Trip Report - Malaysia-Thailand-Myanmar

[Abg Acid]

Here, finding myself time to make a report of a recent trip of 12 days we made from Malysia into thailand and a brief visit into Myanmar's town tachilek.

We travelled over 4,500km on small bikes in a group of 5 bikers. There were 3 mopeds, an offroad 125cc chinese made and a suzuki 150cc , 4-stroke sports bike. The mopeds, ranging from 110 to 130cc made it without any problem througout the tour.

This report is actually a continuation from the post Malysian bike, which I made sometime ago at
http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorc ... t2813.html
and I would like to say thank you for all the help and info given to me in making this trip a success. And thanks to the website owner , Davidfl , which I think is a true biker at heart, eventhough we havent met. Also, I 'd like to express my sincere regret for not being able to meet Rudi, when we were at Chaeng Rai due to some confusion amongst our group, this I will explain you later.

abg acid

[Abg Acid]

From Malaysia (muar, Johor) , it was very easy for us, its highway all the way 700 km. We travelled from midnite, and by morning we were at the Sadao immigration into thailand. For Malaysian bikes, we bought thai insurance, cost was 30b for a month coverage, for a 130cc moped. From the border it was only 60 km to Hat Yai, which was our first real rest stop.

We boarded the train to Ban Pong from Hat Yai at 6pm. Our bikes were charge at an average of 1,000b each and passenger ticket was 850b per person. It was a good ride on the train, as we had bought a 2nd class air-con sleeper. All nite we had good rest, and pretty ready when the train reached ban pong early next morning.

From Ban Pong, we continue our bike ride again,.. our first destination was Kanchanburi, to visit the death railway and other interesting places. Guest hse were plenty here, and quite cheap too. A lot of tourist too. We stayed at Jolly Frog for 280b twin sharing air-con


getting off the rain at Ban Pong, my bike 130cc and weighs 102 kg was charged for 900b, but still you have to add cost for handling and ropes which totalled up to 1,150b


the death railway, many asians and POws died here constructing the railway during japanese occupation in ww2

[Abg Acid]

The Muang Sing Historical park, Kanchanburi is also worth going. Its just a short ride to this place and you pay a nominal fee to get in.





[img]http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/4740/11fm1.jpg[/img]

[Abg Acid]

Our next destination from Kanchanburi was to Mae Sot, taking the route to Supphanburi - Chai Nat - Nakhon Sawan and into hiwya no 1 to Kamphaeng Phet- Tak and finally Mae sot. It was a day's ride and we reached mae sot at 8 pm. I Think its was slightly more than 500km stretch. Pretty boring on the hiway, full throttle for the little mopeds most of the time. From Nakhon Sawan, it was flatland, almost a straight line road into tak,.. somewhow we wished we had alittle bit more power on the bikes on this strecth.


we were thinking all the while "when will this road ends" seems it goens infinity


being stopped by the local polis at Chai nat, but when they noticed we were malaysians, riding on small malysian bikes, they smiled, take pictures and lets us through with no fuss at all.

[Abg Acid]

Mae Sot, a small town but seems quite buzy in the daytime. Roads looks crowded and the present of a great number of Burmese. We stayed at DK hotel, for 400b per nite for 3 beds air con. The room is very spacious but rather old. Yup, one thing good of this town, cheap internet. at 10b you may served the internet for an hour.

mae sot has a lot of ineresting places to visit, we wished we had more tiem to spend, but we dont. Check out the lonel;y planet book.


buzy Maesot town.




The friendship bridge intto Myanmar. Myawaddy , town of Burma is just accross the bridge. You may see a lot of Burmese, selling cigaretes and all sorts of other items undeneath the bridge. Its dry season now, and the wter is pretty shallow. However, it is guarded by Thai soldiers. At 200b per carton of Malboro, sho can resist the temptations?

[Abg Acid]

Ciggaretes, anyone? What? 200b per carton for malboro, did I hear right? Give me 2 cartons please

[Davidfl]

Here, finding myself time to make a report of a recent trip of 12 days we made from Malysia into thailand and a brief visit into Myanmar's town tachilek.

We travelled over 4,500km on small bikes in a group of 5 bikers. There were 3 mopeds, an offroad 125cc chinese made and a suzuki 150cc , 4-stroke sports bike. The mopeds, ranging from 110 to 130cc made it without any problem througout the tour.

This report is actually a continuation from the post Malysian bike, which I made sometime ago at
http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorc ... 13.htmlome confusion amongst our group, this I will explain you later.

abg acid

Three cheers for you guys for doing it on small bikes. You too are real riders & put in the kms & hours. So well done & please keep the report coming..

[Abg Acid]

Three cheers for you guys for doing it on small bikes. You too are real riders & put in the kms & hours. So well done & please keep the report coming..

Thank you David, and yes we will keep the report coming in from time to time.

abg acid

[Abg Acid]

From Mae Sot, the next day we headed to Mae Ramat into Mae Sareing using road 105. And this is where the true adventures began. Its almost forest all the way from Mae Ramat, and you'll only see few villagers along the way. Our little bikes ran out of petrol a couple of times, but luckily we were prepared with reserve bottles of 1 litre each. And I had 2 litres in a container stashed underneath the seat. As small bikes consumes little petrol, a litre can take us a good 40 km , enough distance to locate a refueling stop area. Petrol is availble in small shop along the way, dont worry about that.

Road 105 is not really done up yet. There are places still not asphalt yet, and it goes up and around hills too. Good for us, its december,.. dry winter or else the road would be muddy and difficult to manouver. Once a while you may see hill tribes walking along this road, .. and the forest is very cooling indeed, though our hearts were not really cool, as we had read of tense atmosphere along this road,.. but however I think its pretty safe to travel on this stretch now.

[img]http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/649/16dd3.jpg[/img]
nice road, curves, cool , shades from trees and almost deserted always. Where have all the trucks and cars go?


and once in a while you may see a truck full of passenger, even standing at rear edge.

[Abg Acid]

After Mae ramat, the asphalt dissappears and replced by smoking dust road. Hehe, so if adventure if you are looking for, ride on man. . Dont worry, it wont be long when you have your asphalt back.

[Abg Acid]

Road 105, I dont really remember where this unfinished bridge is located. It may be from Mae sot to mae ramat or between mae ramat to Mae sarieing. Soon it will be completed.

[img]http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/4748/22iv2.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/2319/23fr4.jpg[/img]


Filling petrol at remote areas around the hills of mae sareing. A litre of Ron 95 is at 36b if I m not mistaken

[Abg Acid]

Just after Mae Sareing, on yopur left side if your travelling northwrds, you may notice these villagers of thatch atap roof, and bamboo walls and floors. It stretches for good 5 or so kilometers, these are the houses of the refugess from Myanmar. They are poor folks running away from their homes at Myanmar, because of some dispute and war. Its heart breaking to see how they live in.

[img]http://img340.imageshack.us/img340/2079/17ge5.jpg[/img]

[img]http://img170.imageshack.us/img170/7221/70871656qu0.jpg[/img]

[Captain_Slash]

Yes good report, I remember doing one tour of Thailand on the Honda Wave, it makes you ache riding long journeys though. If you ever ride from Kanchanaburi to Mae Sot again you can completely avoid those highways and do virtually the whole journey on smaller more interesting roads plus its a shorter journey as well

[burnjr]

bro acid
great report..mbc bolih..... cu bro...

[Abg Acid]

Yes good report, I remember doing one tour of Thailand on the Honda Wave, it makes you ache riding long journeys though. If you ever ride from Kanchanaburi to Mae Sot again you can completely avoid those highways and do virtually the whole journey on smaller more interesting roads plus its a shorter journey as well

thanks for the complements Captain, but is there a road from kanchanburi to Mae Sot? We have looked the map over and over, but it seems from Kanchanburi there is a dead end north of Vajralongkorn Dam at Sangkhla Buri. And over at Mae Sot it ends at Umphang to the south. Is there a road btween these?

abg acid

[Abg Acid]

bro acid
great report..mbc bolih..... cu bro...

yup bro, as they say, when there is a will, there is a way...

[Abg Acid]

Anyway, back to the topic,.. as we passed further from Mae Sareing, the road becomes more challenging, the inclines gets steeper and the curves tighter. Really a haven for riders who love curves and bends. The air is pretty cool and conforting. The hill side sceneries are fascinating too here at late afternoon, but we were so preoccupied taking corners and leaning the little bikes as much that we did not stop to take pictures. At times I had to engaged 1st gear around bends and going uphills. Anyway, we just went round and round the hills, seems it never ends too. They say it has 1864 curves, but I think there is more to that, as we had already exhausted ourselves out but still the bends keep coming. Daylight was fading fast and we reached Mae Hong Son at 8pm. We rode a little under 500km today.



Fascinating hill side views, but the light was fading fast



Way to the Kayan village to witness the longnecks, you hve to pass a series of streams. Carefull as one of us learned, a little too late.. the concrete underneath is slippery.

[img]http://img182.imageshack.us/img182/9908/28nj0.jpg[/img]
Nice shady road leading to the kayan village. Very peaceful road indeed,


And you may even see elephant walking by...


taking picture with the kayan villager, they are karen tribes refugee from Burma

[Abg Acid]

At Mae Hong son, there are pelnty of guest hse too, though slightly expensive. But stili it is in the affordable zone. We stayed at Ban Kaew Resort for 500b a nite twin sharing. It is slightly away from the city, and has a pleasant landscape intead of bricks and cconcrete. You may park your bikes, next to your room too. recomended 089 456 5189



Mae Hong Son, has an attractive night life too. You may visit the night bazar for some shopping, souvenirs for the love ones at home. But its quite cold at night, be prapared for warm clothing

[Abg Acid]

We left Mae Hong Son later in the afternoon, as the distance to Pai was only about 120 km, we thought we have plenty of time. But the road leading to Pai is even more treacherous,. the inclines are greater then the Mae Hong Son loop., so one hs to be extra careful taking these bends. We had our 2nd mishap here, as another rider hit the ground. Fortunately damage was minimal, and no injury to rider, though a bit shaken by the experience.

Again the sceneries are fascinating along this road to Pai, and this time we have more time to stop and take pictures. The atmosphere is very fresh.


Nice view from the rest stop area on top of the hill, road from MHS to Pai




We stopped for quite somtime here,enjoying the scenery and cool air and smoking the burmese cigars we bought at Mae Sot border This rest area on a hill top has fresh coffee too

[Abg Acid]

From Mae Hong son to Pai, its only 120km I think. And probably this the shortest ride distnce we have ever had for a a day througout our tour of thailand. We reached Pai a little affter 4.oopm and have plenty of time to look for the guest house we have booked from MHS the day before. You see, we ran into a biker when we were at MHS, he was from Singapore, Eddy,and we became friends. Bikers are easily befriended, all you need to do is to say hello. anyway, he gave me this guest house number and recomend us to stay there. Breeze of Pai, is run by husband-wife. The wife is a Briton and the husband a Thai. Call Pern, (husband) a very friendly guy and he will keep you entertained. 081-1696735. Breeze of Pai has very nice landscape and the structure are all wood. Very cosy, at 300b per room (twin sharing) it is very affordable

Anyway, there are numerous guest houses here in pai, all within affordable range, need not worry about lodging in Pai.


Breeze of Pai, guest house, clean and cosy. Instead of a welcome drink, they serve you a basket of bananas,.. truely, no joke

[Blue Max]

Good thread, I'll be blasting up to Mae Hong Song soon for a visa run. I'll try and get some pictures for the forum...

[Abg Acid]

As we originates from malaysia, which is hot and humid, we thought Mae Hong Son was cold enough for us, but when we came to Pai,.. it was even colder. Temperature at night till early morning was 9'C. Fortunately we came by bikes and wore leather jackets and boots, just add a little more clothing underneath and we were confortably walking the streets of Pai. Pai has a lively nite scene, with food and souvenir stalls all along the road behind the Police Station. There were a large number of western tourists. Food and drinks were everywhere, sort of Phuket bangla street or Krabi's Ao Nang beach scene.


Lively night scene, all along roadside, selling all sorts of items for souvenirs

[img]http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/1880/10le9.jpg[/img]
Yup, Pai is cold, I repeat, COLD for malaysia standard. This was how we get along at night, walking the streets of Pai



This was taken early next morning, getting ready to ride on to Mae Sai up north. We were taking breakfirst at a Yunanese Chines Muslim food stall. As all of us are muslim, we had to adhere to Halal muslim food throughout our tour in Thailand, and sometime we ran into difficulties. I will tell later, how to get by (for halal food) to other muslim traveller who wished to know. Maybe at the end of this thread.

[Abg Acid]

After Pai, we headed east to Mae Taeng, Chiang Dao, into Fang ,, and Mae Ai, and pass Chieng Rai into Mae Sai.

Just after Pai, it was slightly hilly again, with some nice bends. Scenery was still lovely, forested area.





We stopped for luch at Fang, and soon later ride on north-eastwards. The sun was getting low by then, and this make the scenery looked lovely, with the sun hitting the hills from my side. It makes the best situation for a good photography to show blue sky. I simply withdrew my olympus camera, and took pictures whilst riding the moped. One good thing of these cubs, they dont have clutch lever to operate, making my left hand practically free to handle the camera.

[Abg Acid]

Nice country, nice scenery,.. almost always deserted. No trucks tailgate you from behind,.. you are a free man,.. riding your bikes










And I will continue later,... meanwhile Merry Christmas everyone! Ho Ho ho

[Captain_Slash]

Heres the link to when I rode it last year, you guys are certainly riding lots of kms every day, I salute you for that and also for the good photos you are posting

http://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorc ... t1066.html