R1090 Umphang Death Hwy - Best Route Outside Northern Thailand

[BMW Overlander]

R1090 - 1219 Corners of "Umphang Death Highway" section stretching along 114km between towns of Phop Phra and Umphang. This is the Thai version of North Carolina's "Tail of the Dragon". It is not just about tight bends and switchbacks meandering through remote mountainous landscape of Tak Province but incredible scenery, viewpoints, forestry parks, wildlife sanctuaries, exotic ethnic Karen villages and impressive Tararak, Pa Wai and Pha Charoen waterfalls as depicted in this video.

 

 

 

 

More on this at GT Rider report.

[KittenKong]

An interesting report but for me the video could have done with 10 times fewer edits, and much less time devoted to bikes and their drivers. The drone shots were particularly good but were much too short. It reminded me of an extract from Fast and Furious.

[BMW Overlander]

I understand what you saying.

Younger folks prefer this way, older the other way. Main story is ride on Hwy 1090.

Video is intended to biker audience, hence posted in this forum section. Thanks for commenting anyway.

[Spaniel]

Nice video.    Wife and I did that trip a few years ago, except we used our CRV.

[KittenKong]

4 hours ago, BMW Overlander said:

Younger folks prefer this way, older the other way.

 

Cant argue with that. Perhaps make two director's cuts? "Fast and furious" and "slow and tedious".

[BMW Overlander]

10 hours ago, KittenKong said:

 

Cant argue with that. Perhaps make two director's cuts? "Fast and furious" and "slow and tedious".

 

I did. It is on True, Thai Travel Channel.

[KittenKong]

2 hours ago, BMW Overlander said:

 

I did. It is on True, Thai Travel Channel.

 

I dont have cable TV. I looked for your video on their Youtube channel but couldn't find it. A shame as I would like to see it.

[Preacher]

7 hours ago, KittenKong said:

 

I dont have cable TV. I looked for your video on their Youtube channel but couldn't find it. A shame as I would like to see it.

I would like to see it too.

 

Have lived some years in Umphang and know the road very well. When I first travelled there it was still more of a dirt track, mostly only one and a half lane. traveling that road in the back of a pick-up meant sneezing dirt for a few days. But the sights were great. Over the years the road has improved and farming along the road means that a lot of forest was changed into farm land.

 

The road itself is no longer a real death highway, tough still be careful at the many curves. Main cause of death is brake failure now. Once traveling home to Umphang the local song-teaw went straight down the hill because of brake failure. & dead if i recall correctly, only 1 survivor.

 

Because of the better road Umpahng has changed a lot over the year. They now even have a 7-11. 25 years ago the town was dead after 5 PM.

[irishken]

This wouldn't happen to be the one that was filmed by Jay and his Wife that used to live in Thailand. They have a Youtube channel called 8miles from home. Sorry if i'm wrong but it looks very similar to one of their Vlogs they done a year or so back.  

[JaiLai]

Cool video - good effort.

[BMW Overlander]

21 hours ago, irishken said:

This wouldn't happen to be the one that was filmed by Jay and his Wife that used to live in Thailand. They have a Youtube channel called 8miles from home. Sorry if i'm wrong but it looks very similar to one of their Vlogs they done a year or so back.  

 

No, it was filmed by us on multiple cameras and drones but edited by Jay. He is true artist.

[billd766]

I did that trip about 5 or 6 years ago on my Honda Phantom 200cc. A really nice ride but for the numpty in a Honda Civic who was trying to eat my back tyre to get past me for about 4 km. In the end I let the little <deleted> past before he hit me or somebody coming the other way.

[Airbagwill]

let it be known, if you do get to Umphang, you are not permitted any longer to drive to the waterfall campsite....you have to go by the local transporters - which is between 2000 and 2500 baht  return per vehicle.

[KhunBENQ]

Thanks for contributing.

Great landscape and waterfalls.

For me it was just right in length and "speed" for a forum post.

 

[Airbagwill]

..and of course motorbikes are not permitted onto the waterfall campsite either.