Chiang Mai Road Trip - May 2009

[AceCafe]

Just back from an absolutely awesome 9 day 3,500km tour to Chiang Mai and the Golden Triangle...... me on my H-D Ultra and a good buddy on his H-D Dyna Lowrider. We did the Samoeng loop and Doi Suthep in Chiang Mai, the Doi Mae Salong loop in Chiang Rai, rode up to Chiang Saen in the Golden Triangle and had an absolute blast on highways 107 & 1089 from Chiang Mai up to Mae Chan and the 120 & 118 from Phayao to Doi Saket..... absolutely superb riding on well maintained roads through probably the most beautiful countryside Thailand has to offer.

Nights out were spent in almost every bar Loi Kroh road has to offer and the 3 Go-Go bars....... and the next 3 or 4 paragraphs have been edited because ThaiVisa frowns on what I have to say about how I enjoy my nightlife…… som num naa! (But can be found on another forum!)

For food we used the Mad Dog bar (nothing to do with the bike club of the same name) on the inner moat road on the East side...... good English breakfast and passable pizzas. The Riverside restaurant was its usual very good self...... packed out as always, good Thai food, good Aussie wine at 700 a bottle..... don't forget, it's always rammed so you've gotta book to avoid dissapointment!

Hotels we stayed in are all highly reccommended, including the Homeland in Petchabun.... forget the old and tired Burapa Hotel as your mid-trip stopover..... the Homeland is 10 klicks further out of town on Highway 21 and has really nice rooms with extremely comfortable bed and all the usual, plus swimming pool, for only 500 baht. Great food too! Unfortunately the name on the archway at the entrance is only in Thai but you can recognise it from the photo below.

In Chiang Mai we stayed at the Lai Thai, a wooden Thai style guesthouse..... very friendly staff and an almost unbeatable location for the bars, restaurants, night bizarre shopping and easy access around town. Again only about 500 baht per night.

The Golden Triangle is very strangely deserted after dark, most tourists doing day trips from Chiang Rai so we had the place to ourselves at night. There are a few guesthouses down some of the side sois but unfortunately the old charm of the area has gone, replaced with enormous Buddha and Elephant statues along the riverside. The only decent place we found to eat was a Thai cafe that no tourist would use...... we had a good evening there though, interacting with the family and having a (clean!) laugh with the owners daughter and grand-daughter..... I'd reccommend it, and you'll recognise it from the photos of grand-daughter and name board below. We stayed in the new and totally soul-less Serene Hotel right on the river...... really nice comfortable rooms but at 1500 a night I'd prefer something with life and character.

Riding home we were heading again for the Homeland but rain stopped play so we pulled over at the Sappraiwan Grand Resort up in the hills in Phitsanulok...... it's the one with all the Elephants....... we were expecting a place this gorgeous to be about 3000 baht per night and were pleasantly surprised at the 1200 price tag....... terrific huge rooms and I'd highly reccommend doing a weekend there..... they have a very good cook, great swimming pool, river with white water rafting, Elephants to mess around with, beautiful scenery and you're close to Khao Kho for exploring.

Sorry if this report seems a bit disjointed folks, it was a lot more colourful but had to be edited!

[alant]

enjoyed the trip info loads, i have a brit friend coming over next month and he has just got his bike licence so i am thinking of taking on a bit of a ride around chiangmai (which is where i am)

how did you get to chiangmai?

cheers

al

[AceCafe]

Hi Al..... my fave route, and quickest (for me coming from Jomtien) is to use the 331, then 304, then 319 past Prachinburi onto the 33, through Nakhon Nayok to Highway 1. Then come off the 1 just past Saraburi and take the 21 to Petchabun where I'd recommend staying at the Homeland, as detailed in the OP.

From Petchabun ride north on the 21 to the Lom Sak interchange then head west on the 12 to the Phitsanulok by-pass. Take the 11 north past Uttaradit to Den Chai, then Lampang, Lamphun and into Chiang Mai. Easy peasy!

When touring with the bike club we'll sometimes take 3 or 4 days to get to CM and ride via Tak, Mae Sot, Mae Sariang, Mae Hong Son, Pai, Mae Taeng etc, or Loei, Nan, Chiang Khong, Thaton etc.

Cheers.

[AnthonyR1]

great trip report ace!

[alant]

Hi Al..... my fave route, and quickest (for me coming from Jomtien) is to use the 331, then 304, then 319 past Prachinburi onto the 33, through Nakhon Nayok to Highway 1. Then come off the 1 just past Saraburi and take the 21 to Petchabun where I'd recommend staying at the Homeland, as detailed in the OP.

From Petchabun ride north on the 21 to the Lom Sak interchange then head west on the 12 to the Phitsanulok by-pass. Take the 11 north past Uttaradit to Den Chai, then Lampang, Lamphun and into Chiang Mai. Easy peasy!

When touring with the bike club we'll sometimes take 3 or 4 days to get to CM and ride via Tak, Mae Sot, Mae Sariang, Mae Hong Son, Pai, Mae Taeng etc, or Loei, Nan, Chiang Khong, Thaton etc.

Cheers.

much appreciated, i will look to do the trip in reverse but no schedule yet

al

[siamjimi]

MARTIN - HIT ME BACK WITH A MESSAGE - YOUR MESSAGE SETTINGS WILL NOT ALLOW ME TO CONTACT YOU HERE ON THAI VISA WEBSITE

[email protected]

[Lagoud]

Great report!

The Homeland Hotel; is it North or South of Petchabun?

Always stay at Burappa but would be interested in alternatives.