There's been a Burmese army camp close by the border & the Nor Lae Thai army camp for years.
The camp in 94 & it almost looks the same nowadays
Immediately after here the road drops off the mountain into that amazing descent.
The start of the descent in 94
After the wet season the descent is often a problem from landslides.
In 93 there was a small one at the bottom
that you had to get over.
But the big one was in 94. The asphalt was washed away
There are a series of switchbacks & after the big wet there was a huge landslide on the switchbacks, making the Nor Lae descent real interesting.
It was late in the day, & I knew Fang was only 30 mins away via the Nor Lae back door to Doi Ang Khang or 1 1/4 hrs back via the main road & R1249. The locals - army & villagers - warned us of the landslide but guessed we could get through ok. So being "young" & stupid we thought we'd give it a go.
Because of the nature of the landslide, rocks / tree branches / dry & wet mud, we could not ride the bikes over, but had to push & sometimes carry them up & over.
With 3 bikes it got a bit tiring (exhausting) I can tell you.
Once you'd cleared one section you road down to the next switchback & met the same landslide again, & had to repeat the same process. Walking / pushing / lifting the 3 bikes up & over the landslide once more.
The final straw was at the 3rd landslide the mud was still wet & in places we were sinking into it up to our knees. Defeat! And yet only a few hundred metres from the good road down below. We now had to repeat the process in reverse & head back up again! By the time we reached the "top" & clean road it was dark. It had taken us well over 2 hrs for less than 3 kms. Almost totally exhausted we got back on the bikes & roared into Fang for the night in the dark, jubilant about our little adventure, even though we'd failed by a couple of hundred metres.
For more recent reports on Doi Ang Khang check out
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I'll spare you more details about our second ride to Fang and Doi Angkan as Dave covered it well enough, although I do want to stress how marvelous the feeling was to drive along that deserted road. A must for anyone having some close affinity for special roads. And from Fang there's a...
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The Doi Ang Khang Nor Lae roads feature on the GT Rider Golden Triangle map,
Golden Triangle Map – GT Rider Touring Map The sensational guide map to the infamous Golden Triangle. New 3rd edition is out now – on sale February 2020 AREA COVERED Chiang Mai
www.thegtrider.com
