Mae Sot North To Doi Inthanon

[Spaniel]

Next week we will be in Mae Sot for a few days then will head north to Doi Inthanon. It looks like the best route would be to take route 105 north to Mae Sariang then route 108 to Doi Inthanon. My question is how is route 105 going north? If we take 105 north approximately how long would it take to get to Mae Sariang? Or would we be better off taking route 105 to Tak then go north on route 1?

[sysardman]

How are you travelling? the closer you are to the Myanmar borders then the routes tend to be very mountainous. I did Doi Inthanon to Tak taking the back roads until I hit the 106 and then route 1 into Tak. The little Yamaha Mio got a bit on the warm side coming down the steeper trails until we hit the main routes. Anyway if you can be more specific about your means of transport and itinerary then maybe people could advise.

[Spaniel]

How are you travelling? the closer you are to the Myanmar borders then the routes tend to be very mountainous. I did Doi Inthanon to Tak taking the back roads until I hit the 106 and then route 1 into Tak. The little Yamaha Mio got a bit on the warm side coming down the steeper trails until we hit the main routes. Anyway if you can be more specific about your means of transport and itinerary then maybe people could advise.

I will be driving a Honda CRV.

[JeffreyMcCollum]

I've done that route a few times over the past year. Very beautiful. But I have done it on motorbikes and not in my car or truck. It is very remote. Fuel which is few and far between, as is everything on that route. could be a proble to smaller bikes like a wave. but in your CRV the problem is the road. very narrow in areas. Some times the road narrows to 1 lane and is over grown with brush to less than a meter. If you get in trouble, there in no help around, maybe only a few bikes a day that use the route.

By motorbike I would do it again in an instant. With my car or even my truck I would not do it for any reason

If I may suggest. Just north of Tak is bhumbol dam, well worth a stop and many places there to spend a night. another 40 km give or take past that is Thoen, There is a back road cut off to Hot and on to Doi Inthanon. I did go to Doi Inthranon about a month ago. they now charge 500 Bt per person non Thai. They didn't care I had a Thai DL, Tax card, work permit, and house book. Sure I paid more tax in Thailand then any of them but had to pay the full tourist amount.

Edited November 25, 2012 by JeffreyMcCollum

[sysardman]

I've done that route a few times over the past year. Very beautiful. But I have done it on motorbikes and not in my car or truck. It is very remote. Fuel which is few and far between, as is everything on that route. could be a proble to smaller bikes like a wave. but in your CRV the problem is the road. very narrow in areas. Some times the road narrows to 1 lane and is over grown with brush to less than a meter. If you get in trouble, there in no help around, maybe only a few bikes a day that use the route.

By motorbike I would do it again in an instant. With my car or even my truck I would not do it for any reason

If I may suggest. Just north of Tak is bhumbol dam, well worth a stop and many places there to spend a night. another 40 km give or take past that is Thoen, There is a back road cut off to Hot and on to Doi Inthanon. I did go to Doi Inthranon about a month ago. they now charge 500 Bt per person non Thai. They didn't care I had a Thai DL, Tax card, work permit, and house book. Sure I paid more tax in Thailand then any of them but had to pay the full tourist amount.

I can't remember anywhere being impassable on our route but I do agree it is an idea to keep your fuel tank full at every chance. As we did Doi Inthanon to Tak we were going downhill for the most part. If you do decide to spend your cash and visit Doi Inthanon then we found a nice little place to stay in Ban Tha Sala called Smile Home (off the traffic lights in the town centre). It made a decent base to visit Doi Inthanon and wasn't a tourist trap so was quite cheap and clean and comfortable. Good food in the town market.

[sysardman]

As there aren't many answers and found myself quite interested by the question I checked the internet. It sounds quite a great route from Mae Sot to Mae Sariang but also care must be taken, It sounds like there are Songtaews go that way regularly so can't be too bad. The advice I've seen is to keep an eye on your fuel, do the journey in the daytime and keep your papers in order for checkpoints. I think it's also an idea to keep an eye on the weather at this time of year. The figures I've seen quote about 250Km and about 5 hours to do the journey. Anyway I'm sharing this but it's a future reference for myself and having never been that way before I'm not suggesting anybody take my advice without doing their own research. Being close to the border with Myanmar speaks for itself and obviously could be risky.

[el jefe]

As there aren't many answers and found myself quite interested by the question I checked the internet. It sounds quite a great route from Mae Sot to Mae Sariang but also care must be taken, It sounds like there are Songtaews go that way regularly so can't be too bad. The advice I've seen is to keep an eye on your fuel, do the journey in the daytime and keep your papers in order for checkpoints. I think it's also an idea to keep an eye on the weather at this time of year. The figures I've seen quote about 250Km and about 5 hours to do the journey. Anyway I'm sharing this but it's a future reference for myself and having never been that way before I'm not suggesting anybody take my advice without doing their own research. Being close to the border with Myanmar speaks for itself and obviously could be risky.

I did this about a year ago on a road bike (b for bicycle, not m for motorcycle). The road is paved the whole way although there were a couple of sections under construction/repair but nothing so bad that it couldn't be done with any motorized vehicle. If you start with a full tank, there should be no problem making it the whole way. We had a mini van with us as a support vehicle. It had no problems. There are a few stores and several places to buy a few liters of petrol along the way. There may have even been a petrol station between Mae Sot and Mae Sariang but obviously I wasn't looking for one.

The weather shouldn't be an issue at all for the next few months. This is the best time of year to do it.

Unless you've got some undocumented Burmese in your car, why is being close to the border risky?

[sysardman]

As there aren't many answers and found myself quite interested by the question I checked the internet. It sounds quite a great route from Mae Sot to Mae Sariang but also care must be taken, It sounds like there are Songtaews go that way regularly so can't be too bad. The advice I've seen is to keep an eye on your fuel, do the journey in the daytime and keep your papers in order for checkpoints. I think it's also an idea to keep an eye on the weather at this time of year. The figures I've seen quote about 250Km and about 5 hours to do the journey. Anyway I'm sharing this but it's a future reference for myself and having never been that way before I'm not suggesting anybody take my advice without doing their own research. Being close to the border with Myanmar speaks for itself and obviously could be risky.

I did this about a year ago on a road bike (b for bicycle, not m for motorcycle). The road is paved the whole way although there were a couple of sections under construction/repair but nothing so bad that it couldn't be done with any motorized vehicle. If you start with a full tank, there should be no problem making it the whole way. We had a mini van with us as a support vehicle. It had no problems. There are a few stores and several places to buy a few liters of petrol along the way. There may have even been a petrol station between Mae Sot and Mae Sariang but obviously I wasn't looking for one.

The weather shouldn't be an issue at all for the next few months. This is the best time of year to do it.

Unless you've got some undocumented Burmese in your car, why is being close to the border risky?

Well this could be why we're asking for first hand accounts. A lot of the stuff I've seen on the internet are quite a few years old. As for being risky, well If you're with a group like you sound to have been then maybe no problem but one or two travellers in the middle of nowhere doesn't sound my idea of being risk free.