Off road Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai - Fang fairy lights & beyond

KTMphil

Senior member
Joined
Jan 11, 2011
Location
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Bikes
2007 KTM 990 Adventure Suzuki DRZ 400
The burning is well underway but not too much smoke around yet, the dirt trails north of Chiang Mai and nice and dry, near perfect conditions.


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Found a new Akha GF in the Fang Kareoke, new fashion of rice bag attire she was wearing too.


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Off the hard top and onto the dirt, time to let some air out

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Headed north in the sticks, there's lots of ethnic villages that are hidden away


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Then off to have some fun


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This was very interesting, in the middle of nowhere, not near ANY paved road, an illegal immigrant catcher, im sure he s given many without a Thai ID a nasty shock. The drug trade/ Yabba pills is what they are trying to stamp out & he's there waiting for them.


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The KLX 220 running strong, no issues so far with carrying overnight gear and tools


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You can get fuel in the Lisu village just north of R 1150 near Phrao before heading north


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Lovely shy, polite locals in this village


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Full of fuel out in the wilderness


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Then a real shock, what used to be a beautiful dirt track, bright white brand new concrete


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This will now make an amazing motard road, not all is lost


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More beautiful ethnic villages as we head north



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We're wondering how far this concrete will go north


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As we get further north only single lane


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Finally it stops and back on the dirt


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More villages pop up along the main trail



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...More to come
 
Normally Akha & Lisu tribal regions is where you see where the missionaries introduced Christianity, here you can see gravestones with crosses

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Huge village in the middle of nowhere, with Jin (Chinese decent) & Akha ethnic tribes side by side


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The local store makes the school clothing


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The village areas are concreted to stop the dust, there's also concrete on steep inclines that lead to vegetable gardens


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There's some really beautiful poking around north of Phrao with some hidden gems of villages


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We kind of knew this would go nowhere but gave it a try anyway


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Another one of the Akha lady wearing the rice bag


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Then of north into the remoteness


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The trail/ now road towards Mae Suai is being graded and now concreted, it will make it real quick to get deep into some fun trails when finished


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You can see the preparation for the concrete to be laid to the left


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They always do one lane at a time to keep the road open


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In the dark this might catch you out'


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As you get east, closer to R 118 some finished sections


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Into Chiang Rai for the night and a real horror shocker, The Red Rose is shut


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Big festivals on in Chiang Rai, 6 hotels fully booked, we found rooms in the end


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Next day a fun route had been planned westwards from Chiang Rai to Fang

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Through the Singha Farm

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Sad to see lots of the trails in there now barring motorcycles


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Wasn't long before we were out in the beautiful countryside still very green everywhere here


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This has to be one of the best off road riding areas in Thailand because of the range of trails and amazing scenery

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Cute villages nestled away in the mountainside

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Buffalo's are a common site


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They dont seem too bothered about the motorcycles



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Lots of Akha ethinic tribe in this area

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Out of the Akha villages and back onto the trails with some fun shallow stream crossing close to Chiang Rai

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Some unusual sights around Chiang Rai, I've never seen this Wat before


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Strange designed granny annex on the rice field


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Another Wat

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Back through the river

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Slippy round pebbles in this one, like riding on marbles

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Exhaust side up luckily

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Turn it off and get it up quick


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"Did anyone have a camera"?

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Water out of the bike and boots

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Looks like the bamboo bridge is just about kaput

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Another crossing not so hard

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With the drought in Thailand, there must be plenty of water around here, look how green everything is in the middle of dry season

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This looked like it would make a great camping spot\


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Up to Doi Chiang for a coffee, no-one around, was shut!

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The village has fuel, good place to top up before heading west to Fang on the trails

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Whisky bottle fuel, its fine


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Some nice single track out of Doi Chiang

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Then it gets really gorgeous

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A bit smokey, in November is would be amazing

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Poking around some new stuff not on the maps

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This was trying a link up which looks like it goes through


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From the trail to the south we could see the link trail, pretty sure it joins (see the red line)


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We were very close here

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A bit of surveying by foot, down to the right there was a trail

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There were some locals there, they said that side didnt go through


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There was a trail to the left/ south it didnt look right, looked as though it was just garden access but actually when looked at from the main trail, is probably the one that links


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Back out to find another way around


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Onto the road, Akha lady in the pick up ahead

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As with a lot of the Akha villages, the missionaries had found them, here an unusual church


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Back out on the trails westwards towards Fang

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Not too hot, a really great days riding, time for a water break

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The fun didnt stop great ridge line elevation all the way through to fang


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Concrete on the steep bits as you approach the next village


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This is what's killing our viz

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More Akha sweeping brush manufacturing in the next village

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We VERY nearly stopped at this Akha new year village party, the ladies were drunk & very friendly

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The daylight clock was ticking so time to push on

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Looking west, still can't see Fang

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Praying no pickups coming the other way

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Look at those dirt curves


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Spot the dirt bike

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The bike is a bit clearer in this one

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Another area with plentiful water for rice growing


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Into Fang for the night, the Fang Pub is now the Punna Bookshop Cafe.


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I think the owners cat is called Punna, first time ive seen one content on a scooter


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Looks like they like the cat


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Even badges

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Nice clean room for the night ready for another great day off road tomorrow


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Nice view from the room too


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Westwards from Fang towards the super-fun single track around Wiang Haeng, the reminiscence of Chinese New Year in Ban Arunothai

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Then off onto the single track


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This is one of the most fun tracks in Thailand, hard enough where you have to concentrate, first and second gear most of the way through


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Further down turns into more of a double track


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Found this unusual temple i'd never seen before

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A fun ride all the way through to Pai

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As you approach Pai, sad to see they are grading and concreting, as many will say its good for the locals


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Again one of the best days off road riding you can have in Thailand, into Pai for a good nights sleep


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Pai to Chiang Mai has multifarious options off road, some easy, some down right nasty & impossible it wet season. We picked a route south with some single track in the middle to keep it prepossessing.


A quick stop at the Memorial Bridge out of Pai


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Then onto the trails.


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The KLX 220 still going strong after several days of first gear trail riding.

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Getting south and closer to the fun sections

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New bridges going in here and there

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Then onto some beautiful single track


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Everything ready for the next rainy season

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What a fun trail

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Safely back in Chiang Mai, no motorcycle issues and just a whole load of off road riding fun
 
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