Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern Laos.

[GSForLife]

This is another year end trip done recently by myself with a few fellow bikers from Malaysia which lasted a total of 7 days from Kuala Lumpur until Luang Prabang where I parted with the group and thereafter a remainder 7 days ride by myself to Nan and Northern Thailand. Overall it was a fantastic trip with picture perfect occasions most of the time plus some unfavourable weather condition and wrong timing for photography which are common factors to us adventure bikers, yet they dont really get in the way of us having fun and a great time on the road.

Here are some preliminary pictures taken along the way which will give you a feel of this trip:-

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
The infamous Chumpon bananas. You can even smell it as you ride pass the stalls at speed exceeding 120km/hr.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
The first sight that greeted me when I rode into Ayutthaya province.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
The reclining buddha of Ayutthaya historical park.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
My personal favourite - Wat Mahatat at Ayutthaya historical park.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Wat Moung at Ang Thong - reputedly the tallest sitting buddha statute in the world at 90 meters. This temple is quite majestic from a distant.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Route 2331 - near Petchabun.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Sunrise next to Mekong on Route 211 enroute to Nongkhai from Loei.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Buddha Park in Vientiane.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Majestic Ho Prakeo temple in Vientiane.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
That Luang - Vientiane.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Patuxay-Vientiane

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Vang Vieng - view from Elephant Crossing guesthouse.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Route 13, viewpoint after Kasi province (south of Luang Prabang).

By GSA5555 at 2011-12-31
Stairway to plain of jars at Phonsavan.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Nan-adventure motorcycling haven - a must for all adventure biking enthusiasts.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Doi Thung viewpoint-it was unfortunate that the weather wasnt permissible.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Viewpoint at Thoed Thai - Hua Mae Kham forest viewpoint...I missed the flower season by 2 weeks (so I was told by the local mandarin speaking folks).

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Fang Hot Spring.

By gsa5555 at 2011-12-31
Hmong new year celebration in Puak Toey village-Samoeng Loop.

 

[KTMphil]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Looks like you had a great trip Ding, what camera are you using, great colors?

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Yes it was a great trip but these photos appeared kinda small here. I use imageshack for loading. It was just right size when I edit them. How come they are kinda of tiny here? Even on facebook the size was just right. Im using Canon 5Dmk2 & the 24-107mm kit lense mostly.

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

For this trip, it was a ride for the full trip without any shortcut using private transport commonly practice by malaysian bikers. Southern thailand routes (4 & 41) arent that interesting but is necessary to cover. Past experiences with private transport in Hatyai were disasterous and it was thought best not to use them anymore until such time there is improvement in their services. December month is the north-eastern monsoon period and this time we had it quite bad begining from Sadao province until the end of Surathani province (which is expected as it is always dry after that).

A quick bite in the rain earlier in the morning somewhere in phattalung province.

A commonly seen fruits in southern Thailand & Malaysia. Durians and Salak fruits (snake fruit-a specie of palm fruits).

Progress was slow and we stopped for the night at Phetburi on the 2nd day into the trip.

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Yes it was a great trip but these photos appeared kinda small here. I use imageshack for loading. It was just right size when I edit them. How come they are kinda of tiny here? Even on facebook the size was just right. Im using Canon 5Dmk2 & the 24-107mm kit lense mostly.

Ah, my apology Phil, this is a stupid question. I got it figured now what went wrong.


http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/682/208ha.jpg
Hmong new year celebration at Puak Toey village-samoeng loop. (reposted)

 

[Ally]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

This seems to work


I looked at the image in imageshack


I then right clicked & copied the image location (you could also right click & view the image and grab the url from the address bar of your browser)

[img]http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg843/scaled.php?server=843&filename=img0575v.jpg&res=medium[/img]

And then I pasted the url into the forum edit screen & when it was highlighted clicked the image icon to get the [ img ] brackets around it.

Hope that helps

Ally

 

[yempaul]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

For this trip, it was a ride for the full trip without any shortcut using private transport commonly practice by malaysian bikers. Southern thailand routes (4 & 41) arent that interesting but is necessary to cover. Past experiences with private transport in Hatyai were disasterous and it was thought best not to use them anymore until such time there is improvement in their services. .

Hi DIng

How bad was your experience with the private transport company? I plan to use this options in future. I understand most Malaysian riders prefer to skip Southern Route 4. You know the reason as well unless we venture into back roads but that will incur more travelling days. Interested to know the services of these transport companies.

 

[KTMphil]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Ding - All your photo's have vanished from my screen..... I think if you're not logged into your photo service they're not visible. :cry

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

This seems to work


I looked at the image in imageshack
[attachment=1:22m87mu4]Screen Shot 2012-02-09 at 20.26.35.png[/attachment:22m87mu4]

I then right clicked & copied the image location (you could also right click & view the image and grab the url from the address bar of your browser)
[attachment=0:22m87mu4]Screen Shot 2012-02-09 at 20.29.14.png[/attachment:22m87mu4]

[img]http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg843/scaled.php?server=843&filename=img0575v.jpg&res=medium[/img]

And then I pasted the url into the forum edit screen & when it was highlighted clicked the image icon to get the [ img ] brackets around it.

Hope that helps

Ally

Hi Ally,

thank you for the pointer. I will try it shortly with the rest of the photos. Imageshack appears to be 'unstable'...could it be because I am a non paying user? :RE

 

[Lone Rider]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Imageshack is a good storage site but a pain in the butt where it concerns forums. There are some pointers on the WWW on how to resolve the issues and one of these seems to be that the Forum needs to be registered with Imagescack. There were a few more things which I don't remember offhand but will check it later.

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Ding - All your photo's have vanished from my screen..... I think if you're not logged into your photo service they're not visible. :cry

I am not sure of what is happening. I've tried all combination possible including the method pointed out by Ally. Sometimes the images appear, sometimes they dont... :?

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Hi DIng

How bad was your experience with the private transport company? I plan to use this options in future. I understand most Malaysian riders prefer to skip Southern Route 4. You know the reason as well unless we venture into back roads but that will incur more travelling days. Interested to know the services of these transport companies.

Yempaul, there is only one private transport company in Hatyai, trust we all know which one I'm talking about. It used to be fine when they were small and using smaller truck and one tonne lorry to transport bikes. Not much complaints back 6-7 yrs ago but the last 3 yrs were bad. Bikes not properly strapped and most importantly not tied down to get the suspension work the weight of the machine when going through bumpy road and by the time you get down from Ban Pong or Nahkon Sawan station to pick up your bike, it will be dented everywhere with broken plastics, broken side stand, etc. :cry

Request from customers asking to tie the bikes themselves was not entertained because no one knows which truck or lorry will be used until last minute and as usual you cant wait as you have a train to catch....so you will be forced to leave your bike with them to handle it. It had happened to myself and 2 other groups of malaysian bikers travelling on different occasions. All begining in 2009 until as early as July 2011 from what I know. Train cargo is very inconvenient and uncertain plus the way those guys manhandle the bike close to 4 feet above ground, that is just a dicey thing to do. So there isnt much choice left. :G

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

On the 3rd day, the trip started to get interesting with our 1st destination the ancient city of Ayutthaya. Traffic nearing Bangkok metropolitan is quite unnerving so I decided to take a slightly longer route to enter Ayutthaya from Suphanburi province instead. An extra of 30 mins were lost but at least no complication from entering wrong turns in Bangkok which could be much worst from past experiences. No uneventful matters while on the road and I'll start with the pictures of Ayutthaya.

Wat Thammarikit. Part of the temple ruin due to the war with burmese army in the past.

A desecrated main temple hall where the buddha statues were destroyed and burnt to melt the gold plates once decorated these statues (see later a picture of the only temple (Wat Na Phramane) which were left untouched during the war and note the difference).

These statues were once built by burmese craftsman. During the war, burmese army destroyed the faces of these statues because to them these works were rightfully burmese art and the thais dont deserve them.

This is how a main temple hall looked like after the carnage (compare later with Wat Na Phramane).

The infamous reclining buddha.

Wrong timing of the day for photo shot (2pm local time).

My favorite temple-Wat Mahatat.

Wat Mahatat.

Wat Mahatat.

The brief historical account of the only surviving temple in Ayutthaya - Wat Na Phramane. This temple is majestic and please see the following pictures for yourself.

Front main entrance-Wat Na Phramane.

Another one-main entrance.

A small shrine facing the main entrance. Very hindu-ish. Looks like Lord Shiva images.

The main hall. A beauty indeed.

The main diety statue (front).

The main diety statue (rear).

The wooden temple next to Wat Na Phramane. Reputedly a gift from Sri Lanka government in the past to Thai Kingdom. I didnt get the name.

Beautiful work of art.

Handcrafted wooden doors to the "sri lankan" temple. See the artistic work of art.

Another shot.

Final shot, needless to say, I was captivated by it.

The ceiling decoration in Wat Na Phramane.

What appears to be hindu astrological system symbolism in Wat Na Phramane - the 9 planetary dieties.

My final photo at Ayutthaya before heading to Ang Thong province-memorial park of King Naresuan.

There are a lot more to see and "soak in" in Ayutthaya but this can only happen with more time which I dont have.

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

From Ayutthaya, we headed to Ang Thong province (56km) to attempt on finding Wat Moung-a temple reputedly with the largest sitting buddha in the world measuring 90 meters tall. Finding it was a handful. Thinknet wasnt helpful and to a large extent quite misleading on route numbering & networking. With some intuition and sense of direction plus some rough description from ever helpful locals, the place was found but it was close to dark by that time. So limited pictures were taken which couldnt do justice to the splendour of this temple in its surrounding rice field.

This temple is visible in a distance of 5km from the roadside. It is a very majestic view. At the right timing, brilliant photos could be captured.

It was getting dark. Without much time left, I have to take my chances with a hand held shot.

The gate to the main temple hall was closed by the time I got there. There wasnt any caretaker around who can be persuaded to let me in for a closer look. As night falls, the only possible thing to do then was to retract my steps and head to Ang Thong town (30km) for the night. Road at certain sections was patchy and quite difficult to ride without clear visibility. Got into Ang Thong town (dark sleepy place) and put up a night at the 1st hotel we saw for the next day Loei was our destination with route 2331 as a main sight seeing itinerary.

The 1st sight of R2331 - again relying on Thinknet got me lost in the way. But it was found after an hour of being lost.

The viewpoint summit of R2331. It was a superb ride and a very scenic place.

One of the few group photos taken for this trip.

After the summit of R2331, we headed to Loei as our final stop for the day. Time was pressing so we descended R2331 from where we entered instead of heading to Nakhon Thai direction as that will be a longer way to Loei than heading to Lomsak town direction from R2372 and from there to Route 203. Route 203 to Loei was a fantastic ride with very nice curves reminiscent of Route 108 Mae Sarieng to Mae Hong Son. Brilliant ride but no photos as time was pressing and I usually wouldnt want to reach my destination too late into the night. We reached Loei about 7.30pm local time and checked into Kings hotel.

My 1st proper thai meal at Kings hotel. Not too bad but have eaten much better ones.

The next morning early hour ride (thai time 5.30am) from Loei to Chiang Khan on R201. Very misty condition with visibility averaging 10 yards at times 5 yards. Slow progress but still we need to reach Nong Khai for crossing the friendship bridge into Vientiane on the 19th Dec as that was our permit (from Lao Embassy Kuala Lumpur) deadline.

The 1st photo of the Mekong river alongside Route 211 on the first light possible (my left hand side view).

On my right hand side view.

Arh...my 1st sunrise shot on Route 211. Could have done better, still I think it is a beauty.

First proper sighting of the mekong in full view on Route 211-approximately 100km before Nong Khai.

A short video clip of R211.

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Crossing the bridge at Nong Khai to Vientiane was a grey area in the past. Still is I suppose but with a permit to cross the bridge applied earlier from Kuala Lumpur Lao Embassy, it was a breeze. The whole process took about 90 mins and we were in Vientiane. The first place we visited was Buddha Park. Surprisingly the Lao people speak better english than the thais. Regular fuel (benezene) is costlier than Thailand but it got much better quality-lesser knocking and better power but the roads are dusty & patchy.

The few pictures of the Buddha Park (entry fee 5000 kips, camera 5000 kips?) -

I noticed this object was not an ancient artefact....still it is quite nice photography subject.

Reclining buddha.

Some extra shot at different angle. Quite hindu-ish influence.

Full view from different angle.

Dont quite know what this is...?

We checked in a guesthouse somewhere in Vientiane downtown. Not too fanciful but it was clean with secured parking for the bikes. That was done around 3pm local time and thereafter off I left for some sightseeing in Vientiane whilst the rest of the group headed to the local mosque for their visit. The fare for local tut-tut was ridiculously expensive...every stop costs about USD6 irrespective of the distances...some was merely 2-3km away. After visiting 3 spots on my own, the fare came up to USD24....3 X 6 plus another USD6 for coming to the guesthouse. Total distance travelled not more than 12km.

These are the few pictures I took of Vientiane city centre -

My favorite place - Ho Prakeo Temple. Most must know the history of this temple. Too bad camera was strictly prohibited inside the temple. It houses some most fascinating ancient artefacts. A must visit.

The entrance stairway.

The main doors.

Left hand side of the Temple - fascinating work of art.

Right hand side of the temple.

That Luang.

Patuxay.

The ceiling inscription inside Patuxay.

And my meal for the day....some chicken broth with starchy transparent looking noodle....It took quite an effort to get this order done. Compared to Thai cuisine....it left so much more to be desired. But beggar cant be chooser and I was tired...so I took the easy way out.

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

From Vientiane, our next destination was Vang Vieng-Phonsavan-Luang Prabang and thereafter exiting Laos at Muang Nguen to Nan (Thailand). As usual it was early morning start with hopefully, early stop. The rest of the group I was riding with are all muslims so we have different priority & arrangement on food and beverages. We dont eat breakfast together, lunch hardly and dinner once or twice. Being non restrictive on my choices of diet, I took things for granted thinking I can easily get some decent breakfast anywhere on the roadside makeshift stalls like in Thailand....and this was my discovery on the first day ride through Vientiane up north of Laos.

I saw a quite well patroned stall by the locals approximately 50km out of Vientiane towards Vang Vieng and thought fit to join the queue and ordered this dish. Some common innocent looking vegetable dish...but man, it was nasty. I took a mouthful and the very sourish taste backdrafted into my sense of smell nearly causing my eyes to swell tears. The lovely lady vendor was staring at me sampling her cooking so I cant afford to look rude and had to swallow it....and it was rough. Drank plentiful of water and thank her saying I was full (but I think she aint buying it), paid the bill and I left trying to catch up with the rest who were ahead of me.

Another 60km after the first stop, we stopped by a local market makeshift stalls and saw plentiful of fresh water salted fishes....something quite common to us asians even in Malaysia but the quality of raw food here in Laos was much better.

Very neatly organised...no foul smell.

A very popular and commonly found Lao food. Cant help being curious, I ordered this same food from a hotel in Phonsavan later on that same night and got punished for it again. Honestly, local food isnt something one should mess with in Laos unless one knows for sure. It was....raw, and just when I thought only the Japs are impatient with their fishes & meat...

I found these live fishes most fascinating. In Malaysia, we call them "bujuk" a specie of snake fish very highly sought after for its delicious white & chunky flesh...not raw of course. This specie of snake head only live in clean flowing water and these days they are very hard to come by not to mention very expensive as well. I noticed they were caught by hooks...a testimony of how pristine Laos streams and rivers are.

We moved on and after 3 hours' time, we reached Vang Vieng. Beautiful sight.

A view of Vang Vieng from elephant crossing guesthouse. What a delightful view.

Cant seem to get enough of this view.

And ordered my first proper snack at crossing elephant guesthouse....surprisingly delicious what the local called egg sandwich. (something tells me it must have been the lack of proper food thus far)

We had planned to stay at Vang Vieng but due to some hiccup earlier we lost a day...so it was off to Phonsavan for the night. The following are the pictures along the way until Phou Khoun (junction to Phonsavan).

Just a random stop at the roadside. It was about noon local time...not really a good time for photograph but see this image for yourself. Also no filter was used and it was a hand held shot. What a beautiful country Laos is....amazing.

Another viewpoint along Route 13 shortly before Kasi province. (I did a bit of detouring into some bushes next to the main road to take some photos, cant help it.)

The viewpoint after Kasi Province and approximately 25km before Phou Khoun turn off to Phonsavan. The highlight of R13 so many had spoken highly of.

The other side view of the same spot.

This signage is visible only if one is coming from Luang Prabang direction to Vientiane. This junction caused me to miss my turn a bit as from Vientiane direction there wasnt any Phou Khoun signage though there were some milestones before the viewpoint spot and another one (if not mistaken) after that...but no signage. But the junction turn to Phonsavan is significant enough. I took 30 mins to correct the wrong turn....that too was because after ponxi there was a landslide and all vehicles were stalled unable to pass. We reached the junction to Phonsavan on Route 7 approximately 4pm local time. It was 133km to Phonsavan and like many had attested here, it is a magical route.

See the following you-tube to get a feel for yourself.

On Route 7 to Phonsavan.

 

[Steve Canyon]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Great post, great pictures....

 

[LivinLOS]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Seem to have lost the pics for me ??

Just get the imageshack block

 

[Ally]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Yep same here :cry

The forum has been submitted for registration with ImageShack to enable linkage but we await their approval...

However, if the images are inserted like I suggested above, they would show. But they are not being inserted that way :?:

Ally

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Yep same here :cry

The forum has been submitted for registration with ImageShack to enable linkage but we await their approval...

However, if the images are inserted like I suggested above, they would show. But they are not being inserted that way :?:

Ally

I submitted the images/photos exactly as instructed, get the images' url link, copy & paste it in the edit screen, highlight the whole url link address that was pasted and thereafter click on the "insert image" icon ( url....[img]). It worked wonderfully in the preview stage and upon submission all images appeared forthwith....then when I refreshed the same page again, all images became toad in an ice cube. :cry

So far I didn't experience any problem with my earlier posting method or the method suggested by Ally in other forums. :?

I think I'll just post the URL link for all the images that I had submitted thus far.....perhaps that way you guys may be able to see the photos when you click on them? It's a bit of inconvenience but as a temporary measure perhaps?

 

[KTMphil]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

I know much time and effort you've put into that report Ding, so we'll do everything we can to get the photo's fixed, thanks again for doing it.

 

[GSForLife]

Re: Enchanting North-Eastern Thailand and Central-Northern L

Arh..I tried almost all that I could and the same problem again. Some images appear some dont, but at preview stage all images appear. Sorry guys...I am at a dead end.