The Phrao Loop - Pottering Around

DavidFL

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Off on the Phrao Loop for a leisurely Sunday cruise & some fresh air.
I’ve been down these roads scores of times,
The Phrao Loop: AT Shakedown Ride
usually in a hurry out for a quick thrash because the road through the hills south of Phrao is a beauty
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but once on the flat today that colourful teepee- looking chedi finally caught my attention enough to cause me wonder of for a look.
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It’s a bumpy concrete trail in through the lamyai orchard
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to arrive at a "psychedelic wat."
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A weird place if it ever was, or at least we thought.
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a circumnavigation of the wat done it was time to move on a bit more towards Phrao

the amazing orchard roller coaster ride next...

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DavidFL

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Back on the highway R1001 & you head north for another 10.5 kms & up on the right was another chedi sticking up, with what I thought maybe a nice view overlooking the Phrao valley.
The chedi is not much & there's no view
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BUT it does Put YOU on R4049
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which turns into an absolute beauty of a steep undulating rural back road through the orchards & farms
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The countryside is all rolling hills & orchards / farmland
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The ride gets a bit exhilarating. Brand new concrete. Zero traffic
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Wouldnt you love to hook right into this
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BUT
crest a blind hill and
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the bridge is not yet done.
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indeed lucky we did not have it nailed.

Back track & back out on the highway it was.
Lunch was in Phrao in the aircon at the Phrao Steak House
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45 minutes later the sky was as black as in the West so we beat a fast retreat back down the 1001, across to the Mae Ngat dam, past Wat Ban Den
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Wat Ban Den - one of the North's most spectacular temples

& home to Mae Rim.

Elevation profile of R4049 at the south end
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Check it out sometime, there's more than one road out there.
 

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