Lampang, Phrae & Phayyao In A Day

[Ajarn]

I left Chiang Mai at 9 am just in time to get stuck in the trafffic along the middle ring road...

But, once on the main hiway and south of that last set of lights that heads into Lamphun, it's smoooth sailing all the way. I've been really impressed with the quality of the provincial hiways and roads south and east of Chiang Mai compared to the areas around Chiang Mai - In fact, the 'new' outer ring road starting from Huey tung taw to Mae jo road is in terrible condition already and has been repaved in sections a couple of times already, while other sections have huge, hard dips that put your back out (it still hurts!)

No such complaint about the roads I travelled on today, for the most part... 'TiT' though ya' know, so one must still assume the worst scenario. Even on the most beautiful and smooth road, it can change to a death ride in a flash...

So, todays route was Chiang Mai-Lampang-Phrae-Phayao-Chiang Mai... Here it is drawn on a map....

From CM to Lampang is 90 kilometers, but because the road is so good, most can easily do it in one hour (though that reminds me of a poster here who insisted it always took him 5 hours...) On the way down on the left side a bit past the Khuntan service area (what is this place? I do like the 'monkey art' in front of the cop shop, though.) is the Elephant Hospital which is a private organization using mostly private funds to operate. Visitors and donations are welcome. Along that same road a couple of kilometers in is an elephant camp that has rides and shows. It is also the govt's main training center for mahouts. Next to the camp is an incredibly scenic and peacefull lake...Food is available.

Taking 11 south out of Lampang gets you pn the smaller country roads. In about 2 kilometers, the road narrows to 2 lanes, but the traffic in the daytime is very light. All along the road are vendors selling local fruits, herbs and vegetables...

Phrae is nothing special, but the road going north out of Phrae has lots and lots of roadside vendors. I really love shopping this way, and you often meet some very interesting people. Today, I stopped in a 'knife village' that runs along the main road about 5 kilometers north of Phrae. On first look, it seems that there are like 50 places along the roadside selling all the same stuff, but on closer inspection, most of the shops have a guy sitting out back with his forge, making more knives... Same basic styles of knives of every use, but in varying degrees of quality/size/details. Not just knives for the kitchen and for the bush, but various metal gardening implements, too. A knife big enough to lop off a head is about 100 baht...

In Phayao, the main point of interest is the lake. Along the east side of the lake bordering the downtown are lots of little seafood places, with a pleasant promanade across the street that goes for about a kilometer. Limited benches for sitting and hanging out. I got some gai yang and khaw nio, along with a big plaa yang ...

Heading back to Chiang Mai, route 120 going west to Mae Kachan is still beautiful and green, and has lots of dramatic long views as well as dramatic close-up views of the limestone and granite cliffs running adjacent to the road.. A couple of waterfalls, a funky rest area (w/refreshments and facilities) with a great view of the valley, too. This is a great road for any big bike fanatics...

From Mae Kachan, you're heading back to Chiang Mai. A few k's south of Mae Kachan is the Hot Springs Tourist Trap- but hey, if you like buying Tourist Schlock, this is one of the best!

Past the Hotsprings is the best/worst part of the trip. I figure I've travelled this 60+ kilometers mountain section hundreds of times. It's a beautiful road as a passenger, but the road is very curvy and dangerous through the mountains with many drivers exhibiting their worst driving skills, it seems sometimes. You really need to be on your toes here- many accidents along this stretch.... Ironically, the worst sections of pavement run past the main Govt. Hiway Office north of Doi Saket, just as you get into the mountains. Mostly crappy road surface for about 40 kilometers north of Doi Saket...

I got back today at 6 pm. I stopped in lots of places, had lunch along the Phayao lake and cruised Phayao and Phrae towns a bit... A great day, and one I'd recommend to anyone with a day to kill, and who loves to drive and experience this country as much as I do.

Sunset out the driver's window just outside of Doi Saket...

Edited November 12, 2004 by Ajarn

[meadish_sweetball]

Thanks for sharing Ajarn, that's a great post! Will do the same drive sometime soon.

[chuchok]

Interesting.sounds like you had a great day.

[Goat Roper]

Great stuff Ajarn, thanks for the post. I have copied your post, saved for further review. I agree with you about many of the back roads here in LOS and I have often been amazed at how good the roads in fact are, I have ridden many roads in LOS on a motorcycle and have said for many years the "back-roads" in LOS are much better than in my own country in the west.

Keep up the great posts Ajarn and all the best to ya. Stay safe.

[Lambastard]

Love that super-saturated Saket sunset.

[Ajarn]

I agree with you about many of the back roads here in LOS and I have often been amazed at how good the roads in fact are, I have ridden many roads in LOS on a motorcycle and have said for many years the "back-roads" in LOS are much better than in my own country in the west.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

That just dawned on me yesterday...

I have GPS in my truck and I like its accuracy to measure my speed. I usually keep in on 'KPH' which I'm used to now after so many years, but yesterday I switched over to 'MPH' measuring.. As I was cruising this two lane country road, I looked over to see that I was doing almost 60MPH... It dawned on me that not many of the country roads where I'm from could be driven at such speeds...

But, still, consistency of surface and proper safety warnings for road problems are still a problem here, so I can't 'Space-Out' here as I could on many of the hiways in the western US. I guess that's probably good, though...

I sure do miss riding bikes.

[Goat Roper]

My main concern when on a bike upcountry(a car as well) is is the often seen "rot keetan", they seem to have their own rules about who has the right-of-way but that's ok, one just must stay alert and aware. I think what I have seen is when the road is bad it is BAD, when it is good it is GOOD, I for sure have no complaints about the roads here in Thailand , someone has done a ######-of-ajob on the roads here, am not sure who but my hat is off to them.

[Ajarn]

Yeah, farang and eetan (or itan) drivers always get my full attention

For anyone who doesn't know what a 'eetan' vehicle is....

from: http://asian-links.com/larry/motor.html

It's actually a vehicle with a very interesting background.... The motor is an 8-12 hp gas engine that is mounted on a type of rail slide for easy on/off. Slide it on, tighten two bolts, and you're off... This engine is also the same one used in the 'kwai lek' (iron buffalo) - another wonderfull example of rural ingenuity. This engine also mounts to a thresher, water pump, power generator... All have the same mount. Who ever said Thais couldn't problem-solve

[francois]

hi'

what a great post ... all in a few lines

I love Phayao ... a real romantic place .. (used to be, hoping it is still) ..

you make me miss this a lot

cheers

francois

[ovenman]

I've been really impressed with the quality of the provincial hiways and roads south and east of Chiang Mai compared to the areas around Chiang Mai - In fact, the 'new' outer ring road starting from Huey tung taw to Mae jo road is in terrible condition already and has been repaved in sections a couple of times already, while other sections have huge, hard dips that put your back out (it still hurts!)

It seems like the roads that get built these days using concrete are of high quality construction (e.g. the four-lane Highway 11 from Lamphun to Lampang) and the roads that are constructed using asphalt are of varying quality. Of course, it doesn't really help that in the immediate Chiang Mai area we have armies of overweight construction trucks barrelling down all of these new roads. All of the new ring roads have countless housing projects springing up off of them and with that construction comes the heavy trucks.

[Ajarn]

I've been really impressed with the quality of the provincial hiways and roads south and east of Chiang Mai compared to the areas around Chiang Mai - In fact, the 'new' outer ring road starting from Huey tung taw to Mae jo road is in terrible condition already and has been repaved in sections a couple of times already, while other sections have huge, hard dips that put your back out (it still hurts!)

It seems like the roads that get built these days using concrete are of high quality construction (e.g. the four-lane Highway 11 from Lamphun to Lampang) and the roads that are constructed using asphalt are of varying quality. Of course, it doesn't really help that in the immediate Chiang Mai area we have armies of overweight construction trucks barrelling down all of these new roads. All of the new ring roads have countless housing projects springing up off of them and with that construction comes the heavy trucks.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

When they were re-doing the CM-Mae Jo road about 10 years ago, I was doing some extra teaching at Mae Jo university 3 evenings a week. I travelled that road throughout the process... One of the problems I noticed was that the packed dirt bed never seemed to get dry, like the water table was kinda high. At that time, it was mostly scrub and rice fields lining the road. That road was layered in asphalt.

Around the same time, they were also making a concrete road (formerly asphalt)from San sai market to Baan Bo Hin (a few k's south of the Doi Saket turnoff). 10 years on, this concrete road is still in mostly perfect condition, while the CM-Maejo road totally sucks- the highest speed one can hope to maintain on this road is only 60kmp because of all the sagging (dips) and uneven road surfaces from crappy repatching.

[Johpa]

When they were re-doing the CM-Mae Jo road about 10 years ago, I was doing some extra teaching at Mae Jo university 3 evenings a week. I travelled that road throughout the process... One of the problems I noticed was that the packed dirt bed never seemed to get dry, like the water table was kinda high. At that time, it was mostly scrub and rice fields lining the road. That road was layered in asphalt.

..... 10 years on, this concrete road is still in mostly perfect condition, while the CM-Maejo road totally sucks- the highest speed one can hope to maintain on this road is only 60kmp because of all the sagging (dips) and uneven road surfaces from crappy repatching.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use to teach at Mae Jo when the road from Chiang Mai up there was still a two lane near-death experience on just about every trip. Scarecely a week went by where I was not forced onto the side of the road by some freaking oncoming truck passing another truck without taking any consideration to my earthly presence. So despite the current dips and uneveness, it is now a far safer, although far less bucolic, road.

[Ajarn]

When they were re-doing the CM-Mae Jo road about 10 years ago, I was doing some extra teaching at Mae Jo university 3 evenings a week. I travelled that road throughout the process... One of the problems I noticed was that the packed dirt bed never seemed to get dry, like the water table was kinda high. At that time, it was mostly scrub and rice fields lining the road. That road was layered in asphalt.

..... 10 years on, this concrete road is still in mostly perfect condition, while the CM-Maejo road totally sucks- the highest speed one can hope to maintain on this road is only 60kmp because of all the sagging (dips) and uneven road surfaces from crappy repatching.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I use to teach at Mae Jo when the road from Chiang Mai up there was still a two lane near-death experience on just about every trip. Scarecely a week went by where I was not forced onto the side of the road by some freaking oncoming truck passing another truck without taking any consideration to my earthly presence. So despite the current dips and uneveness, it is now a far safer, although far less bucolic, road.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I must disagree that it's far safer now... I realize it's probably been awhile since you've travelled much on it... The heavy truck traffic makes up almost the majority of traffic now, shoulders are basically non-existent, there are still many scary U-turn spots, and combined with the dangerous surface, I think it would likely qualify as the most dangerous 10k stretch of road in Chiang Mai. I live just off this road and travel it every day.

And motorcycles are still at the bottom of the ladder..

[ovenman]

I must disagree that it's far safer now... I realize it's probably been awhile since you've travelled much on it... The heavy truck traffic makes up almost the majority of traffic now, shoulders are basically non-existent, there are still many scary U-turn spots, and combined with the dangerous surface, I think it would likely qualify as the most dangerous 10k stretch of road in Chiang Mai. I live just off this road and travel it every day.

And motorcycles are still at the bottom of the ladder.. 

I'm with you on these thoughts. I have lived in a housing project off this highway for the past six years. Both the amount of traffic and the condition of the highway have made it much more dangerous now than it was six years ago. When I first moved-in, I could manage 80 km/h on my motorbike on the stretch north of the Jet station without a worry, but anymore I'm lucky to ride at a very cautious 60 km/h.

I figure (am hoping?) that they are letting the surface of this road go to seed while the underpass construction is on-going and will perform some major reconstruction after that finishes up... whenever that happens to be.

[chanchao]

Bit late response from me, but I'd also like to thank you for the excellent post!!

(Aren't Ee-tan engines diesel though? Like the really basic generic farm diesel engines as made by Kubota and all? (See www.siamkubota.co.th and specifically http://www.siamkubota.co.th/menu/group_e.asp?roomid=1)

Cheers,

Chanchao

[Ajarn]

Bit late response from me, but I'd also like to thank you for the excellent post!!

(Aren't Ee-tan engines diesel though?  Like the really basic generic farm diesel engines as made by Kubota and all?  (See www.siamkubota.co.th and specifically http://www.siamkubota.co.th/menu/group_e.asp?roomid=1)

Cheers,

Chanchao

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yep, you're right. My mistake....

I called a friend who has a couple of different models on his farm, and he said that they can use either diesel or gas engines for these various configurations, but diesel engines are the most popular because he said the diesel has more power torque at the lower rpm's than the gas engine does. And the diesel requires less maintenance.

Learn something new everyday. Thanks for today's lesson