So, less than 1 week to go and I’m back off to the delights of Cairo for another 28 days….. better put my time to good use! I still have a few more places to recce for our December club ride so I thought I’d nip down to Mae Sot and check out a guest house I’d provisionally booked.
The weather’s been good to us lately so a quick butchers at the Thai Metrological Dept website confirmed what I thought…… we’re good to go! Actually the website had a forecast for Tak, Mae Sot, Mae Sariang and Chiang Mai of “Scattered Thunderstorms” for the next 7 days so being a firm believer that their assessment of conditions is on par with the Highways Dept’s use of “Sharp Curve” for everything other than “Dead Straight” I took their forecast with a pinch of salt, loaded the Big White Pig up with essentials (travel mug & Tetley tea bags, CD’s, waterproofs and puncture repair kit), parked the missus on the back and orf we jolly well went!
I’ve not done the 106 Chiang Mai to Thoen route for many a year as for the past 10 years or so I’ve always gone back to Sin City via Lampang, Den Chai, Nakhon Thai, Lom Sak etc etc so it was a great reminder how nice this road is to ride! Ok you’ve got to get the crap out of the way first but once you’re about 20km south of Chiang Mai it’s lovely….. and finishes with about 30km of very twisty bits that I had completely forgotten about! What a start to the day….. brilliant!
We’d left fairly late in the morning so by the time we finished the 106 it was lunch time for us and fill up time for the Pig….. she was sucking fumes by the time we pulled in at the Shell Station so my request of “Dtem tank khrap” produced a result of 820 baht, lots of “Ooh’s” and “Aah’s” from the pump attendants and a “Bloody ‘ell!” from me! I never run the old girl that low, and when I first got her back in the mists of time she only took 500 baht to fill! Never mind, it’d cost an arm an’ a leg back in Blighty, and the pump attendants here are way cute! There’s a great Thai grub stop at the Shell station so She Who Must Be Obeyed and meself had a good feed and then hit highway 1 for a quick blat down to Tak.
We rode through a little drizzle on highway 1 and a more substantial downpour on the 12 from Tak to Mae Sot (now my PN Map Company map calls this stretch the 105 but all road signs said 12….. to me it’s the only main road going west from Tak to Mae Sot so I’m not really bothered about which number it owns!) but not bad enough to stop and put the ‘proofs on….. I swear by my leather ridin’ jeans (no, not chaps, you’ve gotta be American to wear those on a Harley), the missus was well shielded by the lump sittin’ in the pilots seat, and we’d dried off by the time we hit town so no harm no foul. Nothing really noteworthy on this stretch….. one quite nice rock-fall which would’ve produced twitchy botty time if you happened to be riding past as the rumble took place but otherwise pretty uneventful.
So….. found the Phannu Guest House and booked in for the night and did the business for our club booking in December: you have a choice of 400 or 500 baht rooms either in the old Thai style wooden building or the newer block…… again I seem to have chosen a guest house with zero catering facilities! No problem, the Casa Mia is just a 10 minute stroll down the road….. I wanted to try their aharn farang so chose the beefsteak, Tom had the red curry, we shared a pad Thai and finished with their gorgeous lime cheesecake and banoffee pie (with fresh whipped cream!)….. that and a couple large Heineken’s, all for 535 baht! Well done Casa Mia! The only downside is I’d wanted to book our group in for a meal when we hit Mae Sot in December but alas, Casa Mia is closed on a Saturday! Anyone have a Mae Sot aharn farang dining alternative?
Attached files
The weather’s been good to us lately so a quick butchers at the Thai Metrological Dept website confirmed what I thought…… we’re good to go! Actually the website had a forecast for Tak, Mae Sot, Mae Sariang and Chiang Mai of “Scattered Thunderstorms” for the next 7 days so being a firm believer that their assessment of conditions is on par with the Highways Dept’s use of “Sharp Curve” for everything other than “Dead Straight” I took their forecast with a pinch of salt, loaded the Big White Pig up with essentials (travel mug & Tetley tea bags, CD’s, waterproofs and puncture repair kit), parked the missus on the back and orf we jolly well went!
I’ve not done the 106 Chiang Mai to Thoen route for many a year as for the past 10 years or so I’ve always gone back to Sin City via Lampang, Den Chai, Nakhon Thai, Lom Sak etc etc so it was a great reminder how nice this road is to ride! Ok you’ve got to get the crap out of the way first but once you’re about 20km south of Chiang Mai it’s lovely….. and finishes with about 30km of very twisty bits that I had completely forgotten about! What a start to the day….. brilliant!
We’d left fairly late in the morning so by the time we finished the 106 it was lunch time for us and fill up time for the Pig….. she was sucking fumes by the time we pulled in at the Shell Station so my request of “Dtem tank khrap” produced a result of 820 baht, lots of “Ooh’s” and “Aah’s” from the pump attendants and a “Bloody ‘ell!” from me! I never run the old girl that low, and when I first got her back in the mists of time she only took 500 baht to fill! Never mind, it’d cost an arm an’ a leg back in Blighty, and the pump attendants here are way cute! There’s a great Thai grub stop at the Shell station so She Who Must Be Obeyed and meself had a good feed and then hit highway 1 for a quick blat down to Tak.
We rode through a little drizzle on highway 1 and a more substantial downpour on the 12 from Tak to Mae Sot (now my PN Map Company map calls this stretch the 105 but all road signs said 12….. to me it’s the only main road going west from Tak to Mae Sot so I’m not really bothered about which number it owns!) but not bad enough to stop and put the ‘proofs on….. I swear by my leather ridin’ jeans (no, not chaps, you’ve gotta be American to wear those on a Harley), the missus was well shielded by the lump sittin’ in the pilots seat, and we’d dried off by the time we hit town so no harm no foul. Nothing really noteworthy on this stretch….. one quite nice rock-fall which would’ve produced twitchy botty time if you happened to be riding past as the rumble took place but otherwise pretty uneventful.
So….. found the Phannu Guest House and booked in for the night and did the business for our club booking in December: you have a choice of 400 or 500 baht rooms either in the old Thai style wooden building or the newer block…… again I seem to have chosen a guest house with zero catering facilities! No problem, the Casa Mia is just a 10 minute stroll down the road….. I wanted to try their aharn farang so chose the beefsteak, Tom had the red curry, we shared a pad Thai and finished with their gorgeous lime cheesecake and banoffee pie (with fresh whipped cream!)….. that and a couple large Heineken’s, all for 535 baht! Well done Casa Mia! The only downside is I’d wanted to book our group in for a meal when we hit Mae Sot in December but alas, Casa Mia is closed on a Saturday! Anyone have a Mae Sot aharn farang dining alternative?
Attached files
