Soa....the Great Northern Loop~day 8-9

[Conemeister]

Day 8. Udon Thani to Uttaradit
Udon Thani has been a fun place but the mad dash back to Chiang Mai begins. Heading out along Hwy 210 for our first stop along at Nong Bua Lamphu at the local market for some cold drinks and an Iced Coffee. Today is gunna be a hard ride, and I tell the boys we need to push the limit and make Uttaradit 400kms off.

We do a short stop at Erawan Cave....me still trying to be the tour guide. Lucky the road is mostly straight runs to Kut Pong and on to Dan Sai...we mostly
skirt the mountains, still some great roads around here. Turn right from the 210 onto Hwy 201 and hang a left at Hwy 3002 and onto Dan Sai, another
place I wanted to spend some time at.

This intersection all looks familiar.....oh yeh the 2113/2114 all meet up here. Taking Hwy 2013 out of Dan Sai we push even harder to make Nakhon Thai and
Hwy 1143 to stop for some eats. This roadside stall just gave us everything, cold beer, dry roast chicken, papaya salad, rice....full on. There is too much to eat, it
cost really nothing and we thanked them well. As we start to mount the bikes our hosts sit down to finish off our meal....better than wasting it.

Running the 1143 at high pace 120-130kph we eventually hit Hwy 11 for the easy run in to Uttaradit to stay at the Friday Hotel on Baroma At Rd.
Large rooms on the 7th Floor for 600b shared inc breakfast, underground carpark as well. A good restaurant on the fifth floor for dinner and now
time to relax....5 Changs please.

Day 9. Uttaradit to Chiang Mai
The run to Chiang Mai today is about 250km, tomorrow I fly back to Melbourne. A pretty easy run gets us onto Hwy 11's near perfect road, 70kms away we
pull up at Wat Phra That Su Thon Mongkhon Khiri outside of Den Chai. What an amazing structure, a combination of old and new it was well worth the visit.

Got to meet theses guys building what looks like a 20 metre high Elephant statue, all made from individual metal plates.....its going to be huge as.

Back on the road we eventually stop at Lampang for lunch and Chang at a hip little cafe, then continue the rest of the run into Chiang Mai where we lose
Glenn somewhere near the Ping River....all those one way streets. Finally we are back at Top North Hotel and into the pool asap with a Chang of course.
An hour later Glenn rocks up.....g'day mate....beer?
For the next four days the boys are on their own.....in Chiang Mai!!!

To be continued

 

[DavidFL]

What did you think of the Erawan cave - was it worth it?
I ask because I've seen the sign a couple of times but not been bothered to go take a look.

 

[Conemeister]

Gday David, I had been to Erawan some 7 years ago.From the Hwy, Erawan looks interesting...this large buddha looking out over the land. It hasn't changed much, temples at the base, shop stalls selling stuff, the biggest and hardest part is climbing all those stairs, some 500-600 or so. My last visit left me breathless, but the view was pretty good up there. The cave itself was not much appeal to me, however to the locals who visit and stack small rockpiles and pray to the buddha made it interesting. It's worth the look, as is a visit to Phu Phrabat in Ban Phu

No way were the bro's going to hike up here.

Phu Phrabat below

 

[ianyonok]

Haha.... I was at the Erawan cave last year in April, no way I could do those steps in the afternoon Isaan heat....
Great report, you guys seem to have a gas over here but sorry you had to leave early.