I did it for my friend because he want a nice one with the Wat Rong Khun in the backround. This 2 pictures i use:

View from Wat Santikhiri to Mae Salong. The best way to come there ist the road on the river to My Dream Guesthouse and straight on. A few kilomters after My Dream the dirt road goes right and up in the mountains to the 1089, then follow the signs.

Wat Santikhiri over Mae Salong

Happy New Year Market and Celebration at Mae Salong

More will follow
helbob

 

[helbob]

North Thailand, 4000km Motorbike Round Trip 2013, Part 12

Happy New Year Market and Celebration at Mae Salong. Sing and dance.

Happy New Year Market and Celebration at Mae Salong. Most of the people here are Yunan, a chinese ancestry. This also explains why there are so many tea plantations around the city.

The big marker near the market

A coffee in the „Sweet Mae Salong“ Cafe. Expensive, but good cakes.

Mae Salong

Back in Chiang Rai and going up steep steps to Doi Kong Khao…

... with a good view. This is one of my favorite places near Chiang Rai. I never saw other people on this place, but it is a very nice viewpoint in the evening, daytime or in morning. Sometimes a bought a cake and coffee from 7 eleven an went up to this small mountain.

Chiang Rai: A boat house, good idea. I like the fantasy of the thaipeople when thy built some funny, crazy fantastic homes like a tree-house, floading raft house or a fantasy house with small towers.

This big Golden Lion is a few kilomters in the south of Chiang Rai. A popular place for thais and some big bus stop here for photos.

Near the Golden Lion i tryed a dirt road. This is A STREET to a village. All the dirt roads behind the golden lion are dead end streets.

More will follow
helbob

 

[DavidFL]

helbob;290900 wrote:
Back in Chiang Rai and going up steep steps to Doi Kong Khao…

... with a good view. This is one of my favorite places near Chiang Rai. I never saw other people on this place, but it is a very nice viewpoint in the evening, daytime or in morning. Sometimes a bought a cake and coffee from 7 eleven an went up to this small mountain.

helbob

Thanks for reminding about this place. I must make the effort & climb someday.

 

[helbob]

@David
do it, it is a short trek but not with the full biker-clothes like boots and heavy jacket :thumbdown:

North Thailand, 4000km Motorbike Round Trip 2013, Part 13

A very nice style but in germany impossible to make this style. The german local authority district department said every house must look same style. The last crazy thing was all roofs must have red roofing......

On the way from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, the dirt road Mae Kachan to Mae Ngat Dam. This dirt road has a difficult part about 500m (the 400m upt to the pass and the 100m down, in rain season impossible)! Here near the end of the dirt road: You can choose - Watercrossing or the small steel brigde

Mae Ngat Dam, nothing special for me. When you know the Chieo Lan Lake between Khao Lak and Surathani then you know why this one is boring

Back in Chiang Mai a little bite sightseeing, inside of the elegant wood temple „Wat Pan Tao“. This temple is always good for a visit because near Tapae Gate and not far from my guesthouse . Around there some more great temples.

Light a candle at Wat Pan Tao

The elegant wood temple „Wat Pan Tao“ a must see and a wonderful place in the evening.

More will follow
helbob

 

[helbob]

North Thailand, 4000km Motorbike Round Trip 2013, Part 14

Chiang Mai: Lots of stone, the Wat Chedi Luang

Behind the temple some nice buildings, best scene in the night.

WARNING Internet cafes Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai:Many Internet Cafes are infected with malware, virus
and more. The problem was in chiang rai that the 2 computers of BEN Gh not work (long time nobody repairing ). Then i tried
a good looking internet cafe on the main street, but this one nearly killed all my pictures on the sd card and overwriting some
files on my gps. It was much work to repair all files. In chiang mai the same. I tried about 5 cafes until i found a very good small
one. This small one is in the Loi Kroh (the Bar street) backstreet. When you come from Tapae Gate an walk the Loi Kroh then
you will see this signs on the right side:

Turn right and after a short walk you see the small cafe on the right side

At this day i feld very sad and tired because most of the internet cafes are big shit. But the friendly service of the small one
makes me happy and after saving some files i walk around the streets and came up to this hotel with a nice view. Down there
you can see the Loi Kroh Road and behind the Meridien Hotel is the Doi Suthep Mountain. The Hotel left side with the
swimmingpool is the Duangtawan Hotel. A swimmingpool with gym, for outsiders 400 baht, a good choice after long and hard
motorbike trip.

A information about me, because someone ask: Yes, i had many motorbikes in germany. Most of them were streetbikes like a
CBR 900 RR, Suzuki GSX-R 1100, Kawasaki ZXR 750 or a Yamaha Exup 1000 with 130 horsepower and more. The last one
was a KTM 620 LC 4. I drove only 20 000 km in the past 10 years but pay much money for repairing. For example: The
generator, the clutch, frontwheel, headlight, leaking fork, broken chain and more....
I drove many thousand kilometers with Honda or Kawasaki in Thailand but never a big problem. I don’t know why the KTM make
so many problems but i think the japanese motorbikes are a better quality.

Sometimes the bikes had a very hard work when i drove the trails around Chiang Mai (same like the hard tour to Wat Luang
Khun Win: Tour 2011: Reggae Festival, Hardcore Tour and more..) but not break.

This was the bike, it looks good but everytime many problems

END, i hope you've enjoyed it

The next post will be in the
Phu Chee Fah Thread with some pics of the famous landscape there.

helbob

 

[DavidFL]

Oh no, "Not the end." Loved the stunning photos & tidbits of info.
Many thanks for the contribution.

Shame about the KTM eh?
But yeah for pottering around & taking it all in here in North Thailand & Laos & Vietnam - smaller is generally better & if you don't thrash your bike, then also more reliable.
Bigger more powerful bikes you tend to ride harder & faster & perhaps attract problems. You also see less when you go faster because you're busy watching the road & traffic.
Always best to take your time & enjoy.

 

[scotty007]

Great post, you got to some very interesting place!

 

[hs0zfe]

An epic ride with fantastic photos!