NORTH THAILAND FLORAL RIDE - DAY 3

10^TH DEC 2012: LAMPANG – LAMPHUN – DOI INTHANON – KHUN YUAM – MAE HONG SON (350KM)

I woke up early as I am going to tackle the mountain today. To my surprise, the car park was full with vehicles. Where did they come from? They were not there last night. The car park was so full that there was no space at all for me to ride DREAM to exit the hotel compound (even though I hv take off the panniers). The worker helped pushing the hand-brake-off cars aside to give way to me, and after about 30mins, I managed to exit. I supposed those cars belonged to the locals living at the apartment next door. 

Khelang Hotel, Lampang

Full house parking lot

Lampang Clock Tower

It was very chilly riding along the winding route 11 to Lamphun. There was one time that I was honked many times, and as I was getting pissed off (bcos I hv no idea what mistakes I hv done to deserve the honking), the car overtook me and the inhabitants waved at me wildly. LOL...they were Malaysians. I put a big smile on my face, especially when the girl emerged from the sky roof of the car and took shots of me. Cool. I overtook them and gv a nice post to the girl by standing on my foot rest while riding. 

Arriving Lamphun, I was unsure about my ongoing route, and while I was checking the map, a girl and a guy approached me. They were the one inside the car just now. We chatted for a while, and they helped me to locate my upcoming route using google maps inside their smartphone (that was the time when I decided that I must buy smart phone after this). 

With Nisa

And Afzal

We said goodbye, and I continued riding via route 1015 to Sanpatong – route 108 to Chom Thong, but taking a right turn at route 1009 to Doi Inthanon. I hv to pay B200 for the entrance fee, and additional B20 for my motorbike. 

The ride to the peak took about 45mins. The sun was shining and the sky was so very blue. It was a beautiful day. 

There were many people, especially locals at the peak as today is a public holiday. I spent around 40mins here. 

After that I continued on via route 1192 to Mae Cham – route 1263 to Khun Yuam. The view along route 1263 was beautiful. I love the white wild flowers and the colourful grass weeds – brown, pink and beige in colour. Wild sunflowers were among the most dominant view here, making the road sides turned yellow and so beautiful. 

Intersection to Route 1192

 

 

However, the road here was narrow, steep and with lots of potholes filled with sands which make it slippery for two wheelers. I took about 3 hours from the 1192 intersection and was pretty exhausted by the time I reached Khun Yuam. Since it was already 3pm, and I need to rush to Mae Hong Son to claim my certificate before the office closed, I rushed my way via route 108 as fast as I can. The road, even though winding, was nice and wider compared to route 1263. I managed to arrive MHS at 4.30pm and get my certificate at the office. This place sure brought back lots of memories. 

My second 1864 corners cert, for this year lah :)

Then I searched for a place to stay. I dont want to stay at Morning Coffee GH, instead this time, I tried Palm GH, near the temple and the lake. After bargaining, I got a nice room with fan and TV for B350. Then I went to the town and visited Mr Amnat, the guy who sell Tshirts at a shop near the lake. 

Me: Hello
Mr Amnat: Hi, welcome
Me: Do u still remember me?
Mr Amnat: I'm not very sure.
Me: Remember last few months, there is one lady who came here with motorbike?
Mr Amnat: (scratching his head...then...) Ohhh yes....I remember. Wow, u come again to Mae Hong Son?
Me: Yes, last time with my guide. This time I'm alone.
Mr Amnat: What? U come alone? U so brave. Wait...I want to show u something.
Me: (I can guess what he wants to show me). What is it?
Mr Amnat: (Pointing to Are Nim's mementoes). This girl also come here alone with motorbike.
Me (Laughing). Yes, I know.
Mr Amnat: She's so small but her motorbike very big.
Me: She may be small, but she's strong.
Both of us laughing and we have a nice conversation. Mr Amnat insisted that I write another mementoes and stick it on the board of his shop. He's very happy that brave Malaysian girls visited his shop. LOL...

That night was spent lazing by the lake and checking out the night market. Things sold here were dirt cheap. If only I come by car.....sigh...

NORTH THAILAND FLORAL RIDE - DAY 2

9TH DEC 2012: BAN PONG – LAMPANG (650KM)
It was pretty easy to claim my bike at Ban Pong Station. I only need to hand over the piece of paper (export slip) to the officer, and off I go. I rode via route 321, 346, 340 and 1 passing Utai Thani, Kampheng Phet and Tak. The road from Kampheng Phet and Tak was bad due to damaged road and pot holes. I stopped at Tesco Lotus some where during my ride to buy bread and water. I was hoping to arrive Lamphun for the night, but it was a long ride and I am getting tired. The view from Tak to Lampang was very beautiful as the sun was setting and it turned the whole area to golden colour. I saw the mountain looming up in front of me. Tomorrow. Yes, tomorrow, I am going to conquer yr peak. Since it was getting dark, I rode full throttle all the way as there were not many vehicles on the nice dual lanes road. However, I only managed to arrive Lampang at 8.15pm. Feeling exhausted after the 650kms ride, I headed straight to the GH that I wanna stay for the night, only to be told that it was full house. I went to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th, with the same result. Finally I got a room at Khelang Hotel, with TV and fan for only B210. Lucky me. That night I went to the night market to find something to eat.

I've got blisster on the proximal part of my fingers

Yummy coconut delicacy

NORTH THAILAND FLORAL RIDE - DAY 1

It was just two days.....only two days I’m back home after my Trans Borneo Ride that I felt soooo itchy to ride again. This was really unbelievable. By right, I should rest my tired body but somehow, my mind felt energetic. I wanna ride more and more. I dont want to stay home as I am still on holidays. I assumed the virus had gone into me badly. So, after some persuading done (which took about 8 days), permission was granted. I have only 4 short hours to do a lil research and without much preps, off I go. This time, to North Thailand. I want to repeat part of my North Thailand route during my very first overland journey and I want to explore some new routes. I named this ride as North Thailand Floral Ride. Why this name? Bcos this ride is to hunt for flowers as the flowers in the north are blooming right now. Ohhh, I havent told u that I am a flower craze, have I? Well, I dont have much time to write a detailed report regarding this ride as I am busy with work and my upcoming ride, so I am going to report this in brief. Sorry about that.

 8TH DEC 2012: IPOH – HATYAI – BAN PONG

I started from Ipoh around 8.30am. The highway was not very busy, except nearing to Juru until Sg. Dua. As usual, I have my white card done in Changlun and stopped for lunch at the border. There were quite many people crossing from Malaysia to Thailand. Border crossing was smooth for me. I saw a group of Malaysian big bikes and we managed to have a short conversation while waiting at the traffic light after crossing the border. They asked me where I’m heading to, and I said to the Thousand Corners (MHS) and up north. As always, they were shocked to find out I am going alone for such a long ride, as them, riding big bikes in a big group, only heading to Hadyai. Well, no comment on that. HAHAHA....

 

 

I arrived Hadyai around 12pm local time and go straight to the Railway Station. Since I dont hv many days for this ride but I want to cover many places, as to save time, I opted to go on the train, together with DREAM. By doing this, my journey still continues even during night time. Besides, its boring to ride from Hadyai and up, as I hv done this few times previously. I looked for Yang, the Malay-Pattani guy who will help me with the transporting my bike on the train.However, before I found him, I asked for help from guys at the customs office. One of them could speak very good English. Long story short, I hv to pay B1250 for DREAM’s fare, and B535 for myself, a seater in the 2nd class. Ohh, I also hv to pay B40 for the strings to tie DREAM securely in the berth, and another B100 tips for Yang to help lifting DREAM up inside the train. Yang asked for more money, as he said he used to get B500. I asked him, what type of motorbikes that u help lifted up, and he said BMW’s. Okey then, they are rich people, I am not...and the BMW’s are heavy and there were few of those to be lifted up. Back to square one, meaning that each of the rich BMW bikers also paid B100 per person for tips to hv their bikes up inside the train. I think Yang was not very happy, but personally I felt that we should not fed them with this tipping stuff. Its their job to lift up the bikes. They didnt ask for tips from the locals who also transported bikes on the train, but they only asked for tips from us, Malaysians....and B100 was not enough? Huhhhh!!!



The customs officers in casual clothes

 

Yang

As usual, I just cant sit doing nothing

The train departed exactly on time – 6pm local time. The sun was setting and and it was nice to see the last rays of the sun shining on the paddy field. It was quite stuffy in the 2nd class seater, but around 11pm, I started to feel cold and closed the window. I managed some sleep inside the train and woke up many times whenever the train stopped at larger stations as sounds from the food sellers disturbed my sleep. The train was delayed (pretty normal), and I finally arrived Ban Pong at 10.20am.