Sameong loop (with a twist)

[tonykiwi]

HI,

At long last I can contribute something by way of a trip report. I arrived Wednesday afternoon in Chiang Mai and after settling in at the guesthouse I checked around and settled on a DTracker for one week. Having a Baja at home it felt the right choice here.

I wanted to get a simple run in today to get the feel for the bike and the terrain, and of course the driving in Thailand. Sameong loop seemed a very good idea.

A beer or two last evenig but an early night and good sleep should have prepared me for the day. I Went to bed and tried hard to not hear the TV going in the next room throughout the night. 4 30 am someone started banging a gong ( ust be close to a temple here I guess.) Anyway., the long and short of it is I was on the ropad soon after 6 am for the Sameong loop.

7 am I called in to see Ian and was, to be quite frank, disappointed that he was not toiling away.Is life this good in Thailand that works starts after 7 am?.

Turned right just after the X center and went north to add a bit of time onto the trip. The jouirney was great, good weather, beautiful scenery and I enjoyed the bike. The downside is the size of the seat in relation to the size of my butt.

I arrived Sameong around 8 am and had a rice type breakfast there and checked out the market. Well, this is where the trouble started. Sameong loop is probabnly a great ride if you get away around 10 am and take your time, but I didn't so I thought i would extend the trip. GPS on the bike had been helpful but I also had Davids map. I decided to head north to Tung Ting and have a look around there. Great idea but lacking in the execution. I took off west instead of north and was so taken with the scenery I didn't really take a lot of notice where I was going. By the time I got to the end of the paved road and hit dirt I realised that things were not as they were intended.

I confess to considering an about turn but decided against it. I followed the dirt road over the beautiful hills all the way to Wat Chen. There i asked an army guy the best way home to Chiang Mai and he sent me North east in a large circle.

I have tracked the route I took and have it on Mapsource along with the profile. 10 hours riding, average speed 31 kms.

I have taken photos and have uploaded to Photobucket. Ill link them when I can work out the system and I am not so stuffed.

A few lessons learned today but great fun and wonderful places to ride.

 

[daewoo]

holly shit batman... 10 hours to do the Samoeng Loop... that is some 'extension'...

Looking forward to the pics...

 

[Deano747]

Man, what a day out. 300 odd km's for the loop, that's quite some shortcut. And FYI, life doesn't start in Thailand before 10am, but 7am is usually a really nice time of the day to be out and about. No one else is up except those on their way home. Also looking forward to the pics.

 

[tonykiwi]

Ok Folks

I am trying to get to grips with the formatting of the posts. I will try a better edit later but here goes.

First is the track and profile of the ride. I went to Sameong the normal way then tracked North (or so I thought and that was where I actually tracked west.)This should give an indication of the route I took.

Here is a selection of snaps taken as the day progressed. I'll try to edit later with some commentary if i can do so.

 

[Marco]

Nice pictures man

i havent sea "albine" buffalo b4,, look's odd

 

[Ally]

Hi Toni the pics & detail show you had a good ride !

Welcome to Chiang Mai

Ally

 

[johngooding]

Hi Tony,
Good to hear you finally made it over here and are out on the road. Be interested in some feedback later in the trip, on the various bits of 'good' advice you got from many contributors. Will be interested to hear your take on some of the things like weather, clothing etc etc after you experience a few weeks over here.
Thanks for the report and great pics, sounds like you saw some interesting things and had a good day, probably a better one than just following the loop. Ian lives away from the X-Centre and gets there for breakfast at a more civilised hour, more like 8.30 to 9.00am.
Have fun up there, may even run into you as I will be in Chiang Mai from 1st to 4th July. Cheers John

 

[tonykiwi]

Thanks everyone for the welcome.

Yes John, I take the view in life that things are meant ot happen for a reason. Following your nose rather than following the plan can bring out some startling results.

I'll be sure to report back as soon as my excitment slows down and I spend a bit of time at the keyboard. Suffice to say right now that the information I received over the past year has really made the difference in the planning and execution for sure. It has also given me almost a year of enjoyment and dreams which have culminated in this wonderful trip. Todays ride was no exception.

Please be sure to get in touch when you are in Chiang Mai, I would really love to meet those who I have 'met' on the board.

Cheers

T

 

[DavidFL]

Yay Tony
Good to see you up here riding at last.
The number of posts youve made have impressed me, and now your first ride iof the Samoeng Loop realy impresses me even more.Great stuff - keep it going.
I'm in Loei right now, after the Phi Ta Khon festival in Dan sai, & heading to Laos for 7-10 days. See you when I get back, John Gooding & I should be there about the same time.

 

[SilverhawkUSA]

Well Tony, I hate to be the one to tell you but you never even got on the Samoeng Loop once you left the X-Centre. You say you went to Samoeng the "normal way" but the way you went ain't it.

From what I can tell you turned right after the X-Centre and went past the Tad Mork Waterfalls and continued on thru Mae Pa and around to Samoeng from the North. Then you took the Wat Chan road, part of the old elephant trail, turned at Wat Chan and came out just short of Pai on the 1095. If you had continued on the dirt road from Wat Chan you would have had a heck of a dirt ride to Mae Hong Son (or camped in the mountains). :wink:

A great ride and it looks like you enjoyed yourself. Maybe we can get out and actually do the Samoeng loop while you are here (about a 2 hour ride).

Hope to see you at the meeting Tuesday.

 

[TonyBKK]

Great report! Happy Trails!

 

[tonykiwi]

Today I managed the Sameong loop with no twists at all. I took my Dtracker to POP rental for a bit of maintenence and wondered about the ER6N as a suitable ride. The Dtracker is great but the miles I am doing is playing havoc with my buttvso I fancied a change.

Took the bigger bike out as a trial via X Centre ( missed Ian for the third time, perhaps he has heard about the sweaty kiwi that keep arriving and makes his exit.) Carried on the sameong loop properly this time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not a lot of photos as I am sure this loop is well recorded.

Vack in time to negotiate a good deal for the rest of my time here with the new bike so I'll try to pace myself.

Met with Auke this afternoon who has shown me some great routes and offered sound advice as always on the best way to go. I appreciated meeting him after all the kind help he has given me on the GPS system.

 

[Ian Bungy]

Hi Tony,
Hell Sorry Mate! I was in Town yesterday getting something for one of My Bikes Sorted! The Staff keep telling me i missed You, Bugger!!!
Do You have a Mobile Number? Hope to catch you soon? Seems Most Nights a few Guys are having a Beer Here at the X-Centre about 5 pm so keep that in mind if You are passing at that Time???

 

[tonykiwi]

Shorter day today. I called in to see Ian and this time it worked. The plan was to ride to Ting Tung and do a sort of round trip but on the way I discovered that the ER6N is not so good on wet dirt. A better rider may have done a better job but it really wasn't a lot of fun so unlike my first day I let my stubborn nature go and turned around.

Spent a lovely day cruising the back roads on the Saemong loop and visited the Hmong villages. handed out a few sweets and got photographs too.

A couple of minor mishaps with the bike but both at low speed and gave me a better grasp of its abilities against the Transalp at home.

All in all a great day again but only half a day really as I was home by 3 pm

 

[Marco]

Nice stuff man,, it's so nice to read your travel specially when my bike is still in pieaces and cant ride on it,,but soon i hope

 

[lotuseater]

I laughed my ass off as I read your post. This May I did the exact same thing only headed out the other way from canal road to Sameong. A buddy and I started out for a bit of a day trip to do the Sameong loop. I on my GB 400 and he on a rented super four.

It was not my first time doing the loop but being early we decided to extend the trip a bit and see if we could follow the roads that lead behind Sameong and come out on the road to Pai before coming back to Chaing Mai in the early afternoon. We ended up way off route in the same place that you did, Wat Chan where we were able to meet up with the Maehongson highway where a bus ticket to Bangkok that night forced us to come back to Chiang Mai. All told we were on the bike for just over nine hours. This was without doubt the most epic trip I have ever been on and to this day it may just be the best motorcycle trip that I have done. I am still thankful that I didn't drop my bike on the back roads. As you well know this is not really the typical kind of terrain that a GB or a super four sees very often and we were sure getting some strange looks from the locals.
I would love to rent a bike that is more suited to this kind of ride and do it again one of these days. I don't think my poor bike would be able to handle that trip again. Maybe after this rainy season I will get on a d-tracker and do it again.

Great story OP, thanks for bringing back some great memories.