NORTH THAILAND FLORAL RIDE - DAY 4

11^TH DEC 2012: MAE HONG SON – PAI – MAE MALAI – CHIANG DAO – DOI ANGKHANG (380KM)

It was hard to get up from bed but I forced myself as again, I hv a long ride to cover today. After saying goodbye to the nice lady at Palm GH, I made my way via route 1095 heading north. 

It was a chilly and foggy morning. The road was not as nice as route 108. This time it was narrow, winding, but not very steep. The rising sun cast shadows of the trees which dazzled my view, and when I put on my darkened visor, I couldnt see the holes on the road. There were times that the fog was so thick that visibility was very low. I hv to ride very carefully in this condition.

The road from Mae Hong Son to Pang Mapha didnt offer nice view, but onwards to Pai, I hv to stop few times for pics. This thus took me 3 hours from Mae Hong Son to reach Pai. I stopped for lunch at a Muslim restaurant here for a nice chicken rice meal.

 

 

I continued on to Mae Malai. The road became bad, and the curvy gets steeper. I still remember how scared I was when riding this same road about 6 months back. However, this time I was enjoying it to the fullest. As a matter of fact, it was the sharp ice cream scoop bend that I was looking forward to this time. How time and experience hv changed me!!! I still didnt ride as fast....I tackled the corners slowly and enjoyed every moment of it. I passed many places which I can still recall from my first ride with my sifu last time. Lots of his words kept ringing in my ears, accompanying my ride all the way. Too much memories flooded my mind while riding today, which at times I cant help tears, and at other times, I was laughing to how coward I was before. It took me another 2 hours ride to reach Mae Malai.

The road from Mae Malai to Chiang Dao improved a lot and this increased my speed. However, too many lorries appeared on the winding single lane road from Chiang Dao to the Doi Angkhang intersection which tensed me as I can only ride at less than 50kmh. Its difficult to overtake the lorries as the were lots of approaching cars and the road was winding all the way. I finally turned left to route 1249. 

It was 25kms more to Doi Angkhang. The road was flat and easy in the beginning. But after about 6kms, the winding started, and it gets steeper and steeper for the last 10kms. The corners was so sharp that I almost loose control of DREAM while ascending. This aint funny and my heart skipped a beat. However the view of the vegetable field was very beautiful. I saw lots of stalls selling strawberry products and fruits along the way, but I didnt stop. I finally reached Royal Agricultural Station Angkhang, and searched for a place to stay since it was almost 5pm. I found a cheap GH and after bargaining, I paid B300 for the room. 

Then I rode DREAM around the agricultural site (B50 entrance fees), stopping at different gardens to view the flowers and vegetables. I almost go insane looking at how beautiful the blossoming flowers were. 
Saya ni nampak jer brutal, tapi sebenarnya dalam hati ada taman....taman bunga bosauuuu punya :)

I met overlanders from the States