Motorbike loop through Golden Triangle

Day 59 - 15/01/16
On the way from Vang Vieng to Phonsavan, Laos

We wanted to write about our Golden Triangle experience for last 2 weeks, but as there wasn’t really enough space - busy with moving from Thailand to Laos, getting Vietnamese visa and little of sightseeing in Vientiane and finally walking and riding motorbike around Vang Vieng kept us away from updating our diary.

Finally sitting on the mini bus heading to Phonsavan I have few hours available and I’d like to retrospect on our adventures in Golden Triangle.

After calm relaxing Christmas time in Chiang Mai, we’re ready for the most interesting part of our Thailand trip, moving on our own through the land where warlords were growing opium for decades and where different cultures meet to live in peace.

Gone are Khun Sa times, poppy was replaced by sustainable agriculture of fruits. vegetables, tea and coffee. Even the deepest valleys are accessible by good winding roads, steep green mountains once home to wild elephants and tigers are now dotted with little hill tribe villages which preserve mainly traditional architecture and clothing.

Compared to other hill tribe villages we met on our journey through Myanmar, the difference is massive. Most of the houses have huge Toyota truck parked in front of the house and each kid has a motorbike - in contrast with - one truck visiting the villages in Myanmar every odd day and some families owning one motorbike. It seems that progress is unstoppable.

So why did we decide to go on this mission ? To experience the most remote parts of Thailand where you meet just handful of foreign tourists and to witness the beauty of ragged mountains jagging above rice paddies and corn fields in the valleys. To experience some of the best motorbiking roads in Thailand, in some parts very narrow old roads climbing 150 elevation metres in less than kilometre just to drop gained height during next 2 minutes.

Roller coaster like experience with breathtaking views was our daily bread.

So let me describe our itinerary from the beginning.

Day 1 - Chiang Mai - Watterfalls - Chiang Dao caves & hotsprings - 131 kms

Starting in Chiang Mai early in the morning, filled the tank of rented Honda Phantom 200cc - smallest chopper you can get here for quite reasonable price and we took off to road 107 heading north direction to Chiang Dao region, which was aimed area for our first night.

Tati and Tad Mok Waterfall 

Taking 2 short side trips to see watterfalls which we missed on the Mae Sa loop - Tad Mok Waterfall, 3 tier cascade which can be pretty impressive during wet season but was missing power now at the end of December and some 20 kms west off 107 highway direction to Pai Mork Fa waterfall which is falling for good 25 - 30 meters with decent stream of water to a beautiful pool with enough depth to get properly wet and massaged by water falling from the steep cliff above you, definitely recommended !

Phantom rider

Mork Fa waterfall in full dry season glory

Road 107 is for most of the journey busy flat and straight 4 lines highway, with only 2 sections of the road passing through green valley along the river where it gets little bit winding and narrower, surface is in general very smooth and potholes are rare.

Chiang Dao cave

Chiang Dao has few attractions in the vicinity, hot springs, national park, caves, temples... we missed the town itself, except short dinner before sunset. Instead we headed directly to Chiang Dao Cave complex - deep caves with 40 baht entrance fee, guides offering to take you deeper into the complex for additional 100 baht per group are kind of forced way if you want to go beyond basic 500 m route. As it was getting late in the day we dropped that offer and kept speleology for next days to come. Accommodation around the caves can be quite expensive and after asking in a farm stay - steep 1200 bahts per night in bungalow, we found little campsite at the end of the road leading to Wildlife research centre. Quite interesting fact is that Thai people tend to pay quite a lot of money for simple setup of a tent and rattan mat. The cheapest option of a tent with double rattan mat came to same price as a double room in Chiang Mai - 300 bahts.

Campsite at night

Chiang Dao creating clouds from early morning

But in general the experience was worth it :) camp was setup on the bank of little stream coming out of the jungle of impressive Chiang Dao mountain - 3rd highest mountain in Thailand, which is basically limestone rock standing on guard above the plains of Chiang Dao town, the cliff looks almost vertical from some sides going from some 400 m right to 2000 m.

The peak is for the most of the day hidden in white cloud which tends to built up early in the morning from surrounding moisture and hangs around for most of the day. There are options to hike to the top - should take around 7 h one way and it should be possible to organise overnight stay higher in the mountain. Something to try next time when we end up in this area.

Local woman weaving bamboo baskets

What we didn’t miss though, was natural hot spring located just some 300 meters upstream.

Chiang Dao DIY hot springs 

Locals deserve lot of kudos for brilliant idea of piping really hot water into the cascade of round concrete pools with perfect depth just to simmer like a tea bag up to your neck, while resting your bottom on huge river stone :)

If you get too hot, the option of cooling your body in super clear river stream it’s exactly 3 meters away.

Beer or two and you’re easily reaching head spin moments when your body can’t take more heat any more :)

Day 2 - Chiang Dao - Arunothai - Doi Angk Khan - Ban Yang - 161 kms

Hit the road Jack !

The great fact on getting out of bigger towns is access to incredibly cheap fruit. Previous night we bought almost 2kg Papaya for some 25 bahts and we had a trouble finishing it for breakfast. Sweet and full of juices it keeps you going for a half day easily !

Papaya breakfast 

We kicked our metal horse and headed further north keeping left of Chiang Dao heading to Arunothai - almost border town with Myanmar. The road was still pretty straightforward cutting between fruit plantations and rice fields. First 50 kms went lighting fast so we took a small detour along the Myanmar border and discovered hidden monastery cave and very quiet fruit farm. Border police and army presence is pretty strong in this area and you meet checkpoints very often, all guys are smiling and politely reply the greetings, being very keen to get into short chat about the journey, our origin and next destinations. Few times we were given free bottles of water and police officers took pictures with us.

Meditation cave

If you stay to the left in the village Ban Arunothai you’ll reach closed Myanmar border which opens on random days enabling locals to do a little trade with the other side. Scenery is pretty amazing as you’re passing through various veg fields surrounded by limestone cliffs on one side and high Doi Ang Khang ridge on the other side - at that moment we didn’t know that for next few hours we’ll be going up and down through those steep mountains and that we’ll reach the valley behind them before the sunset.

Myanmar border above Arunothai

View of Doi Ang Khang from Arunothai

If you make it up here you have to stop in Tayong Yunnan Noodle Restaurant for lunch and try the delicious Gyozas and home made noodle dishes. High quality for local price.

Delicious homemade Gyozas

With bellies loaded we finally hit the road 1340 and started going uphill ! Trying to keep the engine in high rev mostly on 3rd gear shifting ocasionaly to 2nd gear in steeper sections and finally in the most steep back turns all the way to 1st gear. Blind corners in almost every turn, road just wide enough to allow two cars to pass each other. For next 45 kms this was our delight !

Great sections on 1340 road

Being minor asphalt road you have to expect lesser damage caused by rainfall, potholes, some sections missing bits of asphalt and now and then loose stones on the road.

Quick break on the ridge

There is no need to hurry on this spectacular roller coaster and it might have taken us well over 2 hours to pass through all ridge lines all the way to Doi Ang Khang.

Stunning views of Doi Ang Khang range

Reaching altitude of 1800 m the air is way colder up here and while passing through forest sections it can get bitterly cold. There is few campsites set up on the main ridge and during the end of the year it’s packed with Thai tourists enjoying their days off staying in cool mountain air with overwhelming views of the plains east, similar to Chiang Dao, Doi Ang Khang rises from zero to hero almost vertically.

Some Thai people are rich in money

Unfortunately prices are as steep as the cliffs themselves. You can expect to pay anything between 1500 - 6000 bahts for double room in this time of the year. Yes there are some wealthy people in Thailand willing to spend a lot of money for their leisure.

And some Thai people are rich in other way

Our original plan of reaching Fang via border road with Myanmar was turned down by army checkpoint refusing to let us go further, so instead we had to go little bit back on the same road and than to follow road 1249 for 18 km of mental downhill with some sections over 20 % steep and a guy in each back turn indicating when is the good time to go.

Curva perigosa !

Sunset was approaching fast and we left the ridge around 5pm, having some 30 mins left we hoped it’d be enough to reach the safety of the valley. In normal conditions it definitely would be, but ...

Outra curva perigosa :) 

Our map had a marker on this road saying - Caution Very steep road !!! It was the first time on this trip that we witnessed why this marker is there :)

Some 4 kms in the back turns, in silly 2nd gear and stepping on the rear break non-stop, rear brake gave up ...

Don't be gentle it's a rental doesn't work when you need to get down steep hill

Fortunately there was flatter section between 2 turns so using 1st gear and front break we stopped and gave it good 15 mins to cool down.

Soft feeling on pedal was gone and the brake was stiff as a bamboo stick again !

We stuck to 1st gear and mix of both breaks pressed in short intervals for next 6 kms, suddenly the steepest turns were behind us and we slowly got down to lush valley. Mix of randomness and intuition brought us to Ban Yang where Tati refused to go further as her bum became square as dice.

We haggled about the price of huge room in home style Chinese house with amazing garden and for 500 bahts we had very cosy room with 2 king size beds.

Willing to explore a bit more and get our arses back to round shapes we walked around the village (one long road) we didn’t find reasonable food stall, but by luck Yunnan’s lady who sold us sweet little bananas was expecting friends from Bangkok and invited us to try her special !

Rice chicken soup with ginger of different forms was more than delicious ! Same lady also gave us a tip to visit local museum of sustainable agriculture.

Khun Usa Sae Ma family and RaT

Day 3 - Ban Yang - Tha Ton - 95 kms

So the next morning we did venture to the museum and found what used to be first self sustainable factory in Thailand. Set up by Royal family funding with main goal to eradicate poppy growing and to replace it with different crops of less social impact and to provide work for community of Chinese KMT immigrants who were not allowed to work out of their settlement.

Local tools in Ban Yang museum donated by Khun Usa Sae Ma

Old factory has been washed out by sudden floods in 2007 and the building has been converted to museum providing detail information on the history, progress and social and development impact on both local and global scale.

Traditional house in Ban Yang museum

This place is definitely worth a stop for an hour or two.

The mission for the rest of the day was to reach Tha Ton. Fairly simple task to be honest, following main road, stopping by large teak laying Buddha, eating the best grilled chicken with home made sweet & sour sauce & papaya salad and stopping just few times to give our bums little rest.

Laying teak Buddha 

Random detour off the main road brought us to this beautiful dam

Tha Ton is a sleepy town on the banks of Kok river, where is not really much to do and that’s exactly why we chose it for New Year night :)

Tati exploring local rubbish bins made out of recycled tires

We checked into Garden guest house, located right on the bank of the river and spread over quiet orchard garden filled with bungalows.

We read a bit, played some backgammon, ate early and later on watched movie called - Never let me go - tough fiction story with great morale message.

Day 4 - Exploring area around Tha Ton - 100 kms

As we had not hard limit for amount of time we wanted to spend on this road trip, we decided to give Tha Ton 2 nights and to explore some of the roads on the Myanmar border and one loop around Kok river and surrounding valleys and villages. I’ll let the pictures to do all the talking :)

Orange helmet was a must for positive response when meeting monks

View to Kok river from Tha Ton pagoda 

Road along Thai - Myanmar border 

Myanmar border military checkpoint 23  

The pig went to barber and they killed him ahead of the shave.
Lesson learned - don't cut your hair - don't loose your power !

Landscape in the valleys around Kok river

Kok river itself

For New Year night dinner we got ourselves a treat of steamed fish and Paneng curry, bought a bottle of rum, litre of coke, some beers and armed with Thai balloons we climbed to the highest level of pagoda complex to celebrate the end of old year and coming of new year with the view over all valley and river.

Steamed Carp fish as last supper in 2015

Each 10 minutes we sent one balloon with a wish written on it. We underestimated the wind a little bit and our first balloon got blown off the platform heading for the forest, fortunately it regained more hot air when protected from the wind and took off on its own from the ground :)

Let the peace prevail on the planet Earth !

Bloody wind made our life difficult !

The idea of setting everything around us on fire was more than scary ...

Time passed fast and New year came suddenly ! We spent more than hour into new year chatting with couple of travellers from Austria and after a warning from monk who came to tell us it’s the time to go to sleep we left the premises and let the monks to sleep.

As usual we’re the last men standing and leaving the party :)

Tha Ton pagoda in the light of half moon on 1.1.2016 - 1 AM

At this point we finished the bottle of rum and definitely felt its power ...

On the way home we launched some last balloons from the bridge and by half past two we got into our bed.

Day 5 - Tha Ton - Doi Mae Salong - Thoed Thai - 100 kms

Healthy start to the New Year

Surprisingly no headache... That rum was pure :) Fruit salad for breakfast, quick packing and off we go again. Following road 1209 firstly direction to Mae Ai and after first hilly section turning left direction to Doi Mae Salong. Once the center of Opium trade, controlled by Chinese KMT and being high on the production list. Things have changed in this area. Opium has been replaced by tea of highest quality, providing clean income to many former poppy growers. Oolong, Te Kuan Yin, Gen Sen tea, all being grown, harvested and packaged here.

On the way to Doi Mae Salong

These days Doi Mae Salong is mainly agro-tourism destination where one can visit endless tea plantations and soak in fresh air of surrounding mountains.

Sharp left downhill !

The scenery is breath taking, road is winding and steep up and down roller coaster style again.

There was “Tea festival” when we’re passing by and that enabled us to get slightly better insight into local culture. Some of the hill tribe people - Akha, Leu Tai etc. were present with their traditional costumes and dances.

This lady sold us some roots what no one knew except older guy in Chiang Mai so we left them to him

You don't need electricity !

Akha kids in traditional costumes

We spent hour or so slowly walking through the fair which was a mix of market, tea tasting stands and culture exhibition. Followed by noodle soup lunch, we’re ready to go further.

Akha ladies in full power costumes

Leaving Doi Mae Salong east direction you meet many tea plantations and the road is in some places very steep and narrow, after few kms and crossing of some rivers you climb up to the ridge and stay on it for the rest of the ride till the crossroad to Thoed Thai. You meet some Akha villages on the way, which seem to be almost unchanged by development.

Tea plantations below Doi Mae Salong

Going for a toilet inside tea plantation

Once accessible only by horses or foot, Thoed Thai has dramatic history as a place where opium lord Khun Sa trained his Shan army in secret base. These days old army camp has been converted to museum where one can find out about the background of Shan independence movement and history of Tai people.

Little paradise in Thoed Thai

After few days spent on Myanmar border, finally in Thoed Thai we met Shan people who spoke Burmese and were very surprised to hear us saying few words we learned :)

Owner of Rim Taan guesthouse also spoke perfect English and gave us valuable insight into history of Thoed Thai region, as he personally knew Khun Sa in the past, meeting him was one of the highlights of Thoed Thai visit itself.

We had a little bit of time left until the dusk so we went for quick ride on 15 km road leading to Myanmar border through rough mountains. Again roller coaster experience worth every single meter. Stunning scenery on both sides of the road, passing through villages located on the top of the ridges, wild tea plantations and untouched forests all around.

These villages are still very basic

Enjoying empty roads on perfect surface in sunset light

Stunning sunset was a reward for long day of riding !

Goodbye "today", see you "tomorrow" !

Day 6 - Thoed Thai - Doi Tung - Mae Sai - 139 kms

Woke up next morning in our beautiful bamboo hut by the river we’re almost tempted to stay longer and just lay back and do nothing, but the show must go on !

There was still one more road leading to Myanmar border - 30 km one way which we wanted to explore. Not as steep mountain as the day before, but very winding along the river through narrow valleys, in some places very worn out surface, in some places just loose dirt. It took us 2 hours to ride up and down and to collect our bags from the GH.

By 1 pm we left  for Doi Tung. We were warned about the bad state of the road with words “Some craters but you’ll get around them".

You don't want to hit this in full speed !

And they were craters instead of potholes indeed :)

In some places asphalt broken to dirt, stripes of asphalt mixed with loose stones and dirt and up and down and up and down again. It took us some decent time to reach the main road again.

This road has seen better days !

But the views were worth it, we didn’t meet almost any other vehicles on this road which made it little bit safer :)

Stunning views across the valey !

There are 2 roads leading to Doi Tung: 1. old - narrow steep and very winding, 2. new - wide less steep and just winding.

We started on the old one but got turned back from the Mae Fah Luang garden due to ongoing festival which blocked 2km section of the road. So we had a quick peek at what was going on there, ate noodles for lunch and dropped some kms lower to reach the new road.

Mae Fah Luang Garden

Very wide road with little inclination let you to go pretty fast in 4th gear and kilometres just flew by. There are one or two clearings on the way where you’re offered incredible view to the left overlooking Thai - Myanmar border land filled with wild forested valleys.

Doi Tung in far distance

Doi Tung similarly to other mountains in the area has limestone base and from one side it’s sheer cliff with evergreen forest in higher altitude and semi deciduous forest in lower altitude.

On top of the mountain there is Wat which is famous with locals and receives a lot of travellers. Unfortunately no direct views to the valley of Mae Sai, direction to Mekong, are available from the Wat itself, but there is a great clearing just before the cross-road to Mae Sai on the road 1334

Bell pathway to Doi Tung pagoda

As it was exactly our direction we didn’t miss it :)

Road 1334 offers some of the most spectacular views on this loop and definitely the best on the border with Myanmar.

Border line with Myanmar

There is a little army camp on the top of the ridge offering stunning views to Myanmar, this is the closest you get to Myanmar land on this loop without having river making the border.

Myanmar is only one step away

For next 21 kms the road follows this border and drops some 1100m lower with some sections being just 3 meters narrow, washed away old asphalt full of holes and loose stones and very, very steep in places.

Following Myanmar border

High mountains in Shan state 

Gentle on the break

Sunlit cliffs around Doi Tung

We’ve reached Mae Sai just with the last light and went for the last guest house available on the road through the market following Ruak river upstream - Mae Sai GH.

Phantom passing another checkpoint

Day 7 - Mae Sai - Sop Ruak - Chiang Khong - 140 kms

After few days out of cities it was rather difficult to feel comfortable in busy Mae Sai. Being the most northern place in Thailand it’s also only fully operating border with Myanmar.

Most northern point in Thailand reached

Tiny river separates two different worlds connected with the bridge. Open for crossings daily between 7 AM and 9 PM. Traffic on the streets feels almost like in Chiang Mai, but the further you get out of the town the less crowded it gets.

Little stream separates two different worlds

We’ve left around 10 AM south direction looking for Big cave. Equipped with head torches we stepped into vast underground world. Given name Big one can be overwhelmed by massive entrance hall, but it’s not only entrance size but also the length of this cave what gives it the name. Spanning for more than 6 explored kms and legends say that some tunnels lead under the border to Myanmar. With limestone massif stretching all the way to Myanmar story not far away from likely.

Tobacco fields below Doi Tung 

Deep jungles on the way to the caves

However not all paths are accessible through whole year, some sections are flooded for most of the time and become accessible only at the end of dry season. First 800 m into the cave are kind of paved, some sections are carved into mud, some are supported by cement steps. It’s hard to measure the distance when you walk under solid rock, so I guess we went max for 1 km deep and in some parts one could see huge stalactites formations, narrow channels leading to large caverns, couple of places where people come and pray or have small pic-nic.

Entrance to the "underworld"

Cave girl Tati :)

Opposite to European caves where one can expect stable cold temperatures all year around, here in tropical climate it works vice versa. The deeper you go in, the warmer it gets. Air is fully saturated and you can see the moist droplets in the light of your head torch.

Not like in European caves, here for most of the time you’ll be alone and the eerie experience of quiet darkness is thrilling. Little drops falling quietly until they hit the surface and echoing sound spreads through the darkness.

There are few more caves in the same area, but they are mainly wide holes in the cliff rather than caverns

Dramatic limestone formations

Most of the tourists also visit caves further south which act as important religious sites, surrounded by Wats and lake full of sacred catfish fed by dog granulated food. We stopped by the lake shortly and missed main Monkey cave as the car park was full and hordes of Thai people were invading.

Sacred lake 

Albino catfish feeding on dog food !

After some 40 kms riding on empty roads through rice fields, we hit the main road heading to Chiang Khong and pushed harder. Stopping for quick lunch in Sop Ruak - so called Golden Triangle point where river Ruak flows into mighty Mekong and three countries meet in single point.

Confluence of Ruak and Mekong - so called Golden Triangle point

Red, gold and green - the colours of my flag !

We passed by Opium hall - quite expensive centre explaining history of opium in the region.

Mekong river from the hill

Instead of throwing money away we kept riding and took smaller roads copying Mekong river through lush agriculture land, slowly running out of the sun light, hoping to find some reasonable accommodation on the river side.

First sunset close to Mekong river

Unfortunately all places with beautiful river scenery were ridiculously expensive and far far above our budget so we kept riding into the darkness as the sun disappeared behind the mountains and reached Chiang Kong around 7 PM.

Chiang Kong is a quite sleepy town with few highlights.

1 - It’s official border crossing to Laos  and on the opposite side of the river it’s possible to get boat ride to Luang Prabang. Most of the tourists going to Laos have to stay overnight, so there are guests houses on every corner, few bars and in general it has strong western feeling.

2 - Some years back locals started with Giant catfish reproduction programme and they boost with the title - Worlds first giant catfish reproduction facility. By local stories catfish up to 300 kg are to be found in April - May.

Come and challenge giang catfish

Day 8 - Chiang Khong - Phu Chi Fah - 97 kms

We’ve stayed in nice wooden homestay at north end of the main road, not the cheapest, but seemed like better value for given price than other places we’ve seen. Unfortunately two single beds were quite small to provide enough comfort for a couple so in the morning we felt bit broken.

Morning view to Laos across Mekong river

But no worries, nothing too bad and after cup of coffee we’re back on the horse !

Instead of staying on the main road we tried to get as close to Friendship Bridge 2 as possible. Taking left turn before the school at the south end of the town, we followed tiny road leading to Papaya plantations. Fertile flood area of Mekong seems to be the source of Papayas for whole northern Thailand. Endless fields stretched for few kilometres and there wasn’t enough work force to collect ripe papayas, trucks loaded to the top with newspaper wrapped semi-ripe papayas were spread all along the road. We scored 2 medium sized papayas, repacked the luggage and with loud Thank you and Good bye rode off !

Endless Papaya plantations

After 20 minutes on dirt track passing through the fields connecting 2 main roads we hit the main road again and headed south along Mekong. Smooth road on generally flat ground was winding along the river until some point when the river took sharp left turn and disappeared in Laos.

Tobacco leaf for everyone !

From this point onwards Thai - Laos border is formed by mountain ridges.

Mekong river before it disappears into Laos valleys

Getting of the road 1155 starts steep climb to  Doi Pha Thang. Within 15 kms you reach 1500 m altitude and the view of wide valley on Thailand side is very impressive.

Lunch spot view from Doi Pha Tang

Short walk on the ridge offers incredible views to distant Laos mountains with Mekong carving through them. Some of the east side slopes of the ridge are sheer cliffs falling to Laos untouched forests.

Untouched forests along Mekong river on Laos side

Difference between Laos and Thailand sides is incredible - deforested land with agriculture on the west side and beautiful green forests with one or two dirt roads leading from the valley on the East side.

There used to be a forest, long gone history - Thai side

Our hearts started looking forward Laos experience ! Far in distance one could see very mountainous terrain with no visibility of flat land.

After Papaya lunch we moved forward south direction.

Deserted road copying the mountain profile horizontally, sharp left, slight right, slight left, sharp right and again. Generally good surface with random road works, I’d say one of the most enjoyable motorbike roads we’ve been on so far. For most of the time the road is above 1000 m altitude and the views of the valley are breathtaking.

Staying high and heading south

23 kms from Doi Pha Tang we saw sign for Phu Chi Fah and we took tiny narrow road uphill. The road had to be old access road built of concrete slabs in probably 25+ % inclination and hardcore switch backs every 30 - 50 meters.. Most of the time we were in 1st gear and there were 2 moments when it looked like we’ll not go any further :) At the end we’ve reached little car park below the cliff and main Phu Chi Fah with views to Laos was just 1km hike away.

Touching Laos border on top of Phu Chi Fah

Being one of the main tourist attractions in Chiang Rai province, it attracts decent amount of people who come to enjoy misty sunrise with cloud filled Mekong river valley. Being 3 pm there was hardly 15 people around which made it more pleasant.

Peaks as far one can see !

Jesus de Phu Chi Fah !

Maria de Phu Chi Fah 

Majestic Phu Chi Fah in full scale with Laos in background

After one hour spent on the ridge walking and enjoying the views we dropped back to the main road and went further some 5 kms to reach village of Rom Fah Tai.

After previous experience of rushing till sunset we’ve decided to call it a day and checked into small bungalow with beautiful sunset views. We swung in our hammock till the sun disappeared behind the mountain and the cold creeped in.

No matter where you're this show is all the time like a premiere !

Day 9 - Phu Chi Fah - Phayao - 143 kms

Aiming to catch sunrise we woke up before 7 AM to discover that it might be a bit late for sunrise :) Our Phantom didn’t like the cold wet air and didn’t want to start straight away, so we sent it downhill on 4th gear and after 400 m it finally coughed into the life.

Good morning Thailand - Laos !

We’ve met incredible amount of Thai tourists on the way up, some already heading down after seeing sunrise, some late or later than us still heading up. It was very surprising to see such huge amount of people as it was Tuesday, 2 days after the end of New Year holiday time.

Ocean of mist above Laos

When we reached the ridge line the sun was already high above the clouds filled valley and westerly wind blew bitterly cold air in definitely kiteable strength.

For a change we had a Papaya on the cliff and after taking some pictures we escaped lower to the village for hot tea and fried rice.

Next 40 kms were mixture of wide winding road copying the mountain and latter part when entering Phusang NP narrowed into potholed very curvy track where you couldn’t  go faster than 40 km/h. Deforested fields disappeared and green jungle swallowed the road.

Phu Sang waterfall

We’ve been given a tip to check Phu Sang waterfall by a lady in Chiang Khong (btw. she cooked the best green curry I’ve ever tried), apparently there was a hot spring above the waterfall.

Keep your shoulders and arse warm while you're feet are chilling :)

You can’t miss the location as it’s just on the main road, well maintained garden around the waterfall which is not very high, and the pool beneath it is just knee deep - ideal for kids as there is no danger.

Not only that there is a hot spring above the waterfall, but the water in the fall itself comes out of that hotspring ! Not as hot as in the pool above, but still very pleasant 30+ degrees gentle massage stream falling on your shoulders while you stand in much colder knee deep pool.

Bubbling hot spring pool covered with algae

There is 30 mins trail going through the jungle above the waterfall explaining differences between 2 main types of forest in the area. The spring pool itself is not huge, but would be big enough for at least 15 - 20 people, however being pretty deep and having lot of green algae growing on the surface, wasn’t really inviting for a dip :)

Road from here on becomes little bit boring as it’s mainly wide straight drag with a lot of traffic.

We whipped the horses to the max speed and flew directly to Phayao !

Arriving pretty early in the afternoon we had enough time to look for accommodation in our budget, which took longer than expected. Phayao is known for magnificent lake which stretches on the south - west of the town and serene sunset views.

Lonely fisherman on Phayao lake during sunset

Therefore all guest houses on the shore of the lake try to squeeze most of the juice out of you and charging double of standard money.

Finally we found clean room within our budget just 5 mins walk away from the lake in Orchid guest house.

It’s true, the sunset is pretty impressive. Sun falls behind the mountain ridge and for next hour or so you can observe incredible shades of orange to pink colours on the water.

Another hard day in the office is over !

Best enjoyed with cold Singha in your hand :)

50 shades of pink

Day 10 - Phayao - Chae Son NP - 136 kms

Not pushing too hard, that morning we left quite late and noticed strange sound coming out of our engine. Metal hitting metal when in low rev ... There was small Honda service on the way so we stopped to get it checked out. Guys changed the oil, the sound was still there and their diagnose was - bad piston.

Pit stop !

Thinking about upgrade !

Following the rule “don’t be gentle it’s a rental” we just confirmed that it should make return journey to Chiang Mai without problems, paid 140 bahts for 1 liter of oil and hour and half later we rode off forward to next adventures !

Except one waterfall on the way, where we had quick noodle soup for lunch, there wasn’t much else than flat straight road all the way to Chaeson NP.

Rich soil on the way !

Tan Tong Waterfall

We’re really surprised by absence of traffic and people in general in this area. We sat in small coffee shop by the road for good half an hour and just one car passed by in the meantime :)

Smoking biscuits

Looked like great place to stay overnight, so we searched the area a bit and found very quiet place with huge rooms usually rented for 800 bahts but after 10 mins of talking we managed to persuade the owner that 500 paid to him is better than 500 paid to his neighbour :)

Our little Paradise

Lovely cute puppy girl was giving us hard fighting time :)

Little Demon !

We checked the entrance to the NP - 200 baht per head, steep but supposedly worth it as there are natural hot springs, waterfall and nature trails. It was just an hour to sunset so we left it for next morning when the air is cooler and hot springs more enjoyable.

Our hut was situated in the middle of rice fields so we walked through the land of paddies and enjoyed last light discovering old wooden house being converted to posh family holiday house with local style. Pretty impressive work.

Peaceful end of the day !

Day 11 - Chae Son NP - Chiang Mai - 83 kms

Last leg of our journey we started with bath in Chaeson NP hot springs. Serie of natural pools with water as hot as 82 degrees C is leading to the cold river.  Natural pool with muddy and stony floor, mixed river water with constant flows of almost boiling water comes to 39 - 42 degrees. In the areas of hot water flow it’s impossible to sit without stirring the water around your body. When you become too hot, short walk to the river and few minutes in cold crystal clear water puts you back into normal ! Definitely worth the entrance fee.

Smoking hot !

After an hour and half of soaking in the pool we bought small bamboo basket with 3 eggs and dipped it into hottest pool. Locals say that 17 minutes should be enough to boil the egg, surprisingly the yolk became harder than the white, which even after additional 10 minutes didn’t really become solid. So we sucked the whites and yolks through small hole on the top of the egg :)

Bloody hot!

Boiling eggs in a natural way !

There are few nature trails leading through bamboo forest to higher area above the waterfall and then following the river down stream through all 9 levels of the waterfall. This was the first river with solid amount of water and fast flow. Except small section of the pool on the last level (lowest) and very hardly accessible pool on 2nd level it would be quiet dangerous to try to get wet. Even in the lowest pool, being some 20 m away from the water hitting the pool you could feel pretty strong current and water below the fall was literally "boiling" !

Great start of the day !

It was a pleasant morning spent in the pool and forest and by midday we set off and as we already paid entrance fee we stayed on old road going through the heart of the NP with few villages on the way.

Phantom extra-loaded 

Moto-selfie !

On next 40 kms we met one motorcycle and one car :) Which was our potion of luck for the day ! Otherwise it would be bloody crazy ride. Old very narrow concrete block road was winding all the way up to 1400m with a series of blind corner switchbacks where 1st gear was mainly in use. Lush untouched forested valleys all around us and only 2 villages on the way, both growing mainly coffee and tea.

Cruising through abandoned jungle highway !

Fresh coffee plant

What goes up, has to go down ! The road on the eat side of the mountain seemed even steeper than the way up and for at least 6 kms we were relying on 1st gear in high rev and combination of front + rear brakes.

Old school is cool !

Just when we’re reaching Mae Kampong waterfall our rear brake gave up again ... This time we knew what to do and we just went for the walk up the stream of the waterfall. Half an hour later we’re back on the road, just to stop few kms lower in the village to have some BBQ lunch.

Roman taking over BBQ !

Delicious pork belly BBQ and papaya salad!

We didn’t know until then that this is the place where tour agencies take tourists from Chiang Mai for various activities like jungle trekking and ziplining. The whole village was packed with tour minivans and mix of Thai and Chinese tourists.

Scenic area !

So sudden was the end of our little bit off the beaten path experience...

What a difference just across the mountain. We pushed directly to Chiang Mai with one stop at Bo Sang traditional handicrafts centre and bought couple of paper umbrellas and some other bits and pieces which we sent next day by Thai mail back to Europe.

Colourful silk Umbrellas !

Getting to the heart of Chiang Mai was again full power fun ! Motorbikes like ants getting through all possible spaces between the cars, we one of them :)

It went all smoothly except one moment when some old car was trying to wedge us into another car and I openly called him through open window “F***ing C*nt”, which I’ve learnt later could have had serious consequences if the guy was rich and had a gun as some people do in this area :)

We returned our Phantom right on time, unstrapped our bags and took last picture !

Safe landing in Chiang Mai !

It was an amazing 11 days and 1327 kms on the road.

For both of us first bigger bike ride.

We’d definitely do it again with more bikers and maybe on slightly stronger machine :)

Here's the map with most of the places we've visited highlighted.