Chiang Rai & surroundings

Day 69 & 70 ..... Thurs 8th & Fri 9th October .... 445 km (21035 km total)

 

White temples, grey mist, green tea, rainbows & rainbow coloured clock towers

- - - -

A good bit of variety around Chiang Rai, I had only been here once previously about 7 years ago and so took a couple of days to explore.

First on the agenda was the white temple complex. Wat Rong Khun, is a contemporary creation by artist & architect Chalermchai Kositpipat, reportedly using 40m THB of his own money. It is free to enter.

Its a strange place, not really a temple (see the horror exhibits) and not all white. It is impressive in scale, detail & sheer audacity but I was'nt that keen personally, I think the real temples are more beautiful.

Some of the buildings were badly damaged in an earthquake in May last year. Repair work is still ongoing, you can see some of the scaffolding in the picture.

This is the only gold building, not sure why, though the site is still being developed and will continue for many years to come so maybe there will be more.

Now the weird stuff!

Several heads adorn one area....

And as you cross a bridge to the main building, there are hands reaching out from hell trying to grab your ankles!

I left not really knowing what to make of it & headed for the hills.

 

The target was Phu Chi Fa, a famous view point at about 1400m. I had ridden up here a couple of times before but never made the final walk to the view point itself.

Nice ride up there, though it rained for the last bit so the roads were slippy. The car park was empty (it was getting late) it was still raining and the clouds were coming down. I set off up the path To walk the 780m to the cliff edge ....

 

Unfortunately the weather had other ideas and came down around me. I didnt see much point in going to a view point in this so turned around, another time maybe.

Back down in the car park a few of the local kids had come to earn some money being photographed.

 

As I was leaving, the clouds started to break and made for a nice vitsa.

 

The following day I set off to Doi Mae Salong

Mae Salong's early history centred on the the opium trade of the Golden Triangle. Recent history was shaped by the 93rd Division of the Chinese Nationalist Army that refused to surrender to Chinese communists after the Nationalist government was routed in 1949. A force of 12,000 escaped from Yunnan to Burma and continued an insurgency against the Peoples' Republic. Changes in the political landscape later led to the disbanding of the nationalist forces in Burma and apparently many left for Thailand in 1961, settling in Mae Salong.

Many nice roads & views in this area.

 

And a number of tea plantations

Looking very neat!

I could'nt work out what the red striped stone zebra was doing there though!

More kids in traditional dress touting for photos

And colourful market scenes.

 

It had been raining again ... And on the way down, I saw a rainbow, so of course decided to try & find the pot of gold ... Round that bend?

Behind that temple?

Oh! ... Now its behind that hill!

Quick get the spade out!

Now there are two of them !!

Perhaps the arrows are pointing the way?

Well I never did find the gold (honest!) and the rainbows both disappeared.

So I stopped for a leg stretch and wandered behind this hut ....

.... and got in touch with my arty side thinking this pretty flower would make a nice picture

Finally, Chiang Rai is famous dor its clock tower. The golden tower was built in 2008 in honour of the king, by the same artist who did the white temple.

It is quite impresdive during the day standing as it does in the centre of a roundabout. At night, however, it takes things to a new level when on the hour it is lit with different coloured moving laser lights as music plays and songs sing - all rather surreal, in a nice way, but then this is Thailand.

 

 

Skirting the Mekong & Laos border to Chiang Rai via Nan

 

Day 67 & 68 ..... Tues 6th & Wed 7th October .... 687 km (20590 km total)

 

 

Some of my favourite roads - when its not raining!

- - - -

 

This is a lovely journey in riding & scenery terms with quite a few nice stopping places (waterfalls etc). I have ridden it a few times before and so thought I would introduce it to the Tiger.

 

The road leaving pak chom, twists & turns following the Mekong for quite a way, but you saw pictures of that yesterday, so here are a couple as it starts to go inland. Great roads and little traffic.

 

The road then swings northwards around the edge of a piece of Laos that juts into Thailand west of Loei. At the same time it starts to climb and heads into a series of beautiful national parks.

 

This area is fairly remote, so not too many opportunities for coffee or fuel stops. The scenery is lovely though.

 

 

I had been watching clouds building up for some time & shortly after ran into the first of a whole series of tropical rainstorms. I did'nt bother putting on any waterproofs as, typically at this time of year, if you are moving you will usually ride through the rain in 10 minutes or so.

Of course you can get very wet in 10 minutes of late monsoon rain, but at least its warm rain! The biggest problem really is it makes the roads slippy and the twisties less fun.

There is a nice waterfall en route which I always stop at. Unfortunately the landscape gardeners have been out and planted a load of trees & shrubs almost spoiling the view from the road.

What was wrong with natural beauty!

 

 

Then it started raining again so I headed off.

Next sunshine break stop was a bridge over the Nan river, a very full river at this time of year.

 

Did you say its about time for a selfie?

Oh!, go on then!

 

Got a bit of a rhythm going for a while, sunshine stop, rain starts, ride on to next sunshine stop ....

This one in the hills before descending into Nan.

 

And this one from another nice hill, unfortunately photo bombed by a space invader!

 

More rain ...

 

... And more sun ...

Down in the valleys the rice fields are a rich shade of green.

 

 

The next day was more if the same, if anything with more rain.

 

I did plan to go up Phu Che Fa, but it was belting down, so decided to leave it to the day after.

 

Approaching Chiang Rai, it brightened up again.

Random dinosaur - absolutely no idea why!

 

I had decided to stay in Chiang Rai for a couple of days and take some trips out into the surrounding areas. I also needed to get some insurance for the bike as I couldnt find the booth at the border 2 days ago - oops

 

And so into Thailand

Day 66 Monday 5th October 265 km (19903 km total)

 

 

The final border crossing, an auspicious day & the start of nostalgia

- - - -

 

10 years ago on 5th October 2005, I was standing on a podium in front of a few hundred people delivering a speech, in Thai!

Next to me stood a well respected Thai gentlemen, who was translating my speech into English, for the largely non-Thai audience. The occasion was the Grand Opening of a factory I had been responsible for building and setting up, for the UK multinational company I worked for at the time.

And so it was when I crossed the border today, my thoughts went back to that time & all the challenges we had getting a new export operation up & running.

It also meant that my little adventure was almost over.

My planned journey would not actually end until I had accomplished two things; visiting the factory on my bike & having lunch with some of my old team & then going to the area I used to live & meeting up with old friends there. Both of those locations were just north of Bangkok, but I had several days more travelling planned before I headed that far south.

Whilst I lived in Thialnd, as one of my hobbies, I used to travel around on a Triumph Bonneville, and, over a 6 year period, clockd up some 50,000km exploring some of what Thailand has to offer. So I had planned a route that took in some of my favourite areas & also allowed me to meet up with some of my old biking buddies.

That is all to come, today was largely about crossing the order and getting onto the Thai side of the Mekong.

 

The border crossing itself was fairly smooth, but once again, whilst waiting inthe various queues I was thinking just how much the process could be streamlined, just like I had at every other border (work habits die hard!)

Once over the river onto the Thai side, I drove straight through NongKhai & turned right on a road I knew hugged the Mekong for a long way & offered some lovely riding.

The nostalgia started to kick in - these were roads I had ridden before, sometimes several times

For the first time in 66 days of riding, I was not seeing something new around every corner. So tye journey morphed into one of pleasant anticipation, rather than the surprise, wonder & sometimes frustration brought on by travelling into the unknown.

Still, I was in Thailand!

I had actually ridden my motorcycle all the way from the UK to Thailand, no mean feat all things considered. So of course this demanded a selfie, with the Mekong behind me & the banks of Laos behind that.

 

My destination tonight was a place I have stayed at before, and is a wonderful spot if you value peace, quiet and a lovely river view.

The Mekong Riverside Resort & Camp Site only has a few chalets in the trees along the river bank, but this is one of the things that makes it special. Another is the lovely couple that run it Mike & his wife Ben.

The view from my room ...

 

 

And from the restaruant

And the lovely Thai meal prepared by Ben.

 

The good food, beer and conversation on the terrace along with a beatutiful sun setting over the mekong, made a fitting end to the day and beginning to the final phase of my journey.