Soa....the Great Northern Loop~day 4

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Day 4. Nan to Na Haeo
Early start today, the ride to Na Haeo is about 300kms, even at speed it will take us 8 hours.
The day begins crossing over the Nan River for a visit to Wat Phrathat Chae Haeng. The massive serpent guarded entrance guides us up to the main temple where we take an hour to look around.

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Topping up on a bottle of Sponsor, it's back into Nan and connect with Hwy 101 and follow the Nan River for the run down to Wiang Sa Junction where we get in a late breakfast at a large outdoor complex....all the ladies were intrigued by us, certainly was a fun meal. From here we ride down Hwy 1026 heading for Na Noi and the fertile valleys of Na Muen to connect with Hwy 1339. This will wind us up through the mountain range full of twists and turns, fantastic switchbacks and fantastic views as we skim across the top of the range. This section of road would have to have been the best surface we had ridden, so opening up the throttle was a definite, we still had a long way to Na Haeo.

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Hwy 1339 eventually directs us in to Ban Pak Nai and The Fishermans Village. A floating village on the Sirikit Reservoir, it was amazing here. The lake was down low, so the village was a bit further along. There is no bridges over the lake here.....it's queue up and catch the ferry across. The ferry is just planks of wood tied to two boats and some fence-like sides to stop you falling off. I walked into one of the floating shops at the village and asked for the ferry, where the lady gets straight on to the two-way to organise the run. We load our bikes and pay the 150b per bike while the old lady attaches a small longtail boat by rope to the ferry....the engine room is ready and off we go across the lake for the 20 minute run to the other side. Look out for the Sons of Arthritis sticker on the ferry.

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Ferry hire shop
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The 1339 continues on the other side of the lake, the road equally as good, winding thru the mountain top, up and down some great twisters. Eventually the road becomes the 1239 and we head for Nam Pat and connect with Hwy 1268 riding on to the waterfall at Phu Soi Dao for a swim, just 5kms from the Laos border. There is a great lookout here to take in the sunrise, kinda like Phu Chi Fa, unfortunately we had no time to take it in....perhaps another trip.

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Back on the bikes as daylight is running out, we still have 70kms to go and the road is still just as windy. It's 6.45pm when we get to Na Haeo Resort (on facebook) and pull up for the night. The owner takes us up to our cabins and sets us up with five large Changs while we strip down to shorts and flipflops and talk about the days adventures. The downside about this night is there was no cafe/restaurant to get a meal. The one place we were directed to, the cook had gone home....it was only 7.30pm. We paid a visit to the local 7/11, so dinner tonight consisted of noodle packs, crisps and of coarse Chang. Only a 2 hour run to Chiang Khan tomorrow.

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Na Haeo Resort

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Chicken fried rice with egg for breafast

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Widening the road for expected traffic to cross the border into Laos and casino run to Boten.
To be continued
 

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