davidgtr

Hello i and all,I want to ride into laos will somebody please tell me who,how ,dept to go and what paperwork do i need to show,all paperwork re bike is in order and i am on multiple B i live udon so crossing will be at friendship bridge.My laos visa will be tourist.All info handled with care.Thank's

Dynabob

You won't be crossing into Laos at the Friendship Bridge at Nong Khai or Mukdahan. The Friendship Bridges are NO GO for motorbikes into Laos. Exit is ok though. Funny eh?

So your next best bet is Beun Kan / Pakxan, 140 kms downstream from Nong Khai. After that it is Nakon Phanom / Tha Khek. Mukdahan is no motorbike entry into Laos across the Friendship Bridge. After that it is Chong Mek / Vang Tao.

There's heaps of info on the GT Rider Forum and website about documents required plus other tips 'n info.

.......but my wife who works for a large freight forwarder here in Chiangmai has imported lots of bikes on behalf of her customers and has obtained documents that have enabled the owners to legally register the machines without problems in every single case including one bike shipped in from Australia in bits.

Now that sounds like really valuable information. Any chance of sharing the info / some details for the company, please.

Post it. Go to the Mae Ping Post Office & start from there. Ride your bike up the ramp into the mail room, wack your address & a stamp on the seat & away she goes all the way to Phuket.

You just need a Phuket address, C/- the Post Office? & need to pick it up on a working day.

But surely if you have no registration, you can't get any insurance of any kind.

Aitch

If you don't have rego it is still possible to get the compulsory 3rd party insurance.

Most of the bike rental companies in Cnx have had this for years & the insurance companies have & do pay out for accidents.

Insurance for unregistered vehicles was available through the Road Accident Victims Protection Co Ltd. Read how to do it on GT Rider here.

For accidents I think all the police are interested in is "who hit who." The logic being if the way ahead was not clear you should not have proceeded & run into the other vehicle, even if they ran a red light or suddenly came out of side soi & got in your way. You hit them!

Sorry all you guys saying there are lots of new police checkpoints, the guys are out there all the time, rotating their locations; & the regular Cnx traffic police (Mae Ping traffic police station) are not the ones running the big bike crackdown.

Next month is Songkran & New Year. The BIB will need lots of money to celebrate, make tamboon, drink & be merry. Expect lots of traffic police checks all of March, then easing off after Songkran.

I don't think the big bike crackdown is related to Songkran.

Sorry, but some of you guys don't ride enough, talk too much & speculate about what you think is going on.

The bikes seized so far are at the Highway Police HQs on the super near the Poy Luang. More will be added to their collection.

Have a nice day. I’m off on a 3-day GT ride next.

Had my son there a few months ago because of a motorbike accident.

Absolutely not impressed with the Drs, bill or service.

But no doubt some of you have had positive experiences.

Interesting. I expected as much after the Pattaya raid, plus an earlier one here 6 months ago.

But today I went past

1. The Provincial police HQs

2. Kong Muang, main police station on Ratchadamnoen

3. The Mae Ping Traffic police station

& could not see any seized bikes.

So I wonder where they are. Does your mechanic mate or the som tam lady have any idea? Are the bikes on their way to Bkk already?

Could any advise where i can obtain quality motorcycle accessories in the chiang mai area? In particular, i am looking for a large chrome luggage rack that will fit a 2009 Honda Phantom. Or, where can I get one made? Thank you!

Try Chiang Mai Biker Shop

97-98 Mahidol Rd, opposite New Star. Tel: 053 200190.

For more Chiang Mai shops go here.

Does anyone know of a body of CLEAR water such as a, lake, spring or reservoir within a few hours drive of Chaing Mai

looking for a crystal clear spring or lake

anyone ????

The cleanest water I have ever seen in North Thai is what gushes out of the Nam Lu spring

near Tubtao caves, just south of Fang; & part of the brilliant Doi Ang Khang Loop from Chiang Mai.

In the pic above the water looks still, but believe me it is gushing out into a stream.

Another good spring is the Jed Pee Nong Spring

(photo from Pikey)

that feeds the

Buatong waterfall

just up the Phrao road R1001.

Check out the Buatong waterfall & Mae Ngat Dam here.

Both these places are on the GT Rider Golden Triangle Loop map.

There's NO swimming in either of the springs though, if your looking for a swim. You can have a splash around at the Buatong falls, although there's probably not much water flowing at the moment; & my guess the same for Nam Lu. Nam Lu is a really huge hole though, so maybe it is still flowing "fast" even in the dry.

For the first time in 24 hrs here I have to admit that even I have been seriously feeling the effects of the low air quality & I thought it was much worse last year. I've never had such a sore raspy throat, conjunctivitis both eyes + a bleeding nose when I wake up in the morning. Yuk! Usually it does not bother me much, but not this year - I've been suffering badly.

In late Jan - early Feb I was in Laos for 2 weeks (Chiang Mai - Houei Xai - Luang Prabang - Vientiane - Loei - Chiang Mai) & felt great while I was away, then first day back in Chiang Mai I started coughing, sneezing & generally feeling off.

Personally I don't think it is the smoke so much, but the dust & car exhaust fumes that knock you around. And that will only get worse with more & more vehicles & in & around town. Meanwhile just hope for some rain in the next few weeks to clean the air up a bit.

The solution lump it or leave it I reckon.

I hope you all feel better soon now that I've put in my 25 satangs worth.

All paved - blacktop asphalt. I believe it has been a policy of this government to improve access to border areas as part of the border security strategy. The route is so twisty that if you get car sick easily, this is not the place to go. If you think the Pasang to Mae Salong is twisty, the route from Phrathamnak (Doi Tung Royal Villa) to the Hilltribe Welfare Center where they did the Light and Sound Show is even more so.

What's the road like toybits? Is it paved?

I think that you will find R1334, the "Doi Tung - Pha Bur - Mor Nee - Huai Mu - Thoed Thai road" even more twisty & narrow & steep. Check it out if you're on a motorbike. In a car, take care its narrow, tight 'n steep! A real rider's / driver's road!!

BTW if you driving from Cnx - Mae Sai on a visa run, it is probably more realistic to do R118 - R1 from Chiang to Mae Sai. Drop an hour for the visa run & shopping & lunch. Then simply head to Doi Mae Salong via the main road R1 & R1130/ 1234. Anything else via the Doi Tung back roads & it will be a real long day driving. Return to Chiang Mai from Doi Mae Salong via Tha Ton – Fang – Chiang Dao should be about 4 hrs driving in a car I think.

My favourite in Mae Sai the Umporn Resort

A bit out of town, south - between Tesco Lotus & the bus station, but if you have transport no problem.

They have nice bungalows, a good restaurant with light music. Plus it's not far from the Fai Kham Country Pub just down the road later on.

I've been wearing a Joe Rocket Mesh Jacket for a few years now. 2 years ago fell off at low speed in Northern Laos on a shit dirt road & broke the humerus head in 4 pieces. The "armours" not much chop & I certainly would not want to go down the road for a slide with it on as I don't believe the "armour" & loose fit will do much, apart from take the initial impact, then either move all over the place or disintegrate. But I still wear it because it's cool & not hot.

the jacket i've been using has velcro straps to keep the armor in place,

not perfect but it does stop them moving and should help.

so the armor did nothing when you fell?

I wouldn't really call it armour - "hardened foam" is more like it. I think they all seem to have similar, but the Alpinestars one seems to have a harder shell + the foam, sort like the Dainese armour. But you'd need to open one up to really know.

IMHO velcro strips on the outside holding the armour / sleeves in place won’t be so great over 100kph at a guess. But I aint gonna test it out for you.

Re the fall, well the doc said you weigh 98kgs, so just think you had 98kgs dropped on your shoulder, what do you expect. His advice lose some weight & you might have less of an impact to break fewer bones. Ha. Ha.

Photos & Report on the Laos spill here and here.

If you can get to have a look at a few of the mesh jackets & their built in CE protectors / armour, then I think that the Alpinestars T-Breeze Air-Flo Jacket is the best I’ve seen. The stitching, mesh & protection / armour looks tougher & superior to all that I’ve seen so far, & I’ve seen a lot of mesh jackets here over the years! (Prior to the T-Breeze the model was called the T-Venom.)

I've been wearing a Joe Rocket Mesh Jacket for a few years now. 2 years ago fell off at low speed in Northern Laos on a shit dirt road & broke the humerus head in 4 pieces. The "armours" not much chop & I certainly would not want to go down the road for a slide with it on as I don't believe the "armour" & loose fit will do much, apart from take the initial impact, then either move all over the place or disintegrate. But I still wear it because it's cool & not hot.

Years ago I used to get around with Dainese body armour underneath a thick leather jacket. It was hot when you stopped / slowed down, & fortunately I never got to test it out.

Your jacket &body armour must be a tight fit to stay in place when you go down the road. Mesh jackets & simple mesh body armour won’t do the trick, because they won’t stay in place. So if you're serious leather & Dainese body armour it should be.

But probably many of us are not so young anymore, & the heat gets to us even more. It's also hotter nowadays with more cars on the road. So I think we are "all" tending to go the mesh way & hope for the best. Perhaps we are wiser & more experienced riders with the increased age too - less crashes??

The only reason I’m not wearing the T-Breeze Air Flow is because the one I ordered in Chiang Mai came in & they sold it to someone else before I returned from up-country! In a few more weeks I will try to pick one up from the Dirt Shop in Bkk, price 9,900 baht, if they have stock in my size.

Check it out. Alpinestars T-Breeze AirFlow is the way to go I think.

Well it's hot season approaching & the asphalt roads in the North are already hot & greasy. The twisties on R118 north of Mae Suai are good for skating through, plus the roads in both Chiang Mai & Chiang Rai city are as slippery as.

Get on the gas coming out of any corner on the Chiang Mai moat & your bike will slide out nicely (if it's controlled.)

So I wonder whether some of the problem is due to the hot greasy road conditions now? It gets like this every year, and it sometimes creeps up on you as the weather warms up. A mate recently changed his tyres because they had gone off & the new ones were the same. Then he realized that the roads have gotten slippery in the heat. The asphalt is way way worse than the concrete. The concrete needs a heavy build up of rubber & oil to get greasy. Just a thought, before you totally blame the tyres.

And both the Thais and the Burmese accepted this David? I'm running on a Non-Im B multi-entry at the moment.

I like the idea of saving passport pages. I'm on my fourth passport since 1998.

Yep, no trouble. Like I said, done it many times.

Done it on a photocopy many times, but I have a 1 year non-O multiple entry visa, issued in Oz. So I've already paid for it. A very realistic "policy", does not waste pages in your passport each time.

You could just rock up at the border, with 2 photocopies, hand the passport over & just ask them if you can go on a photocopy for 1 hr. They either quietly say yes 100 baht or laugh & say no, go away. No ventured nothing gained.

OR

Pay to upgrade your visa to multiple entry & you can do it, whenever. Once you've paid for the multiple re-entry you will more than likely use the entries & do some litttle shopping trips from Mae Sai / Chiang Khong / Mae Sot, wherever is convenient at the time. No need to lock yourself in the country. Get out & enjoy.

'If its been properly done its impossible to tell if a book is recycled or not !!'

So LIVIN. no problem then is there. if the transfer takes place and the book and numbers look good then that's about the best to be hoped for. let it go.... ..........just let it go :D

When you're buying your bike, hand your money over (to pay for the bike) at the Land Transport Dept after they've inspected the bike, passed it & agree to transfer the rego to you.

If it passes the test at the vehicle rego office then it basically doesn't matter whether the bike's been re-stamped or the book's recycled, as the authorities inspected the bike, examined the book & decided it was ok.

Some of you guys thrive on this "recycled" dodgy book hysteria. IMHO it's not the recycled book, but the re-stamped bike nos. to match up with what's in the book, that is dodgy. All illegal of course, but there's thousands of bikes registered like this & it's an absolutely massive racket, run by the same? group of men in uniform (I think.) Extremely difficult to stamp out when they are making so much money out of it.

And if you're buying a bike that's already registered & can keep the bike registered in your name in the same province, you will probably never have a problem. The problem seems to occur when you go to transfer the bike rego & ownership from one province to another & the officials in the new province are much more diligent at their work & check the legitimacy of your bike to the model it is supposed to be. That's when the shit can hit the fan, with embarrassing questions asked.

It is possible to know if you've got a re-stamped bike by checking the engine & frame nos. to see what type of bike model they are supposed to match up to, because there are lists of bike model nos. with their engine & frame nos. This is what the Land Transport Dept (at least in Chiang Mai) check if your bike is real – do the nos. match up to the bike model photos they have in their computer.

Many motorcycle manuals also have the model engine & frame numbers listed so that you can correctly identify your bike model. It aint difficult.

If your numbers don’t match up & are from another model, then your bike has been re-stamped & the book is more than likely still legit & not “recycled.” You’re bike has been recycled, not the book.

Hamsabai,

Good to know it was a false alarm about your bike deal. An Africa Twin is a great machine - extremely reliable & cheap to run. The Africa Twin is one of the most, if not THE MOST popular RTW bikes. Mine's got 220,000 (Thailand / Laos) kms on it & it just keeps going & going. It will do me another few years, until a satisfactory replacement comes along. Watch the GT Rider site & you will see lots of trip reports from AT Riders all over S E Asia. Chan Kok Pyng at M-Technik in Singapore is the guy to deal with for parts. Chan is the S E Asia AT guru - his bike has 300,000 kms up on it & is in immaculate condition.

Not a sod turned the recession may well defer the projecthe route 3 is still a windy pot holed nightmare in wet weather and even on a fast bike its 2 hrs to the super highway near Kwan Phayao

Not 100% sure what road trip your talking about - what's Phayao got to do with route 3 in Laos? BTW Chiang Mai - Houei Xai- Luang Prabang in a day by Ducati 998 has now been done. So the road is not that bad.

For you guys talking about Mae Kampong / Jaeson National Park on the Pai Businesses Closing Down thread...

Here's a map

Indeed the scenery & forest cover on R1252 is some of the best in North Thailand.

You can easily do this trip from Cnx to Jaeson in a day, or even take your time & over night in Lampang.

R1252 has long been a favourite of the GT Riders. Check out some of these reports with photos to get an idea of how good it is

1. R1252 a great new loop

2. Cnx – Chae Sorn – Lampang - Cnx

3. Chae Son Nat Park

4. Phayao – Chiang Mai The Long Way Home.

You can also do the Jaeson Loop via Khun Tan NP (the train tunnel) by asphalt road.

1. Cnx – Chae Hom – Khun Tan – Cnx

2. Khun Tan Railway Station

The Jaeson Loop is an excellent day / ovedr night trip from Chiang Mai. Try it sometime, there are several ways to go / come back, so it is definitely not boring.

hello everybody...

i am joining the conversation... I am upset to hear that it is not possible to enter laos through the thai laos friendship brigde with a thai registered motorbike as that s exactly what i intended to do. any idea as to why?

my travel plan was to ride from nong khai to luang pranbang and back... Does anyone have advice and experience to share about that? how is the road, safety? how long would it take?

Alternatively to crossing the brigde with the motorbike, would it be possible to rent one in vientiane and start from here? any good rental place?

Thanks!

There are 8 legal international border crossings between Thailand & Laos.

1. Chiang Khong (T) / Huay Sai (L)

2. Huay Kon (T) / Muang Ngeun (L)

3. Thai Li (T) / Nam Hueng (L), the 2nd Friendship Bridge. This over the Nam Heung river.

4. Nong Khai (T) / Friendship Bridge, Vientiane (L) Mekong river.

5. Bung Kan (T) / Pakxan (L)

6. Mukdahan (T) / Savannakhet (L), the 3rd Friendship Bridge. This one over the Mekong river.

7. Nakhon Phanom (T) / Tha Khek (L)

8. Chong Mek (T) / Vang Tao, Pakse (L)

Only the 2 Friendship Bridges across the Mekong are closed to Thai registered motorbikes wanting enter Laos. You can however exit across the Friendship Bridges.

If you really want to know about crossing borders check out GT Rider here.

If you want to know about the roads check out some of these.

The roads are ok. A friend in Chiang Mai recently went from Cnx - Chiang Khong - Houei Xai - Luang Prabang in a day on a Ducati 998. It's seldom the bike that let's you down - only the rider is not good enough for the bike or roads.

There also plenty of motorcycle rental options in Vientiane. Look here or here.

One of these will work - either riding your own bike in, or renting.

Would love to get some of these maps. George, do you have them?

Of course UG has them. Also these places.

Ah.. Whats the name of the White wat near Chiang rai though? AWESOME place.

Beautiful map, might have to buy one of those.

The "white temple" Wat Rong Khun

The map" the GT Rider Golden Triangle Loop guide map.

The Charin Resort

for those who are unsure exactly where it is.

The way Samoeng - Huai Mana / Bo Kaew, the good stuff

like this for approx 24 kms. A great ride.

Then at the Bo Kaew / Huai Mana end, approx 5 kms bumpy potholed asphalt

The Huai Mana petrol station

At Huai Mana

turn left

& follow the road 2.7 kms to the Bo Kaew school

All riders on bigger bikes 250+ welcome. Smaller bikes also welcome, but might have a bit of trouble keeping up Chiang Mai - Samoeng. But just ride to Samoeng, then follow the Samoeng - Wat Chan road to Huai Mana, turn left & go 2.7 kms to the school.

Meet at Tesco Lotus Khamthieng 9.45 AM, Children's Day SATURDAY 10th January; depart Lotus 10.30 AM for Samoeng & Huai Mana / Bo Kaew. Ride non-stop, with a re-group in Samoeng & Huai Mana only.

To get to Bo Kaew from Samoeng