How do you get from Sri Chaing Mai to Nung Bua Lampho, with out going to Udon.

What I'm looking for away through the mountians not along the river.

I have not found anything on my maps.

Close would do fine.

Your help is appreciated.

The map does show a road through Ban Phu, but I don't stay in your area and have never taken it. I did take a few back roads on my way from Udon to Loei at Christmas and found them to be pretty rough.

This guide has a map showing the roads and also gives an interesting route for a tour.

http://www.budget.co.th/pdfs/worldclass_loei_eng.pdf

The map does show a road through Ban Phu, but I don't stay in your area and have never taken it. I did take a few back roads on my way from Udon to Loei at Christmas and found them to be pretty rough.

This guide has a map showing the roads and also gives an interesting route for a tour.

http://www.budget.co.th/pdfs/worldclass_loei_eng.pdf

Excellent maps and excellent road trip advice. I have done a few on their instructions and they are rarely wrong

Khun Andy

Thanks thats called the Loiue Loop it is a good ride, a bit rough in places but not that bad.

What we are trying to accomplish is we have one rider who lives in Sri Chaing Rai, the goal is to ride the mountains in Loie, is to meet hime in the Noun Bua Lampho area, thereby giving us more ride time in the mountians, it really is much cooler this time of year. It is definetly beautiful.

It may or may not be possible, most of the roads I see stop before Nung Bua Lampho.

The last ride we took was about ten hours, since he was in Sri Chaing Mai his was more like thirteen hours. Trying to find a way to balance that one out a bit for him. At the samew time add soemthing a bit different most of us have ridden the river route many times because it is nice.

A little bit of rough roads would be the norm for us 20 KMS would be a bit to much.

Any event we will go and have fun, always do.

Thanks

Sorry, my post may have been unclear. What I was proposing was not that you took the 'loop', but that from Si Chiang Mai you take route 2020 to Ban Phu and then the 2098 and 2097 south, coming onto the 210 and then on to Nong Bua Lam Phu. All these roads are on the Budget maps. This is an alternative to going through Udon, which I thought was what you were seeking. But I am now wondering whether you were really asking if there are any north/south roads between the 2097 and Highway 2. My large road atlas doesn't show anything.

What my post probably didn't make clear was that at Christmas I took the 2263 from Udon and picked up the route I am suggesting (the 2098/2097) south of Ban Phu. Actually I drove north on the 2098 to a viewpoint near Ban Phu and then did a U-turn back south to Highway 210 and on to Loei. The 2098/2097 is quite scenic and has a lot of small mountains. I still think it is a good alternative to Highway 2/route 210 for your journey. The only problem I had was that when on the 2098 I took the road straight on at Ban Na Dan, rather than the left turn (2097) which doesn't look like the main road. The road straight on (the unsignposted 2352) takes you on a very rough road to a cave that Thais like to visit. Actually this bit of road might appeal to a biker who wants to ride in small mountains.

I did Loei to Phrae cross country through the mountains a few years ago one night, a long dark and twisty drive with nothing but Laos Radio stations as I recall. I welcomed the police check points for human contact.

Citizen that one does really sound intersting:

One the riders from gtriders came up with these suggestions, thought I would go ahead and share them, sound like you enjoy venturing out as I do. If nothing else I'm coming with some great ideas for exploring.

Ray,

There are many options: One is to go to ThaBo and then take the 2020 to Ban Phue or take the 2266 in Si Chiangmai and near Klang Yai take the 2348 to Ban Phue. This route will bring you past the Phu Phrabat Historical Park (quite nice but can be quite hot during the daytime).

From Ban Phue again several options. Easiest is probably to go to Kut Chap either taking the 2021 and in Kham Bong take the 4018 south and then in Kut Chap take the 2314 and after some distance turn right (southwest) to Nong Saeng and then the 3018 to the 210 and west on to NBL. When you reach the 210 there is nearby the Hoi Hin Lan Pi National Park (very old fossils, etc.) which may be worthwhile (is on my list of things to see).

The other option from Ban Phue is to take the 2098/2097 south to Kao Kloi and then head easterly to Kut Chick on the 2004 and the 4016 to Nong Phai Sun and then on the 210 east to NBL.