Deep into central Isaan research mission

KTMphil

KTMphil

Senior member
Joined
Jan 11, 2011
Location
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Bikes
2007 KTM 990 Adventure Suzuki DRZ 400
Was not looking good when we left Chiang Mai. Pouring with rain, 6 pickup's crashed or upside down on R 118, maybe we'd left it too late in the year to make this an enjoyable research mission.



Here on a very wet R 120 approaching Phayao




IMG_8148_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
With plenty of time available for this research mission, we'd planned to work our way south east from Chiang Mai & to take the scenic route which crosses the Sirirkit Dam by ferry. If you haven't ridden it, the ridge line R 1339 north of the Sirikit Dam ferry is a spanking good ride. With the wet roads our average speed had been cut in half by the time we'd reached R 1154 north of Phrae.


IMG_8149_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




IMG_8152_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




A map showing our route SE from Chiang Mai


urrtdt edit.jpg




More to come with a better Isaan internet connection
 
Enjoy the ride guys, take it easy, you have all the time in the world.

Stay safe.

Ally
 
The Mae Nam Ngao River on R 1154 had been brought back to life, now freely flowing with brown, silty run-off



IMG_8154_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr







IMG_8153_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





710 km's later, we made Udon before dark, one of the best hotels for location and price (c/o Bob & Gary) is the "@ Home Hotel", co-ords: N17.40578 E102.80203


10313953_10152823572773345_8276486937164334401_n.jpg






There was some kind of convention underway in Udon (turned out to be nurses we think!) so every where was full. Managed to get a room opposite the The Pannarai Hotel co-ords: N17.40616 E102.80216 for 550 bht with aircon. that did the job (off-street parking for the bikes).



IMG_8155_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
The Irish Clock in Udon does pretty good food for dinner and breakfast. It's nice and cool in there, important as Udon is rather hot


10300707_10152823699303345_2052989349346151625_n.jpg













Co-ords:


N17.40595 E102.80212


10176173_10152825104708345_3214716747677710384_n.jpg









10320267_10152825169168345_4370168659427334407_n.jpg





After a fun evening in Udon, time to start heading south, deep into central Isaan, no real plan, no real destination for the night which made it fun. Clear skies, the wind from the trucks was giving the fellow some headaches, he was all over the road (the one on the left that is).



IMG_8157_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
The changing face of rural shop houses eating choices - CP frozen quality meals, lets hope this doesn't kill all the roadside noodle restaurants



14078648396_d8e676a151_b.jpg
[/URL]FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr[/IMG]




It's the 7-11 style frozen stuff that goes in the microwave. You seriously could not have got more rural than where we were here.... never seen this out in the sticks before.



We might have been her first ever customer too, she had to "call-a-friend" to figure out how to make these frozen soup packets hot!



FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
Sun high in the sky now and like a hot hair dryer while riding along with no rain clouds around. A beautiful old wooden structure in the grounds of a Isaan wat



IMG_8159_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr






IMG_8158_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




Looking through lanmark attractions in the GPS we came across a old Stupa near Roi-Et. I'll get the locations from my GPS.



IMG_8162_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




IMG_8163_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





This stone pillar was in the grounds of the Stupa and looked pretty ancient


IMG_8164_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr







IMG_8165_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
The ancient wat's in this area were quite unusual


IMG_8170_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





IMG_8171_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr



North of Maha Sarakam some scoop net fishing underway


IMG_8175_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr



They would leave the net down for about 45 seconds


IMG_8172_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




Then quickly hoist up


IMG_8173_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





IMG_8174_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr






IMG_8177_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr






IMG_8176_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
One thing you do see a lot of, especially on the outskirts of small cities riding through here (central Isaan), is short time hotel/ bungalows, they were everywhere. Maybe validating the claims of many 30 year old Thai ladies regarding their husbands infidelity.


We thought this, with the many colorful roofs & dinosaurs was just another one and turned out to be a restaurant on a silty lake



10273766_10152825699503345_6545173616834201965_n.jpg






IMG_8178_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
Checked the tires before we left Chiang Mai & the rear seemed to have plenty of rubber left. A petrol stop north of Maha Sarakam, a quick glance around the bike revealed some bad news, the rear was through to the metal core, 9,000 km's out of the Pirelli Rosso II



IMG_8181_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr



Made a few phone calls and one was available in Bangkok, but would we make it there. Getting late, we opted for a night in Maha Sarakam not knowing what to expect.


There's a great new hotel in Maha Sarakan, near the viaduct called Sarunya ( 094 281 5777). A little hard to find but worth the effort - 500 Bht


In walking distance of all the bars and restaurants



IMG_8179_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





IMG_8180_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
Our destination choices for sleeping this night were, Roi-Et, Buriram, Surin or Maha Sarakham. Neither Bob nor myself knew anything about Maha Sarakham, the town letters were quite big on the map so that was the decider.


As wikipedia says, this was kind of what we were expecting:


Maha Sarakham Province - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia





The province is mostly a plain covered with rice fields, only in the north and east are small hills. The province is between 130 and 230 m above sea level. The main river in the province is the river Chi.




220px-Thailand_Maha_Sarakham_locator_map.svg.png








How wrong were we, bars and good looking, young, trendy people everywhere, a fantastic town and still undiscovered it looks like



FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




There's a shockingly good aircon. gourmet steak house on the viaduct called Riverside Steak, location:




http://maps.google.com/maps?q=16.190115335929086,103.28812710547241




FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





Whoever has set them up has been trained well, great service and excellent food, one of the best restaurants i've been to in Thailand


FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr






FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr



They do a great surf and turf



10169352_10203751408615077_5206175543876227917_n.jpg








10271548_10203751408855083_4254778746517957564_n.jpg
 
Sore heads the next morning from a great night in Maha Sarakham, another look at that tire the next morning and it wasn't looking good



Screenshot_2 by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr






Priority was getting this rear tire replaced before I was skating on the metal core. Headed south, we entered Buriram, Bob flagged me down as he'd caught the KTM shop out the corner of his eye "let's give them a try".



Quite an investment has been made here, the owner is a fanatic for sure



[url=https://flic.kr/p/nv4eLV]IMG_8182_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





[/URL]





IMG_8183_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr






IMG_8184_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




Seriously well stocked


IMG_8185_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





IMG_8186_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr
 
"...the town letters were quite big on the map so that was the decider."

This is the spirit of adventure I like to read!

You don't really want to read this though Phil. I am sincerely happy that you are out there, riding your bike, doing what you do best.

Congratulations.

:RO

Ally
 
KTMphil said:
All very professional, torque wrenches used properly etc...
Click to expand...

Wish KTM CM was the same!

EDIT:

Not that I've ever tried them. (I doubt I could even if I tried - unless I wanted some crap accessories fitted.)

Just wish KTM CM was a properly operated, well stocked, KTM dealer, parts and servicing shop...
 
^ actually all Thai mechanics re the torque wrench.

I recently had the rear brakes on the pickup adjusted by my mechanic. His rattle gun couldn't get the wheel nuts off and he had to use a 1.5m bar and socket to loosen them.

Too bad if i'd had a flat and needed to change it by the side of the road..............not to mention all the other nuts and bolts i've found way overtightened by Thai mechanics on my bikes over the years.
 
It was a great shop think the owner has something to do with buriram football team and the race track so he's not coppering up just yet.

The little CRF is holding its own against the ducati beast ☺

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
 
I recently had the rear brakes on the pickup adjusted by my mechanic. His rattle gun couldn't get the wheel nuts off and he had to use a 1.5m bar and socket to loosen them.

Too bad if i'd had a flat and needed to change it by the side of the road..............not to mention all the other nuts and bolts i've found way overtightened by Thai mechanics on my bikes over the years.
Click to expand...






We had the same kind of issues (check out the cheater/ breaker bar)



10250339_10152828670733345_7650261955513793633_n.jpg
 
To continue the deep Isaan research mission, a night in Nakhon Rachasima (commonly known as "korat") was called for. It's one of the biggest cities in Thailand and has numerous large factories in the area.


Wanting somewhere to rest our heads in the center of town, the Punjadara Hotel at 950 Bht seemed a good choice



IMG_8194_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





Great location, I would stay there again


IMG_8195_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




IMG_8196_edited by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





Harri had told us that the Check Inn restaurant is one of the best for western food in Korat some info in the link below:


Check Inn Pub in Korat ? Nakhon Ratchasima « Isaan.com




We'd also been told about "The Big Chilli" restaurant and gave it a try. More in the link below:



https://www.facebook.com/BigChiliKorat


FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr




Food was passable but not outstanding, would try the Check Inn next time for sure


FlickrDroid Upload by Triangle Golden 007, on Flickr





Tip: Check out the evening Kareoke on the ground level of the Punjadara Hotel, its one of the strangest you'll ever go to, not seedy and lots of fun, we had a real laugh in there.




.
 
That KTM dealership is well setup and good to hear that the CRF is keeping the pace Bob.
 
Back tracking very slightly, getting into central Bangkok (especially Sukhumvit) by motorcycle is not fun. Your bike will run hot with all the stopping, some overheat. Try and avoid taking metal pannier boxes at all costs as with them you'll be too wide to split the car traffic lanes, slowing your traffic jam progress significantly.


Most of us have found that Garmin GPS's are very difficult to use in Bangkok due to roads under roads in the elevated toll road sections, it's hard to tell where you should be and easy to mess up. What we did on this trip, was once we got south of Rangsit (Don Muang Airport area), where the elevated toll roads start, we used an Android phone with Sygic mapping software


https://www.sygic.com/en



The Samsung S 5 has amazing screen brightness, some reflection from the glass screen but not too bad. With some elastic bands, fitted easily on in front of the Garmin Montana, so in perfect view. The new Samsung S 5 is proclaimed to be waterproof, but heat is still a problem, they have not be designed to sit in the sun all day.


10256830_10152831635963345_3237092268005464903_n.jpg






It's the way to go until Garmin catch up with city navigation. We didn't make one mistake coming into Sukhumvit, made it really easy.



no_sale_red_banner.jpg










Below is our GPS track file getting out of Sukhumvit that might be useful for Bangkok entry



View attachment into bangkok.gdb
 
We took bikesncats's recommendation and gave Bally's hotel at the end of Sukhumvit / Soi 20 a try. 1,400 bht excluding breakfast, pretty good value for location




1948095_10152831710713345_3233060664689600793_n.jpg






Good, safe, offstreet parking for the bikes, so great touring hotel.





Lightemup was back from delivering high-milk-producing cows across the Indian Ocean, so managed a dinner in the sky with him while there




If you like a Ruby, the Raj Mahal Indian is tough to top


10154543_10152834747928345_9024614873099190027_n.jpg








Next day 700km's back to Chiang Mai in one go, Bob's CRF 250 did it without a hitch.







PS - No one fell off ;)
 
Total distance covered was 2,261 km, we both agreed it was a really enjoyable tour as it was completely different to what we normally do with some great Isaan experiences



map edit txt.jpg





total distance.jpg
 
Nice! :DD
I like the way we share useful info on RA.
Eateries, accommodation, roads, bike shops etc.
But I may have missed it; 'research mission'??
 
2wheels said:
Nice! :DD
I like the way we share useful info on RA.
Eateries, accommodation, roads, bike shops etc.
But I may have missed it; 'research mission'??
Click to expand...

I would call it more gastronomical mission, work in progress

Sent from my SM-G900F using Forum Runner
 
[QUOTE
But I may have missed it; 'research mission'??[/QUOTE]



Without research how could this information be sourced and then shared?
 
Fair enough; it's just that when I read the title I thought you guys were onto a specific research topic within Central Isaan.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Thread starter Similar threads Forum Replies Date
G Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern Laos. Thailand Ride Reports 21
Similar threads
Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern Laos.
Back
Top Bottom