Thailand: Ban Kai, learning to fly. Day 1
Cutting Jungle trails and steep learning curves
Up early today and we were transferred from Chiang Mai to Ban Pha Weng which is the home base for HiVolt Moto Tours. It’s a magical little village high up in the mountains on the road to Pai. The journey took us about 1 hour and 20 minutes, to say we were a little anxious and excited might just be a bit of an understatement. Our two days of refresher training, which in all reality wasn’t a refresher course but rather a literal crash course in jungle off road riding filled with spills and thrills, did little to calm the nerves. Sure, it had improved our confidence a little and given us some rudimentary jungle trail riding skills, but it also made us realise that we really were novices and yet to be tested on single trails up and down challenging mountain trails. We were playing with the big boys now and still very much on a projected steep learning curve. The situation very much reminded me of the Tom Petty song that was buzzing around in my head …..
“So I started out For God knows where
I guess I'll know when I get there
I'm learning to fly Around the clouds
But what goes up must come down
I'm learning to fly but I ain't got wings
Coming down Is the hardest thing”
Slippery, muddy Jungle single trail
Moreover, I just hoped we’d done enough to ensure we were not living up to the words and coming down hard and eating too much dirt.
Arriving at Ban Pha Weng, we were shown to our trusty steeds and advised to tool up with instructions to pack light and for six days. Needless to say, I felt like a Thailand version of ‘Jack Reacher’ but nowhere as buff or skilled with barely a toothbrush in my back pocket and a quest for adventure we were off and straight onto the single trails.
Stand still in the jungle and it will take over, there’s a trail beneath my feet, we just have to cut through it.
Classic Jungle single trail, note the gradient and the drop offs where one little lapse of concentration can result in a world of hurt
Barely 5 minutes into it Red had eaten his first serving of red dirt for the day and I’d narrowly avoided my own spills. The trails after the recent flooding rains hadn’t dried out as much as our guides hoped and were still rather treacherous, slippery slithers of red mud making it a way more challenging trail than we had expected, in reality it probably wasn’t that bad but I’m being honest here and we were out of our depth. Sensing this Grace and P’Lah quickly changed direction and got us on some firmer stuff that ensured we made some progress, but this was short lived.
Red in the Hurt Locker soaking up the humidity and sucking in the air. The heat and humidity on this part of the trail was oppressive and drained us. I call this the before shot.
Eventually we had to get off the hard stuff and onto the trails and that is where the fun started. Up and down steep windy single trails with some seriously steep drop offs if you meandered off your path. At one point it was so slippery and steep going downhill, P’Lah out in the lead asked us to turn off our motors and coast down to minimise the risk of us falling off the mountain. At this point I was rather demoralised as the going was slow and bloody hard work, I was struggling to stay upright at times, and it felt like the jungle was zapping my stamina and soul. I guess we just weren’t conditioned for the heat and humidity of this part of the trail.
Red bouncing back after a much-needed breather in the Jungle. This the after shot, beat up but not yet broken.
Arriving at the bottom, recent rains had completely washed away the trail in several points leaving us with the only option to forge a small river and bush bash our way through the jungle. This was way beyond our pay grade as P’lah was jumping up rocks and embankments and cutting trails through carpet of tall grasses and vines that were so tall and thick that all you could see was his head bobbing up and down periodically. When he finally made it to the trail on the other side the jungle vines had wrapped around the rear sprocket of the bikes so tightly it took a good couple of minutes to free up each bike. How he stayed on the bike, let alone cut a trail, left me feeling in awe and reinforced that we truly had a long way to go in our experience level.
choking vines and rear sprockets don’t really go hand in hand
The whole trip through the jungle and up to an amazing look out overlooking steep terraced farm lands and jungle took us a solid 4 hours of riding when it normally takes an experienced rider 40-50 minutes. This was partly because of the state of the trail being washed out and slippery as hell but in reality, it probably all boiled down to our skill level. Dejected, exhausted and just plain out of puff, we welcomed a rest at a remote little café on top of the mountain
Top of the world moments really do make you feel alive and give you a reality check that life’s little problems really are not that significant in the grand scheme of things
The first thing we ordered was a sugar cane juice, this sickly-sweet drink is amazing for giving you an instant boost of energy and when you wash it down with a cold Chang beer and soak up the scenery for an hour or so it makes all the hard slog worthwhile and you forget your trail riding inadequacies.
Rustic huts with a view
Our original plan was to make it to the village of Ban Muang Khong but that was still a good solid 3 or 4 hours away, so given it was in the middle of the afternoon it was pretty obvious we weren’t going to make it. Such was the professionalism of the Hi Volt team that Grace and P’Lah didn’t bat an eyelid and took the setbacks all in their stride and diverted us to another village called Ban Kai.
Single Malt, a sunset and an amazing view of the Jungle. Life is good
Having never taken a tour there before we arrived off their beaten path and they set about finding us a humble abode for the night and I tell you what, I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. The accommodation they found from pure luck was a local tea farm with amazing quaint rustic huts overlooking a valley with an amazing view of the cultivated rows of tea and the jungle. It was pure Zen as I sat there watching the sun set on the jungle, sipping a fine single malt (that I’d bought in a water bottle- classy I know). It truly was a picture-perfect location and a great end to the first day of our adventures. Well played HiVolt Moto Tours
There’s something about sharing trail experiences that brings riders together, after a tough day in the Jungle, what better way to reflect than a great feed with friends.
