My visit to the GT-Riders November dinner

[Nicke]

I did prepare very carefuly and had planned to post a report every day, but
reality wanted something else, internet and wi-fi is not present in most countryside
hotels and resorts, so I would like to know how Captain Slash does, maybee post
his reports from the internetshops, but they are mostly filled with youngsters
playing games. Anyway, now I have arrived in Chiang Mai and staying in a nice
GH with wi-fi so now I will try to write something.

Started from home on Saturday morning at 9:15, drove the 3138, 331, 304 and
319 to PrachinBuri, rather uninterresting roads but good standard so you get some
kilometers done. After a noodle-lunch there I took the 3077 to Kao Yai National
Park where I made a couple of photostops.

There are always some nice people who offers to take your picture when you are
traveling alone, and I still have my camera. But at the viewpoint I was close to have
lost my helmet, not because of dishonest people, but the small monkeys. Luckily
I came back in time to save it before it disappeared in the forest. Todays lesson learned,
never leave something loose when there is monkeys around.

When you see this signs you start thinking, maybee I should have taken another road.
No elefant spoted and only one snake seen so I continued on 2090 to Pak Chong
where I found a normal thai hotel, fan room for 340 bath (no wi-fi) 5555.
Distance today: 301 km.

To be continued.

Leif

 

[Nicke]

Sunday 13th.
Found a good American breakfast at a neighboring hotel and at 8:45 I was on
the road again. Now the 2243 and some other small roads until I hit the 21.
Something I have noticed on this trip, why is the roads always more beautyful
in the mornings?
Now it was good speed ahead up to Lom Sak/Lom Kao and the start of the much
talked about 2331. But I am sorry to say, I was a bit disappointed, of cause it is
stunning in many places, but the road up on the east side was very damaged from
rain so there was not many hairpins you could take properly. Inside the park the
roadsurface was more suitable for a KLX or something, and huu! it was cold up
there, it was almost like biking in Sweden.

Well, it got better, the way down was a real treat, twisty downhill with a perfect
surface, and best of all, it got warmer. So when reaching Nakon Thai it was again
time to look for accomodation. People told me no hotel in NT, so I had to settle
for a half-finished resort a couple of km outside, OK bungalow for 600 bath but
no breakfast, no nothing, so again my thoughts went to Captain Slash and I
pictured myself sitting outside 7-11 having breakfast the next morning.
Summing up: next time I will take the nr 12. Distance covered today 348 km.

To be continued.

Leif

 

[Nicke]

Day 3 the 14th.
I skipped the 7-11 breakfast and was on the road again already at 8:00 on an
empty stommac (how the hell do you spell that word?).
Today I let the GPS guide me NW, and it was mainly the 1143 and 1245 till I
reached the 11 and when coming close to Uttaradit I got tired of listen to my
stommace(?) so there I had what we can call a brunch, and so I got to see a little
of that city as well. After that I realiced that Chiang Mai was in reach today in
time to find a place to stay, so now there was no more sight-seeing, just go for it.

Managed to take one picture while waiting at the red light at an intersection in
Lampang, I don t know what it says, but it s big.

And so around 3 pm here I am.
Distance covered today 384 km, so totaly from Ban Phe to Chiang Mai 1049 km.

So today beeing Tuesday and having time to spare, maybee I can do something
that a good GT-rider would do, why not drive the Samoeng loop?

To be continued.

Leif

 

[TonyBKK]

Ha ha! Yes- those monkeys in Khao Yai can be very naughty, if not downright dangerous at times! Glad you were able to recover your helmet before they added it to their large collection of stolen goods!

Nice trips report- I'm envious!

Happy Trails!

Tony

 

[johngooding]

Thanks for the report Leif and welcome to Chiang Mai, I hope you have a good ride tomorrow and I look forward to meeting you at the dinner at Miguels.
I will just mention that a few friends and I are taking a short ride tomorrow to a small restaurant on a lake near San Patong. We will be leaving from the Canal road near the Night Safari at about 11.00am. If you are at a loose end you are welcome to join. Just ring me sometime tonight or tmro am on 0818825122 and I can meet you somewhere.

 

[DavidFL]

GDay Leif
Welcome & see you at Miguel's tomorrow night.

 

[Nicke]

Day 4 the 15th.

First of all, thanks to all of You for nice and welcoming words.

If I was a bit disappointed the other day about the 2331, one can say I got
greatly compensated today. I would think that when it comes to motorcycleroads
the Samoeng loop is as good as it gets. I found myself sitting on the bike and
thinking: why isn t it longer to Mae Rim.

When seeing this house I thougt I had come to Austria. Houses like that you don t see
very often in Thailand.

And everywhere along the roadside those trees with the big yellow flowers. I guess
I was lucky with the time of year.

And when I needed help with the mandatory picture, who came to help if not a big
group of men, 8-10 cars, from Rayong who were out testing and evalueating the new
Chevrolet models. Did I hear the word coincidence?

And what better way to end a very enjoyable trip then with coffe, cake and eiscream
at the X-Center? There is one impressive establishment, although I didn t see the boss
around today.

To be continued.

Leif

 

[Ian Bungy]

Hi Leif,
Sorry I missed You at the X-Centre. I have been Busy entertaining a Group from New Zealand so been out and about. They go back soon so I will be back to normal and hope to catch up some time? Looks like You are having Fun though so well done and keep enjoying it!

 

[Changnoi1]

Nice trip report!
Next time maybe try some other routes around Phetchabun or Loei.
And you look bloody well like a guy on a same bike that I saw at a PTT gasoline station along route 2 between Khorat and Khon Kaen (coming from the 7/11).

Chang Noi

 

[salbrecht]

Hi Leif,
Great posts to this forum my friend. I am very happy you made it okay and are safe. The story about the monkeys was great. Just the think to spice up a trip report. Keep the updates coming!

Leif's friend from Ban Phe
Steve

 

[JB2112]

Good meeting you tonight Leif.
Safe travels and see you on the road!

JB

 

[Nicke]

I m sorry, but I think we can agree on that yesterday was a full days program, so I
didn t make any report, therefor I will try to sum up yesterday and today now,

First of all let me say a big THANK YOU to John and Tuk-Tha, who took me under
their wings (free translation of swedish saying) for more or less the whole day
yesterday, I really enjoyed it.
And of cause to all the nice people I got the opportunity to talk to at the dinner,
noone mentioned and noone forgotten.

Here are my two pictures from yesterdays tour, "the tour with a mission to find
a place to have lunch", and mission accomplished successfully .
After that tour it was just enaugh time to get back to the GH to freshen up a little, and
then it was just to set the GPS for Miguels, and after "Arriving at destination on right",
it was time for dinner. I didn t take any pictures there because there where others
with better eqipment to do that, so I have to ask You to look elsewhere in this forum
for that.
Total distance driven yesterday 142 km.

Day nr 6.
Today after breakfast I dicided to insted of going to Nan I should give Chiang Mai and
surroundings another day, so I started "sabay-sabay" driving down the 106 to Lamphun,
and there I couldn t help noticing the uncountable big old trees on both sides of the
road, those trees must have seen some people passing bye, I would like to know how
old they are.

After Lamphun it was on to the 11 down to the Thai Elefant Conservation Center.

When the elefant show was over it was to late for lunch, most normal thai foodplaces
had already cleaned their pots and pans, so I thought; what the heck, the "Sloppy Joe" I
had last night still lingured in my mind, so same way back and the nice ladies at Miguels
was just waiting for me to show up, so another "Sloppy Joe" for lunch at 4:30 tasted superb.

Sorry I didn t take the picture when I first arrived, now everyone can see on the
internet that Miguels neonsign needs servicing. 555555

Thank You to the city of Chiang Mai for leaving this beautyful decorations standing until
I had time to get here.

Why is it that things you like doesn t live forever? Coming back tonight to the GH I noticed
that my left boot had started to fall apart, while the right one is undamaged, maybee it s
something with the heat from the engine. I will have to make an investigation. I don t
want to drive to Rayong barefooted on the left, especially as there is a lot of gearchanging
on a Ninja 250. Expences, expences !
Distance covered today 147 km.
Filled up the tank today, 470 km on 14.7 liter, maybee I can afford a pair of new boots.

To be continued.

Leif

 

[Nicke]

Day nr7 the 18th.

After breakfast today I checked out from Manee Guesthouse, a place I will surely return
to if I come to Chiang Mai again, absolutly wonderful people working there.
So at 9:30 I was again on the nr 11 heading south. I must say I find the 11 from CM to
Lampang a rather pleasant drive. When it was time for legstreching and a coffe I found
this beautyful place somewhere between Lampang and Phrae, the owner was a nice man
who obviasly, as You can see from the pictures below, had two hobbies, gardening and trial.

After that I decided to take the 101 as a change to nr 11, and that was a good decision, not
so much for the views, but a spotless, fairly new surfaced road, and best of all, all to myself,
I don t think I saw 10 cars all the way down to a place called Sri Satchanalai, where I stopped
for lunch and found a place that served one of my favorits, Kao Man Gai.

Now it was time for a dose of culture, so after just a few kms I stoped for a visit at this place.

There is something peaceful about those places, especially when you have them almost all to
yourself. I only saw 2 minibuses and we never came close, because the ruins are spread out
on a big area.
When coming out from the park and back to 101 the sign said 90 kms to Phitsanulok, so, as
I have been there before, and know of a good hotel, and we also have friends there, whom
I will pay a short visit to tomorrow morning, Phitsanulok here I come.

Finally a not so good picture of a much better roundabout-decoration in P this evening.

Distance covered today 374 km, (in my loofers).

To be continued

Leif

 

[Nicke]

Day 8 the 19th

As mentioned yesterday evening I started today with visiting a couple of friends in
Phrom Phiram, just outside of Phitsanulok, to inspect their new house. This two
pictures isn t so much for the GT Rider, but I planned to have some Swedish friends
to lock into this website as well.

Everything passed inspection, and very beautyful furnished and decorated, almost a
bit to much decoration with our standards, but this is Thailand.

Then it was off on the 12, and as stated so many other times on this forum, it just gets
better and better going east. Today I was lucky with timing, exactly at 12:00 I arrived
at the famous place "Route 12", and the first thing I visited there was mens "hong nam".

This just takes the price, here you wish you could "pee" forever. But I couldn t so I went
upstairs for lunch and had an excelent tasting Spagetti Pla Kem (salted fish), that I like very
much, also on pizza.

This looks almost like an european campsite, the nice gentleman who served me lunch,
(67 years, good english-speaking, sounded like he was the boss but I didn t ask) told me
that they have imported the caravans from England and rent them out as bungalows for
700 Bath/night, and there are many thais who want to test sleeping in a caravan.
And as it was saturday today,(and bike-party in Phitsanulok) there were a lot of bikers
coming and going all the time.

I spent about 1,5 hour at the Route 12 so after that it was just to see how far I could get
before hotelsearching-time. But I had time for two photostops along the way, the first
one is from going down from Khao Kho, and the second is from the shortcut between
12 and 21( I don t remember the number).

At five o clock I drove into Chai Badan, and with help from the GPS I easily found a very
typical thai hotel, old but clean, air-con, fan and most surpricing of all, wi-fi, and everything
this for 250 bath, amazing Thailand !

Finally the evening-picture from a street i Chai Badan, I don t know what it sais, but it
looked good.

Distance covered today 377 km. I don t know why, but four of my driving-days I have
done almost the same distancees.

To be continued.

Leif

 

[JB2112]

Wow, Best Men's Room in Thailand?
Great post!

 

[johngooding]

Enjoyed your photo's of some familiar places. Good to see you see you making enjoyable headway on your return route, and look forward to the daily updates. All the best For the rest of your trip

 

[Nicke]

Home Sweet Home !

Today it felt like my holiday was coming to an end, maybee because already yesterday I felt a small
cold starting in my throut, so today no more sight-seeing, just headed strait for home.
Left Chai Badan at 9:15 and stopped for lunch in Prachinbury, a short legstretcher after 1,5 hour and
arrived home at 3:30, just in time for afternoon-coffe.
When you make a holiday trip like this, totally 2580 km, and the worst thing that happens is that you
come down with a small cold, wich I probably would have had anyway, I think we can agree on that it
was a success. I have really enjoyed every minute of it, except for maybee 10-15 minutes today on
highway 1, from where the 21 ends and until the bypass around Sarabury, I wouldn´t call that a road,
it is terrible. I have some other reflections in my head, but I think I´ll wait putting them into writing till
an evening when my head is a bit brighter.
Anyway, many thanks to all of You who have contributed to making it a success, and taken You time to
read and comment on my postings.
Sorry Changnoi that I havn´t answered before, but it must have been my twinbrother You saw (if I had one),
but who knows, maybee next time I can make a tour up the eesan-way.
Distance covered today 381 km. I still don´t understand how I manage to get almost the same dist every day.

Maybee to be continued, "with a little help from my friends".

Leif