Thailand: Chiang Rai loop with a twist Day 1

Random roads lead to random encounters this side road we found some Amazingly little things on off shoots of Road 1252

I’ve been waiting for this adventure for ages, Chaing Rai up in the mountains of Far Northern Thailand and a stone’s throw away from the mystical and infamous Golden Triangle and the borders of Myanmar and Laos. A place of Temples, mountains, cool streams and an adventure playground for the Meanderthal. What isn’t there to love about this place. I almost went there to live instead of Chaing Mai to kick off my Meanderthal sabbatical so to say I was keen was an understatement. When my meanderthal friend ‘Snail’ reached out and said she had some meetings to do up that way and could swing a couple of days off after, naturally a two wheeled adventure evolved. Then the plan changed as do all plans and the adventure grew larger than a couple of days. I was chuffed, and what unfolded was an abridged Chaing Rai Loop covering 1000km and a bucket load of adventures -which I can’t possibly fit into one blog. So will attempt to do it justice over several blogs.

Sunlight, shadows and the jungle make for a beautiful riding experience in the mountains. You just help but be in a good mood as you twist and turn on these roads.

Day one saw us hitting the road and heading Northeast along Highway 118. Now google has this route as 186km and 3hrs and 15 minutes but that sounded way too easy and screamed of a major boring highway. Which pretty much is not the Meanderthal way. About 50km out of town Snail was leading at a blistering snail pace and pulled up at what seemed a junction and uttered these famous words. “ I haven’t been down this road before, I’m not sure where it goes but it looks like fun”. Well, those words or similar are like a red rag to a Meanderthal Bull.  So after a quick Google maps consult we saw it was road 1252 and seemed to be heading roughly in the right direction of travel all be it a twisty and convoluted way, so off we went

Expect the unexpected on backroads in Thailand, i came around a blind corner to find half the road missing and a Backhoe blocking the road. Just a little Brown pants moment.

Straight away this road was upwards and twisty as hell. A perfect road to explore. Naturally such a road is what the Grey Ghost (GG) loves but the lessor powered Grey Snail (GS) can struggle a little with but we weren’t letting that dampen our spirits. Barely a kilometre along we came to a particularly steep kick up and on a very tight turn accelerating into the corner I got a little close to the slower moving GS and was forced to knock it down a gear from 2nd into 1st for fear of losing momentum and well stalling and falling off. Committed to this corrective manoeuvre I missed the gear and didn’t have momentum to correct. Needless to say GG just went all Yak Noon (Thai for wanting to sleep) and fell down for her first bitumen sleep and I went rolling down the mountain again but this time it was only a couple of rolls and the knee pads and armoured jacket saved the day and all that was damaged was a little pride.

Snail stopped to help me out and of course capture the moment in style with a great picture of me standing there with my hands on hips looking down at my fallen steed and looking disappointed for having a sleep on the job. Righting the GG was a little problematic on account of the steepness of the hill and I had to try and get it off the road before traffic cleaned us up. Fortunately this was a seldom used road and we got there in the end with much huffing and puffing.

Now the GG eats this stuff up, but the GS scooter boundaries do get a little pushed when we meander off road. But i guess thats half the fun.

Pushing on we came around a blind corner to find a backhoe clearing a landslide that had blocked half the road. In Thailand, obstacles like this are frequent and well apart from the little brown stains in the pants moment they’re a fact of life. What I have learned however, is that one shouldn’t expect a warning sign or orange cones or even a paddle pop person to signify obstacles, roadworks or dangers ahead. But rather a green leafy branch placed before the corner is the Thailand’s way of letting you know Danger Will Robinson Danger!! It’s simple and once you know about it, it works. Just not in the how to ride a motorcycle tourist brochure yet.

Just a random creek crossing off a random road on the 1252. it’s little challenges like this that really do make meandering fun

of course when you don’t have a plan to rush too you can just stop and soak it all up as the road throws random moments at you. This spot was an amazing little creek crossing with a swimming hole just off it.

Lunch was a late one today as we spent a lot of time just darting down a random road for a quick look see and taking pictures on the side of the road. But when we came around another sweeping bend at the top of the mountain we were greeted with a magical vista and a coffee shop perched on the edge of the mountain. Instantly we knew this was our lunchbreak and throw out the picks and stopped. Luckily this coffee shop served food so we sat there and soaked up the vista and I ate a Kapow Moo (pork mince and rice with fried egg) that I inhaled whilst slurping down coffee and Mango sodas

Random coffee shop, way up in the mountain with great food and coffee with an amazing view.

Distant rumbles and storm clouds brewing made for a short stay

But our relaxing was relatively short lived because looking across the mountains I could see very ominous storm clouds and the distant rumble of thunder was not welcome.  Hitting the road again we missed a rather important turn on the side of the mountain as we were fleeing the storm. Found ourselves about 100km in the wrong direction and so a change of plans was forced upon us. I didn’t want to be out in the storm, the fucking thing seemed to be chasing us and it looked menacing.  So we opted for the nearest big town for accommodation and a cold beer or three. Destination Phrayo about another 100km away.

When a storm cell catches you, well you either suck it up and ride it out or you pull out the Nakie hammock and relax it out. We chose the later option.

Phrayo looked like a chilled out university town on the lake so it made for a more than acceptable alternative location.  Hitting the road again the storm was getting closer, and the wind was buffeting the GG all over the road. When the rain started to splatter down it was time to seek shelter, so we opted to ride-out the storm in the shelter of a meeting area at a random temple on the side of the road.  Stringing up my hammock we just chilled for 30 minutes and watched the storm cell skirt around us. We latter learned that this same storm cell had trashed quite a few buildings in my condo area and caused blackouts over 24 hours when the ferocity of the wind had blown down concrete power poles and buildings.

Looks like it was a wise decision to sit this storm cell out, imgaine riding into the middle of that shit show

Arriving late in Phrayo we found a nearly deserted hotel, a bar with cold beer and toasted the days riding until the wee hours of the night. The bar led us to a random nightclub for locals packed with Uni students all partying and dancing to the beat of loud doof doof techno music. Tom (my son) would have been in his element here, me, I was the only farang for miles and I stood out like a freak in a freak show. But hey everyone was friendly and after all beer doesn’t know boundaries of social norms so fun was had by all.

Partying Thai style at Hollywood night club after a long day exploring.