TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

The mountains were a bit hazy this morning, so I did not get a nice sunrise shot like I was hoping for, never mind though. We had a skimpy breakfast, a few bits of toast and some shocking tea(I should have brought a tea bag as they used leaf tea of some funny tasting model) Then we packed up and headed east, not for long though as my front end felt funny so I had to stop and add air, it had dropped to less than 20psi. When we did get on the road again, I hit the front early as Gary was taking it a bit easy for me and following smoky cars, yuck 😦 But there were a lot of nice flowering trees to make up for the smell 🙂

I crossed a tall bridge over this cultivated valley and stopped for some photos, the workers down there had a long way to go, but it was a nice scene and some stunning views.

When you ride through this region you always have to pass farm utes, stacked high with vegies. They pick them up from the farms and take them to a central area where larger trucks haul them to the bigger cities and other markets, lettuce guess what is in this one? 😉

A little way up the road we stopped for a snack and a cold drink, a freshly cooked chook leg at a roadside stall, very nicely done and it certainly filled the hole that breakfast didn’t. We met some girls up from Bangkok, but wouldn’t you know it they were on a religious sight seeing tour of churches and Wats 🙂

We followed a river for a while and of course that meant the road followed the river, which means sweeping bends and lots of them. When we arrived at the town of Hot we grabbed some fuel at a servo, I am still having trouble identifying the correct bowser, but lucky for me the people there point me in the right direction. This is where we have to turn north for the ride to Doi Inthanon, the highest mountain in Thailand and after a short while we get to the National Park entrance and have to buy a ticket, only 60B, but you need the ticket later on so don’t lose it!

The chap with his hand in the air is a Russian chap from Siberia, down for some riding and had hired a 125cc rocket. When Gary took off he went like a rocket after him, I was about 30 seconds later leaving and did not catch him until a waterfall turnoff. Gary told me later he was trying real hard to pass him, but there was no way Gary was going to let a measly 125cc pass a 650cc LOL 😆 The funny thing was, when we saw him again at the top he asked us where a servo was as he had used a lot of fuel making that thing scream, hahah. As we went further into the park we came to another checkpoint, here they tore a section off the ticket we bought and this allowed us to actually ride up to the summit which is 2565m, not bad and the temperature went down the higher we rose, a welcome relief from the sweltering valleys. We got to the summit area around 1pm and had the obligatory photo taken at the sign.

I was a bit disappointed in how this was set up. The actual highest point was in a different spot and the sign did not have the elevation on it. 🙄 There was an air force listening post up on the hill as well with lots of radomes, but I took no photos of course as I want to keep my arse out of a Thai jail 😉 The ride down the hill was just as much fun as the ride up and from there it was not far to Chiang Mai itself. The only thing of note was oops #3, as I was negotiating traffic at some lights, I did the usual thing and filtered up the kerb side which is reserved for bikes and nearly got taken off the bike by a ute driver who did not look as he tried to get around a TukTuk that was turning off. So, I have posted this video on Facebook the other day, but for those that don’t use it, here it is and it has the three oops moments of the trip that I mentioned on the last two posts. There were many more, near head ons etc but I do not have the time to go through 3 days of video footage and grab them, maybe later.

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I was not hurt and amazingly I actually stayed upright, that makes a change eh 😉 So I got back to the Riders Corner around 3pm and booked back in, the same room I left a few days ago. It had been a fantastic 3 day ride and great to ride with a fellow strommer here in Thailand, cheers Gary 🙂 Vstroms are very rare here, the import duty is massive as they do not build them here. Other bikes are more prevalent, namely the Kawasaki Versys because they do make them here. After a nice cool shower I ventured down for a beer and took all my washing down to the laundry lady, including the helmet liners, which were real greasy 😉 I could wash the lot for a change as I could now officially wear the T-shirt which says I have been there and done that, which I had bought from Phil here at the corner before I left 🙂

Later that evening as the usual crowd of local riders refreshed themselves, Na Cho and Louis came down for a farewell drink, his dad was returning home tomorrow and Na Cho was going to pick up his bike in Bangkok, nice to meet you again, and maybe we will meet up again sometime. 🙂

It was not a very late night as I was certainly tired out from the 3 days of fun, but I could sleep in and relax for a few days while I sorted out the next leg of the journey.

Cheers from Chiang Mai
TravellingStrom