Beyond Samoeng

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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I had never been beyond Samoeng before, just in & around the villages there. Today was going to be a real adventure !

Starting out from Hang Dong, I rode out towards Samoeng on the 1269.

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Just after Resort's; Krisada Doi on the left and then Phujaya on the right, I took a short detour up to the left, to find the Doi Lium View Point but without success, just a heap of rubbish.

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The track went on but I wanted to press on. That is Phujaya in the distance, past the toilet !

Onwards & upwards, & through to Samoeng.

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Today was the last day of the Strawberry Festival, so the place was packed out!

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Kao Kaa Moo (sorry Colin, no picture) and a lot of garlic for lunch and back on the road. A road I had not ventured too far upon before.

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The 5032 is a fairly pleasant road, if you are able to dodge the odd rut or two and appreciate the paved road surface as you enter Khun Khan National Park area.

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The road deteriorates here from a landslide but is passable.

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Beautiful scenery, birds and trees.

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Now, not trying to nit-pic or anything but when I got to a place called Haui Mana (on the GTR map), I looked on my obviously inadequate GPS (nothing much more than this main road) and found that GPS said I was at Bo Kaeo. The GTR map says Bo Kaeo is further south 2.7km.

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Here the main road continues to the right and a small road drops down to the left & is sign posted to the Police Station. I stayed on the main road to test out the discrepancy & sure enough, found the road to bend sharply left next to a pond and Bo Kaeo school / government building on the right.

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So I back tracked to the Police Station turning and rode to & through the GTR map Bo Kaeo. Here I was amazed to find a massive quarry area. Now, the road condition turned from poor to... gravel and dust.

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I was now getting accustomed to the ride and when I found first a single and then a double, wheel wide concrete strip, I felt almost privileged.

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Eventually at the top of a rise, I came upon a fork in the track and after looking at the GTR map, I considered taking the right hand track. With that, 4 mini buses & a couple of pick ups followed by several motorbikes bumped and swayed from where I had come and also took the right fork.

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After going down hill for quite some time, I arrive at tarmac. Looking at the map, I believe I am in Mae Hae, so I turn left and into a village scene of a dog resting in the shade and a couple of kids chasing each other with sticks.

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This is a lovely looking road stretching up the mountain. Lettuce seemed to be healthy here.

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As the photo shows, I am on the way to Mon Ya Tai and when the tarmac runs out & I almost run over these little porkers, I realise I am travelling on the GTR map little orange track.

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I fancied more tarmac, so I head back to where I came off the mountain dirt road and continued straight on and eventually found myself joining a fairly decent road.

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This is the 'Chiang Rai 5119' road! Now I can correlate the GPS with GTR map and know I need to stay on this road which will become the 1013, through to Mae Wang.

At times it is hard to stay on the bike, let alone on the road, with massive pot holes, many of them, trenches, you get a nice pace going and then karrrrang !

After a return to dirt, then paved road way and then broken tarmac, the road eventually starts to improve when you pass Huai Tong and slowly builds to be a right rip snorting twisty through to Mae Wang.

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The coffee at the market is not bad at all !

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As with all my posts, you can find more photos in my album here...

A great day out, 167km loop, both start & finish are great for bigger bikes, it's just the middle bit that poses a problem, especially for novice riders like me.

And in case you thought I was on the Yamaha Dragstar today, wrong! No way. Maybe with some kind of 'after-market off road make it lighter rodeo kit' but my little Honda Wave 125 has that already !

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Ally
 

Marco

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Oct 15, 2006
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Ally you did that with you 125? nice man,,nice,, bottox is still ok?

It's really sad to see that nice view point was left with out attention and turned in to land fill,,but again,,thais,if no one visit those places,,they seems to be left un attendet and no one take care of them or maintain cleaning it.. :cry:

Regarding thoise coffee joint's,, it's nice to see that in so many plces now days small coffee joints pop up and have desent coffee either hot or cold,, me personally cant drink cold coffee same goes with piss warm beer..no thnx :wink:

What was wrong in your GPS? or is in that area you dont get accurate location?
can you give me cordinates where you mentioned that you where according to map in Bo Kaeo,but your gps said something else,, i can check what my Brand new map in Zumo say (Map provided to me by Ray< thanx Ray,it works nicely and has a lot's of new roads in it)
 

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Thanks for the compliments again Slash & Marco.

Marco, the GPS locations on my garmin thailand map v6.7 of the 2 points mentioned are:

Government building / school = N18.50.870 - E098.34.095
Turning to left towards the police station and therefore to the GTR Bo Kaeo = N18.50.519 - E098.34.269

Please note that I am not having a dig or criticising the fabulous effort of the mapping. Without the GTR map, I would never have made the connection fully. Maybe if I make enough references in my posts to the GTR map I will get a discount on the large wall maps that might be hitting the market soon ???? :idea: I have a large empty wall in my study just waiting for it!

The Dragstar will be out of service for a while, getting new pipes fitted tomorrow - estimated 1 weeks work but I reckon that will lag to 2. So my next couple of runs will be on the Wave too ! Doi Suthep next week.

Ally
 

DavidFL

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Ally
Sounds like you had a nice day out & a nice little adventure.

The village at the junction where you go straight to Wat Chan or turn left to "Bo Kaew" & the old tin mine is named Huai Mana. Bo Kaew is the district & Bo Kaew village as shown on the GT Rider map.

For all you GPS fanatics - you can't believe everything that is in there (the same as for GT Rider Maps?), not everything in the GPS map has been GPS-ed & checked on the ground. A lot of it has been digitized from 1:50 thou maps & sat photos, there are many instances of wrong names / locations & roads up to 300 metres out.

Eventually at the top of a rise, I came upon a fork in the track and after looking at the GTR map, I considered taking the right hand track. With that, 4 mini buses & a couple of pickups followed by several motorbikes bumped and swayed from where I had come and also took the right fork.
Not sure about this - turned right on the ridgeline & ended up on the Mon Ya Tai road?
Whatever, it looks like you jumped the gun with Mae Hae, but I think that the turn to Mon Ya Tai, appears to be the main road to the royal project area there. The link up from Mae Hae - Bo Kaew is not "popular" because you have to go through the old tin mine, so "all the traffic "comes in from either end, reaches their destination, turns around & goes back out the same way. It's only us silly motorbike explorers who complete the loop, & the loop is a wonderful day trip from Chiang Mai.

But the area around Mae Hae / Mon Ya Tai / can be a bit confusing with heaps of tracks & trails.

See
https://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorc ... -t298.html

Overall I think it is easier to navigate from the Sanpathong / Mae Wang end, although inexperienced riders might not enjoy the long gravelly descent into the tin mine.
 

Marco

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Oct 15, 2006
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Ally wrote: Thanks for the compliments again Slash & Marco.

Marco, the GPS locations on my garmin thailand map v6.7 of the 2 points mentioned are:

Government building / school = N18.50.870 - E098.34.095
Turning to left towards the police station and therefore to the GTR Bo Kaeo = N18.50.519 - E098.34.269
Ally

I have latest Garmin map and like said there is a lot new roads and info,but like Dave point out and i have noticed,, far not yet 100% accurate, but again, it's always good to compare notes and then eventually we might find corret info down to to road.

My map is V8.1 SEA 2008

So for this coordinates my device shows as follows:
Government building / school = N18.50.870 - E098.34.095, ROP Bo Kaeo

Bo Kaeo = N18.50.519 - E098.34.269(this point is 800Met south of actual Bo Kaeo location on GPS.

Distance between those two points is 800Meters.

Again, it is electrical equipment,not always 100% correct :wink:
 

Marco

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Oct 15, 2006
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Ally wrote: Thanks for the compliments again Slash & Marco.

Marco, the GPS locations on my garmin thailand map v6.7 of the 2 points mentioned are:

Government building / school = N18.50.870 - E098.34.095
Turning to left towards the police station and therefore to the GTR Bo Kaeo = N18.50.519 - E098.34.269
Ally

I have latest Garmin map and like said there is a lot new roads and info,but like Dave point out and i have noticed,, far not yet 100% accurate, but again, it's always good to compare notes and then eventually we might find corret info down to to road.

My map is V8.1 SEA 2008

So for this coordinates my device shows as follows:
Government building / school = N18.50.870 - E098.34.095, ROP Bo Kaeo

Bo Kaeo = N18.50.519 - E098.34.269(this point is 800Met south of actual Bo Kaeo location on GPS.

Distance between those two points is 800Meters.

Again, it is electrical equipment,not always 100% correct :wink:
 

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Thanks for the feedback David, and the link included of earlier, different season rides.

This is indeed an excellent loop with something to please all tastes, well maybe not some!

Marco, well you will have to put your new toy to the test & get yourself up here :wink:

Ally
 

Marco

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Oct 15, 2006
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Ally

how i would love to do that,, but i was called to join Seabourn ship to 1mth tour from Bkk to Vietnam,Hongkoong and China, back in 15.march.
 

DavidFL

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The "old" road going into Mae Hae. It used to be a bit tough through there in the wet: 100% mud / clay soil.

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Ally
these pics were taken just after you crossed the ridgeline from the old tin mine & headed down towards Mae Hae, but took the "wrong" turn.
 

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Wow ! Thanks for sharing those David, that looks tough going, I guess you enjoyed that :wink:

So unless you are into mud wrestling, its best ridden in the dry season?

Ally
 

Dougal

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Dec 18, 2007
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Ally,

Have been following your posts. Great reports , photos and detail.

It seems you and Capt Slash are keeping the flag flying here.

Thanks and keep em coming.
 

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Hi there Dougal.

Indeed Captain Slash is the prolific explorer and recorder. He is traveling daily around Thailand's roads, during his annual visit to this wonderful country, capturing experiences in a style that reflects his journeys.

Slash does big trips, many trips, trips all over Thailand and goes where many folks would think twice or three times before venturing. He has been doing the same for many years during the dry seasons, each year returning from the UK to explore the routes this country has to offer.

Me, I live in Chiang Mai and learning to ride seriously, something I started a year ago, rather than just riding down to the shops.

I try to ride to somewhere interesting once or twice a week. I go out from my home, ride a few hours and then come home and sleep in my home bed. Where ever I go, I enjoy the food and also the ability to communicate on a reasonable level with Thai language. Slash can do none of this and this makes his experience here that much more valuable to the readers of this forum.

If people reading this can understand one thing from 'our' reports, it is that Thailand offers terrific opportunities to people who want to get out there & find 'it'.

What is 'it'? - Now that is a whole new topic we should write about! :lol:

Ally
 

DavidFL

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Captain_Slash wrote: Ally

Thank you very much for your appreciation of my trip reports, but I think mine are amateurish compared to your excellent works
Slash
You're a star & an absolute inspiration for heaps of other riders around the place. No matter what you bike or camera you have, you just get out there ride & do the business. No pussy footing around needing to have the latest greatest best bike / accessory / gadget. You know how to enjoy yourself & life. Hundreds if not thousands will be jealous of what you are doing. So don't stop, riding & reporting. You're a winner everyday!
 

Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Exactly Colin.

The competition angle of Davids comments that follow our posts previously(raise your stakes etc), is I am sure just his way of patting you on the back, not an intention to divide & conquer.

The is no competitiveness in anything I say or do, I just enjoy contributing to the forum as you do.

Ally
 
Sep 20, 2010
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Hi,
I think I took about the same road as yours but from the other way. Went to Sanpatong (?????????) then a right on the 1013 all way to the end, stoped at some awesome waterfalls (something like ????? (sa pok) can't remember the name)
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Then at the end took a right and just crossed to Samoeng through paved/mud/dust roads
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gf acting like checking the map out (she's actually just chatting on the phone)
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some mud here and there, those pictures look like the same road as yours (with the small lake/reservoir).
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Edit: I ended up in Bo Kaeo as well:
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Ally

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Dec 13, 2007
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Hi there mastamax, that is the same route as the original post but in reverse.

The Mae Wang to Samoeng loop is a great track to follow as it has something for everyone I think, good to get the updated pics, thanks.

Ally