Chiang Mai - The Way of the Scooter

Pounce

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2011
Location
Here
January 2010.
A prelude to the Motard Tour
Who says you need a big bike or knowledge of an area to have some fun?

(Please bear in mind this was written for the guys back home)

Thailand 2010

Mick called a Motard Tour of Thailand way back in about April, 2009.
Several guys put their hands up for it & at one stage we had a total of 6 guys wanting to do the trip. Alas, as is the way, only 2 blokes decided they were man enough & tough enough
to trek all that way.

Monday 4th

Pounce flies into Chaing Mai around lunchtime, a $3 taxi ride to the hotel, a quick shower, wander the streets looking for a chubby ginger (Lee would have stood out if he showed up as he was supposed to be there before us), then the first of many beers & what I can describe as the best food in the world. I go back to the hotel for a nannas nap as the 3 flights I took to get there took 14 hours. I head to the airport to pick Mick up around 8.30. We head back to the hotel then decide it’s beer time again. We wander the streets taking in the sites, find a bar, have a couple then head back. I left Aus with a shitty cold & it’s started to catch up with me.

Tuesday 5th

It’s decided we hire a couple of scooters, so down to Pop Car Rent & we pick up 2 fully automatic Honda Clicks. As I’ve never ridden in Thai traffic before I’m a bit apprehensive but Mick says “You’ve ridden single trail, so just think of the other traffic as trees & wing mirrors as branches”. He’s right, it’s the best way to not get hit or run into anything else. We ring Mark from TransMotoSport tours to arrange a time to meet & have a chat about the ride. He tells us he’s not in Chaing Mai anymore but 20klm’s north in Mae Rim. Bonus! A great way to test out the Clickety Clicks (& my ability in traffic).

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North we go! Now Mick can’t find his arse with his elbow without the help of a GPS, so looking at the rather dodgy tourist map from the hotel, we find a road that sort of points to Mae Rim, Pounce takes the lead & away we go.
Mick needs to buy a phone, so we stop outside the Mae Rim Police Station & while I ring Mark, he ducks across the road to get one. 10 minutes later, with a bit of pointing & shrugging, he’s wired up, rings Wendy then we take off again. We arrange to meet Mark at the X-Centre, which is run by a Kiwi bloke named Ian. He’s got Bungee, carts, bikes etc so call in & see him if you’re near there.

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Mark arrives on a Kawasaki 65 (?) so we ride the kilometre over to his place to check out the DRZ’s. His place is set up kinda nice. He has his own supercross track with lights for night riding, he’s building a cart track plus some other amenities. We check out the bikes, & it’s a good thing we got there when we did. He was just about to swap a pair of high handle bars on one of the bikes for a lower pair. I soon put a stop to that & choose the yellow one. (it’s Marks favourite bike which I’ll later rue choosing) Mick looks the others over & picks out the black one.
We get most the details of when Mark will pick us up but not where we’re going. He hasn’t decided on a route yet as there’s only 2 of us & we’re open to anything anyway as we have no idea.
It’s all sorted so Mick & I decide to take the scenic route back to Chaing Mai, which happens to consist of about a 100klm loop back over the mountain over some steep winding roads. The fun starts… now!

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This is where Mick discovers his scooter hasn’t much power & I discover that mine hasn’t much brakes. It’s all good though. It’s getting near food time, & Mick spots a roadside stall selling pork on a stick. Yep, that’ll do for lunch. The owner gets us to sit, (we were gunna just much on the porksicle) & serves up the meat with a small salad. Great feed all for less than $3.

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Up into the hills now, the Clicks are making not so easy work of the nice sweeping corners & tight steep switchbacks. I race Mick up them, always leaving him behind.
Time for a bit of petrol. Toot the horn, someone comes out from the house & fills you up. Easy peasy.

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Coming down the other side of the mountain we encounter some English tourists on elephants. They’re shitting themselves just walking up the road, so we point out the extremely steep single trail they’re heading for & laugh at them!

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Down the bottom & we stop for a cold beer at some stand. An old Thai lady tries talking to us but being ignorant tourists, we have no idea what she’s saying.
We decide it’s time to head home, after what can only be described as a great start to the holidays. What the Clicks lack in going power & stopping power, they’re still great fun in the hills. Cornering ability isn’t too shabby. Just don’t try to stand up on them.

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We cruise around the hills some more trying to read road signs until we finally find the major highway back into Chiang Mai.
Ever wondered how fast a Honda Click will go? Mick reckons we got 90 out of them pinned on the way back.
Back to the hotel now, via a tour of the city, showered, changed, dinner, beers then sleep.


Wednesday 6th

Where to today on the scooters?
Mick suggests heading in the other direction to have a look, so we point the bikes southish through morning traffic, onto some sort of country highway heading towards the town of Lamphun. Just out of Chaing Mai we stop for breakfast where Mick gets the better deal. We both pick a porksicle again only this time mine tastes like crap, so I chuck that & settle for an apple.

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Just outside Lamphun we stop at the Thai equivalent of a lunch bar for a drink, get the dodgy map out again & as neither of us can decipher it, we decide to head westish & see where we end up.

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Great choice. We get to San Pa Tong & figure if we go down this back street & through this village we might see something interesting. Eureka! An old concrete road winding through some rice paddys, small villages with schools & Temples a plenty.

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We head down a sort of back lane & do some fenceline single trail, had to get a dirt fix, then just cruise on some more.

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Who’ld of thought you could get air on a Honda Click? Not us but we did it.

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On a bit further Mick gets hassled by a dog that we thought was going to have a chew on his ankle. We end up in the middle of nowhere in some National Park. Lost? Not really, just directionally mislead.
“Let’s go that way”. “OK”
We end up coming across a major road again then decide to stop for more food. 2 big plates of pork fried rice & 3 bowls of delicious soup at some bus stop come lunch shack in Mae Wang all for $2.

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At least we know where we are now, sort of, so we head back towards San Pa Tong then it’s an easy ride into Chaing Mai.
A quick trip around the cities moat/wall area in the one way system then we dump the scooters off. Hire cost for 2 Clicks for 2 days… $26.
All up, hiring them was a great idea of Micks. It’s a much better way to get a feel for the area you’re in, you get to see much more & have a laugh at the same time.
 
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