We met up with the Kiwi Cruiser at Mae Hong Son for the annual TJ Hamilton & Simon Siinthai Grant Memorial ride and cruised down to Mae Sariang for the night.
The idea for this little trip was to visit the Teelorsu waterfall, apparently the largest in Thailand and the sixth largest in Asia.
The next day off to Umphang down the R105 to Mae Sot and what a joy that road is. A bit of road works along the way but when its finished, the fast Eddies on sports bikes will have a blast along this road and there was little other traffic, so we had the road pretty much to ourselves.
Needless to say that it was pretty dusty during the unsealed sections but unbeknown to us, worse to come
The refuge camps before Mae Sot are huge, they just go on forever along the side of the road and back into the hills. Rod Page has posted much about this in his 'Death Highway' trip report, so I will leave that side of things alone as I couldn't report on this any better.
At Mae Sot you head off down the R1090, the famed Death Highway. This road is spectacular through the plains and over the hills but is in a frightful state of disrepair in places, usually on the steep bits and corners, as usual. Its brilliant in others
You can get a glimpse of the road we came down before rising up the other side in the following picture
And it sure gets dusty over the rough sections where visibility through the dust from passing trucks gets down to a few feet at times. A dust covered Kiwi Cruiser...
Umphang is a sleepy kind of town with not a hell of a lot to do. We stuck with one restaurant, for example, as we couldn't find any other worth considering.
A few pix from early morning the next day in Umphung..
We stayed at the Garden Huts but I am sure there are better places although we didn't investigate
Getting to the waterfall involves a trip down the river in an inflatable raft, riding a Sawng Tao along a beaten track and one and a half km walk along a carefully arranged concrete path.
I didn't give much thought to the river trip bit but was delightfully surprised by the whole experience. It was to say the least, varied and spectacular with waterfalls, small rapids and tall cliffs along the route. These pictures don't do the scenery justice really...
We stopped off at the hot springs for welcome coffee and snacks. No 711 here..
and of course the springs
back on the raft and some small rapids to liven things up
and this cool kid who has found a relaxing place to chill out
Then its up the dusty track to the falls
then the 1.5km walk through the most amazing jungle. Looked like something out of Lord of the Rings in places
and then all of a sudden you pop out into the open and get an eye full of the Teelorsu falls
The following day its off home. For us to CNX a 530 km run back through Mae Sot then on to Tak, Thoen and up the 106 through Li, another really fun road to ride. For the Kiwi Cruiser its retrace the route home. Leaving Umphang early..
We stopped a lot along the way as is our want but this temple, Wat Phra Tat Ha Duang at Li really caught our eye. Its huge, gold everywhere and its even not completed yet
The ride to Umphang is a real treat with so much variation in the roads and almost something for everyone.
If you decide to do the waterfall tour there, make sure that the Sawng Tao is not over about fifty years old with no suspension and a driver who is blind in one eye and cant see out of the other, which is about what we had. The ride back the our lodgings was 25km of pure murder!
The idea for this little trip was to visit the Teelorsu waterfall, apparently the largest in Thailand and the sixth largest in Asia.
The next day off to Umphang down the R105 to Mae Sot and what a joy that road is. A bit of road works along the way but when its finished, the fast Eddies on sports bikes will have a blast along this road and there was little other traffic, so we had the road pretty much to ourselves.
Needless to say that it was pretty dusty during the unsealed sections but unbeknown to us, worse to come
The refuge camps before Mae Sot are huge, they just go on forever along the side of the road and back into the hills. Rod Page has posted much about this in his 'Death Highway' trip report, so I will leave that side of things alone as I couldn't report on this any better.
At Mae Sot you head off down the R1090, the famed Death Highway. This road is spectacular through the plains and over the hills but is in a frightful state of disrepair in places, usually on the steep bits and corners, as usual. Its brilliant in others
You can get a glimpse of the road we came down before rising up the other side in the following picture
And it sure gets dusty over the rough sections where visibility through the dust from passing trucks gets down to a few feet at times. A dust covered Kiwi Cruiser...
Umphang is a sleepy kind of town with not a hell of a lot to do. We stuck with one restaurant, for example, as we couldn't find any other worth considering.
A few pix from early morning the next day in Umphung..
We stayed at the Garden Huts but I am sure there are better places although we didn't investigate
Getting to the waterfall involves a trip down the river in an inflatable raft, riding a Sawng Tao along a beaten track and one and a half km walk along a carefully arranged concrete path.
I didn't give much thought to the river trip bit but was delightfully surprised by the whole experience. It was to say the least, varied and spectacular with waterfalls, small rapids and tall cliffs along the route. These pictures don't do the scenery justice really...
We stopped off at the hot springs for welcome coffee and snacks. No 711 here..
and of course the springs
back on the raft and some small rapids to liven things up
and this cool kid who has found a relaxing place to chill out
Then its up the dusty track to the falls
then the 1.5km walk through the most amazing jungle. Looked like something out of Lord of the Rings in places
and then all of a sudden you pop out into the open and get an eye full of the Teelorsu falls
The following day its off home. For us to CNX a 530 km run back through Mae Sot then on to Tak, Thoen and up the 106 through Li, another really fun road to ride. For the Kiwi Cruiser its retrace the route home. Leaving Umphang early..
We stopped a lot along the way as is our want but this temple, Wat Phra Tat Ha Duang at Li really caught our eye. Its huge, gold everywhere and its even not completed yet
The ride to Umphang is a real treat with so much variation in the roads and almost something for everyone.
If you decide to do the waterfall tour there, make sure that the Sawng Tao is not over about fifty years old with no suspension and a driver who is blind in one eye and cant see out of the other, which is about what we had. The ride back the our lodgings was 25km of pure murder!