GT Enduro Ride08

Jan 6, 2008
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Thanks for all the informations given and 1 managed to complete my ride from Kuala Lumpur to Golden Triangle within 10 days. Iron Bud ride bro.. The tough part are from Mae Sot - Mae Sariang - Mae Hong Son - Pai - Chiang Mai and i consider the road is for Dual Purpose bikes. The most unforgetable journey with my 93/94 Africa Twin. For Msian Bikers i recommend to stay in pai or chiang rai rather than chiang mai.. bad experienced...
 

daewoo

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Dec 6, 2005
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shariffudin wrote: Thanks for all the informations given and 1 managed to complete my ride from Kuala Lumpur to Golden Triangle within 10 days. Iron Bud ride bro.. The tough part are from Mae Sot - Mae Sariang - Mae Hong Son - Pai - Chiang Mai and i consider the road is for Dual Purpose bikes. The most unforgetable journey with my 93/94 Africa Twin. For Msian Bikers i recommend to stay in pai or chiang rai rather than chiang mai.. bad experienced...
Please share RE the bad experince in Chiang Mai, it may help others...

Glad you enjoyed it...

Cheers,
Daewoo
 
Mar 15, 2003
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www.daveearly.com
I would be interested to hear of the bad experience also. Maybe something we can correct.

As for the road being best for dual sports, I think that section of road is equally great for any bike.
 
Dec 5, 2006
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To shariff.can you please post a few more of your experiaces.
Riding from KL to CNX..
10 days.. you must have a lot to talk about.
More about your ride...did you have trouble at border crossings.
i sort of plan to do the same thing in a year or 2..
but will be travelling from Australia.
Also what trouble did you have in CHang Mai??
Cant understand that...found the people there top blokes...and ladys too.
looking forward to seeing a bit more of your trip
Regards KEV
 
Jan 6, 2008
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just carefull with the lady (run away with my money) and if u are asean the treatment is different compare than european in the pub or disco. Sooner or later chiangmai will become like phuket or krabi (expensive). This is my personal opinion. Hope no heart feeling to others. Also careful if u ride from Hua Hin to Prachuap Khiri Khan - Speed Trap only for foreign plat number...
 
Jun 21, 2006
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shariffudin wrote: Also careful if u ride from Hua Hin to Prachuap Khiri Khan - Speed Trap only for foreign plat number...
Shariffudin, last year I did the trip Phuket to Chiang Mai 4 times, 1,000 miles each way, so that's 8,000 miles, plus the miles I did on my bike touring around up north. Admitedly I was driving a car, but towing a tailer with 1 or 2 bikes on board.

On all the speed trps we encountered the Police were pulling over all vehicles that were speeding, Thai's, Fallangs etc, they certainly weren't being selective.
 

DavidFL

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shariffudin wrote: just carefull with the lady (run away with my money) and if u are asean the treatment is different compare than european in the pub or disco. Sooner or later chiangmai will become like phuket or krabi (expensive). This is my personal opinion. Hope no heart feeling to others. Also careful if u ride from Hua Hin to Prachuap Khiri Khan - Speed Trap only for foreign plat number...
Sorry to hear you were robbed by a night time acquaintance. It can happen anywhere anytime if you're sufficiently inebriated & the little head's doing all the thinking. It would be foolish to hold this against Chiang Mai, as it can & does happen elsewhere.

Otherwise glad you had a great trip & found the GT Rider board useful.

It would nice if you could share any other tips / experiences-
Best Road:
Best Ride:
Best Town:
Best Ghouse:
Best Restaurant:

Any places / roads you would not do again:

Thanks for your contribution(s) to the GT Rider site.
Please look me / us up next time.
 
Dec 5, 2006
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[quote quote=shariffudin]just carefull with the lady (run away with my money)
Dont hold that against Chang Mai..it can happen anywhere in Thailand.or asia for that matter.
i lost my digy camera in pattaya..and a big gold chain in BKK
ITS A bit hard for us foreigners travelling to another country.
at home i leave all the doors wide open.and the keys in the car..never had anything stolen...
its different when come to thailand ,,sort of have to to look after 24-7
i bet the guys living up there no the rules.probably havent lost anything for yrs.....

there are are bold bikers and there are old bikers....but there are no old bold bikers
 
Jan 6, 2008
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Maybe this is my first experience and first time in chiang mai. Like i said this is my personal opinion, hope no heart feeling to others. I'm Malaysian and for the past 10 years i only ride through out southern thailand. During my trip from hadyai - tung son - suratani - chumpon - hua hin - kanchanaburi - supanburi - nakhon sawan - tak - maesot - mae sariang - mae hong son - pai - chiang mai - chiang rai - mae sai - Golden Triangle, i just ask them where can i get muslim food. So for muslim rider who interested to ride up to north Thailand... Dont worry, u wont hungry...
Any way, thanks to GT Rider, ride report contributors for all the information given til i managed to finish the trip... Tqqqqqq
 
Dec 26, 2007
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Ride report: KL-Golden Triangle in 10 days

Greetings,
This is the first time I’m posting on this forum. With the genuinely useful info from GT Rider - Syariffudin and me began planning our epic journey to Golden Triangle.

First of all a deep respect is due for those who have completed this epic journey before me. Inspired by their achievement, six of us decide to embark on the same adventure. Five of us are total newbie having not reached these parts of Thailand before. Between us (except Mr. Zul ‘Lobai’ a legendary border-crossing lone rider) we brought nothing but the spirit of adventure and perseverance. It was a journey into the unknown.
Here is my story.

Day 1
1st Feb 2008
KL-Hatyai 515km
To save time and energy, we explore alternative ways to cross Segenting Khra without riding our bikes (itself a 1000kms plus butt-numbing mind warping ride). We decide to do the ‘chicken run’ by transporting our bikes from Hatyai to Ban Pong Station 52 kms out of Bangkok. We boarded the train at Hatyai Station at 8.30 pm and reached Ban Pong Station 10.00am the next day. Train fare RM175 (1750Bth) first class cabin for a good night sleep. RM250 (2500Bth) per bike for transportation via pick-up trucks to Ban Pong.

Day 2
2nd Feb 2008
Ban Pong- Kanchanaburi 50kms
Pick-up our bikes at the RV point off we go to Kanchanaburi. The shortest ride of the day. Here we meet up with one of our mates - Sarip’ tontoron man’ Dol ( he rode the iron butt 1000+kms from Danok-Kanchanaburi the day before) We stayed at The River Kwai Inn at RM 45 (450 Bth) a nite. Plenty of historical sites to visit. Yeah we get to play tourist and being a bit of a history anorak, I enjoyed our visit there.

Day 3
3rd Feb 2008
Kanchanaburi-Mae Sot 552kms
The route we took was through Suphanburi-Chainat-Nakhon Sawan- Kamphaeng Pet-Tak-Mae Sot. We were pelted by sudden monsoon rain at Chainat. In fact it was the only route that we encounter rain throughout our journey. Stopped for lunch at the City of Tak at 2.58 pm.
We reached Mae Sot at 5.30 pm and checked in at the DK Hotel at RM 45(450Bth) per night. Late evening we checked out Mae Sot-Mwaddy (Myanmar) border checkpoint bazaar.

Day 4
4th Feb 2008
Mae Sot-Mae Hong Son 398kms
Left Mae Sot 8.16 am on the way to 1000 corners. Mae Sot to Mae Sareang was the toughest test of my motorcycling experience. Curves, bends, dips, cambers with a few stretch of off-roading thrown in. Road conditions range from smooth to horrendous. I had to keep the throttle smooth to get through those bends safely. The DPs rule here.

Stopped for lunch at Mae Sareang 12.50 pm at the Muslim Restaurant just off the intersection of Chiang Mai- Mae Hon Son.
Onwards to the official 1000 corners to Mae Hong Son. The 1864 corners flows nicely as the road condition gets better. I can’t believe I’ve made it through the mythical 1000 corners. We reached the gates of Mae Hon Song city 5.35 pm and collected the certificate at the Mae Hong Son Municipal Office.

Day 5
5th Feb 2008
Mae Hon song-Pai-Chiang Mai
After the 1000 corners we thought we could have an easy cruise to Chiang Mai but it was the opposite. Instead we faced another foggy 1000+ corners in freezing 14 C (for us Asians used to warm weather all year round) condition. Bends that goes forever with a handful hairpin curves and off camber turns. Wind chilled our hands and felt like it was frostbitten. I had to rest my hand on the engine cylinder to keep warm, difficult act to do with the bends keep coming and coming.
We reached the town of Pai at 11.30 am and stopped for lunch. Pai is a quaint little town overran by Rastaman look-alikes. I was looking forward to have the best pie in Pai but instead I got something resembling Mee Curry (curry noodles) at a Muslim Restaurant.

We left Pai soon after and headed to Chiang Mai. The road was mostly downhill here onwards but there was small pebbles strewn all over the road that made my bike handled like a rhino on skates. It doesn’t help that we have to go through 762 corners to reach Chiang Mai. We tip-toed down and reached the gates of Chiang Mai at 2.45 pm. Checked into the ridiculously named PornPing Hotel just behind the night bazaar. Didn’t checked-out the town thoroughly as we had to leave early the next day. What I remember most was I had a pretty good dinner that night (barbequed fish basted with sea salt…yummy) and Shariffudin misadventure with a lady companion.


Day 6

6th Feb 2008
Chiang Mai - Golden Triangle - Mae Sai - Chiang Rai
We continue to achieve our next goal - Golden Triangle via the north day-loop. Again we passed a stretch of under construction road section from Chiang Mai-Mae Suai. Again my Green Buffalo(ZRX1200R) struggled to keep balance. The road transformed to long sweepers from here onwards and my bike just blast and fired out of corners effortlessly. This is ZRX country.

Reached the famed Golden Triangle at 3.00pm. On the way back we stopped at Mae Sai on the Thai-Myanmar border to check the place out. There were hustlers selling all sorts of products and services. Cigarettes was 200 Bth per carton! Gimme 2!
We left Mae Sai following the route via Phayao to Chiang Rai.
We reached Chiang Rai and stayed at the Red Rose Hotel (they have themed rooms – Star Wars, Muay Thai, Love Boat…thanks for the info we collected from one the GT Rider forum brothers). It was one of the amazing discoveries of my entire journey. At night in Chiang Rai the temperature dropped to a chilling 16C. We met a lot of friendly people there. So friendly…that in fact 3 of our members decided to stay another night.

Day 7
7th Feb 2008
Chiang Rai-Lampang-Task-Nakon Sawan-Bangkok-Hua Hin
We parted ways with 3 or our members who decided to stay another day at Chiang Rai. Zul Lobai and Shafie decided to carry on their exploration to Vientienne, Laos the next day.

This was our ‘iron-butt run’ of 1222kms ride. There was some interesting stretch between Lampang-Tak, smooth sweeping bends.

After Nakon Sawan we entered what I called The Highway of Infinity, a highway that goes absolutely straight for a 100 or so km into Bangkok. We took the Bangkok outer ring route 38-route 9-route 4 out through Samut Sakon. We nearly took the wrong turn because of the poor signage and it was already dark. We mistimed our journey time/arrival estimates and had to run the gauntlet of riding through the Bangkok Outer Ring Road at night. We had some hairy moments.
We reached Hua Hin at 12 past midnight after 14 hours on the bike. Numbed all over.

Day 8
8th Feb 2008
Hua Hin - Hat Yai
Our second leg of ‘iron butt run’ of 898 kms. Nothing interesting except that we got our first summon for speeding just before Prachuap Kiri Khan. Somehow I felt that we are specifically targeted because no Thai registered vehicle (which was traveling much faster than us) was stopped. We paid a fine of RM 20 (200Bth) each. Well we did broke the law…
Upon reaching Surattani one of our members part ways to explore Phuket. Its down to the two of us ( Me & Syariffudin) to bring the flag home.

We were joined by another mate Megat (BMW GS12-riding GT explorer extraordinaire) at Thung Song town. He had a Garmin Zumo GPS and we followed him out of Thung Song with no fuss as our minds are on autopilot by then.

Reached Hatyai at 6.45 pm after leaving Hua Hin at 10 am.

Day 9
9th Feb 2008
Crossed into Malaysian border at 8.30 pm. Another 445km to go, it would have not mattered after the +- 5210 kms past 9 days. We joined the CNY home-coming crowd on the highway and reached KL at 3.30am 10th Feb 2008.

That’s it, it was a blast and it was another notch in my motorcycling cycle of experience completed. Till the next adventure…

Apologies. This is my first time posting so no pictures yet until I've figured out the way to attached them.
 

DavidFL

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Yes, good stuff Zaini63. Thanks for contributing.
I'm glad you enjoyed your time & ride up here.
Next time please look me & the "other GT Riders" up when you're in or near Chiang Mai.

Now I regret to inform you that you've missed out on R1148 & Nan province - the best sport riding in the North. So don't forget to come back on the mighty Kwaka, as Im sure you'll be even more impressed...

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Want to know more go to this one
https://www.gt-rider.com/thailand-motorc ... t1431.html
 
Dec 26, 2007
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Davidfl wrote
Now I regret to inform you that you've missed out on R1148 & Nan province - the best sport riding in the North. So don't forget to come back on the mighty Kwaka, as Im sure you'll be even more impressed...
Now that looks like the kind of flowing corners I passed through from Lampang to Nakon Sawan. I've been briefed by a fellow GT Rider about the route to Nan Province but due to time constraint I've missed it this time. Looking at those pics I know what I've missed (Duke executing a perfect apex...sweeeet!).

Hooray pics at last!

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Morning mist. We stopped at the refugee camp/village and handed out breads and cookies to the kids.

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A bit of off-roading...(Mae Sot-Mae Sareang)

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Check out the road surface, smooth throttle control needed to hustle my Kwaka through those gazillions bends safely (Mae Sareang-Mae Hong Son)

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I'm standing with my Kwaka in front of Mae Hong Son City gates after completing the 1000 corners.

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The village of the long-neck ladies. We have to ride through 5 shallow but slippery streams to reach the village of the long-neck ladies. One of our members slipped and took a dunk but nothing was damaged.

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Pocket billiards during fag & pee break Mae Hong Son-Pai. We have ridden above the clouds!

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While in Chiangmai I met the one of the crew of a fine bike shop called Piston Shop. He showed us the way into Chiangmai City when he saw us by the roadside looking lost poring over a map. Top blokes! In the pics - talking to my mates is the owner of Piston Shop giving us tips to riding the day-loop to Golden Triangle.

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I made it to the Golden Triangle (with broken back- bolted together by titanium a year back and plated ankle joints) A personal triumph after having rode 1000s of kilos to get there. What a ride!

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Our team at the border town of Mae Sai

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The Golden Rose Hotel in Chiangrai. Strange but interesting find. I'll be back soon...

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The journey home. Just outside Bangkok- Shariffudin - shagged, numbed, flat... but happy.

I'm planning to complete the Nan Province and onwards to Vientienne, Laos route before the end of this year and looking forward to see in person them legendary GTRiders up there. Safe ride everyone.
 
Jan 6, 2008
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Good report Zaini (Editor cum photographer)... After i came back from UAE we will discuss our next trip...
After read ur report, many malaysian riders interested to visit 1864 corners and golden triangle.. From pictures that David posted, it look interesting... I'll be back...
 

burnjr

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Dec 28, 2005
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yes zaini /sariffudin..
u all go early from us we also transport our ike but they only charges us rm200/..we miss each other..cos of ur time to tight.we meet dafidgr at changmai..s i know changmai is safety town..something wrong the ladies take away ur money???take care bro it can be happen not only in changmai..may be others place....on same day u in gt we are move to Loas.....but next trip i suggest u should go to loas...nice and honeymoon countray.....shoot bro..will c u in tabong.. :D :D :arrow:
 

DavidFL

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zaini63 wrote:
314hd6.jpg

I made it to the Golden Triangle (with broken back- bolted together by titanium a year back and plated ankle joints) A personal triumph after having rode 1000s of kilos to get there.
Congratulations on your amazing recovery & celebratory ride to the Golden Triangle. I bet you felt that life was indeed good & worth it.
 
Oct 12, 2005
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Great ride and hats off to you for providing a report of your ride :lol: .

Gotta feel terriffic for you after going through those surgeries to be able to do this type of trip. Congratulations!!!

Love the picture of sariffudin absolutely shagged out after the ride. Proof he's squeezing the most he can out of life.

Good on you guys.