Wiang Sa - Nan - Wandering Around

DavidFL

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Off to Nan from Chiang Khong for a ride & to enjoy a hot bread brekky.

The way: Chiang Khong - Thoeng - Chiang Kham - Pong - Chiang Muan - Nan.
This uses R1091 & my favourite route to / from Nan, with Pong - Chiang Muan a super twisting undulating section & then Chiang Muan - Nan a soaring winding road through the mountains. People rave about R1148 but I put R1091 over R1148 any day.
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Plus from Chiang Kham you also get to do R1179 to Pong which is another excellent flowing hilly undulating ride. Check it out sometime. You won't be disappointed.
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A few kms south of Chiang Kham there's an excellent old style restaurant that has become my favourite R1091 break-spot.
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The food is always good, fresh & well presented.
The lady shop keeper is a little honey & a wonderful personality too.
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Location: Google Maps

From Chiang Muan the real fun starts & you have two big climbs & descents.
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Ban Luang is in the middle of the mountain crossings & there's an excellent little roadside coffee shop worth patronizing.
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Location: Google Maps

On into Nan on some of the best swooping roads in the North
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Hot Bread is the first stop in Nan
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and it's never too late for a Hot Bread brekky omelette
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The Grand Mansion is the GTR place of stay in Nan.
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and I still find it exceptional value for money @ 400 baht!

More to come...
 

DavidFL

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Day 2 & another Hot Bread brekky. Woo-Hoo.

Then off to Wiang Sa in search of the bicycle museum after an earlier failed attempt to locate it last year.
However this time armed with the right info & directions from the Hot Bread we hit the jackpot.
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But nope, closed up. Damn, what a nuisance!

I needed to get some fuel before we left, then as it was time to go the lady said oh, do you want to have a look in the museum. Well errh, yes please. Wait 10 minutes then...
And voila hey presto the doors were opened.

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Wow!! What a line up, bicycles going back to 1880...

An 1890s signature
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but damned if I have a pic of that particular 1880s bike.

Most of the bicycles are labelled
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Amazing Penny Farthing bicycles are in the collection
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Who's got the technique to get on board & pedal off?
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So what's the story behind the museum?
The museum was opened in 2007 & the bicycles belong to Khun Supot Tengtrira, who's family had the Raleigh & Humber bike distributorship in Nan province, selling hundreds of bicycles in the good ol days.
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The business boomed until the 1960s when Japanese bicycles & then motorcycles took over.
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With a fading bicycle business, they opened the Shell petrol station in Nan & continued on strongly.
The bicycle shop was closed in 1972, and the huge stock of bikes was put into storage to be forgotten for awhile.

Then in 2006 a disastrous flood saw a big clean up the family's premises & Supot Tengtrira's nostalgia gave him the idea of a bicycle museum.
The museum was subsequently opened in 2007, and since then they have been adding to the collection with old imports from overseas.
There are over 150 bicycles on display now & the collection is truly amazing - a lesser known hidden gem. Make sure you check it out in Nan.

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Some of the lantern headlights are beautiful pieces of engineering.
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The owner's daughter is a bubbly enthusiastic guide who will show you around the museum.
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The fire brigade bicycle was immaculate
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and the siren still worked magnificently.

BSA had a few bicycles on display
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one was a collapsible bike for soldiers, that they carried in a back pack when they parachuted in with & soldiers trained to be ready & on the road within 7 seconds of landing. Quite a feat & it would be an interesting vdo to see.

Wooden handle bars, solid rubber tyres & a strong brake to operate.
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ah yes, those were the days.

Ladies who had a fat bum, got a specially designed seat, wider & "furrowed."
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An original poster
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The original & first licensed bicycle trader certificate for Thailand.
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An original motorized French bicycle
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A nice horn for riding in the traffic
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We spent over an hour gawking at the fabulous machinery in the museum.
Entrance is free, but you do need to make an appointment as we found out.
Recommended visiting times are 9-11AM & 2-4PM.
Contact
Phone 054 781 359, or pop along to the Shell gas station on R1026 in Wiang Sa; & if you fill up with petrol in advance at the Shell, you will get some nice brownie points.
Google Maps
 

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DavidFL

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The Bicycle Museum is not the only attraction in Wiang Sai.

There's also a magnificent Wat & a Local museum.

Wat Boon Yuen is a royal temple built by one of Nan's rulers in 1800.
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The magnificent highlight of the Wat is the two intricately carved doors
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as luck would have it a super friendly monk befriended us for a guided tour of the Wat.
The monk, carrying a cane for walking, noticed that Tim used a cane also, and insisted Tim accept his special cane with a blessing.
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Wat Boon Yuen is different with the main Buddha image standing, with his hands by his side & not in a meditation position.
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more to come..
 
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Eoin Christie

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Excellent, David.

Unsolicited Digression:
There used to be a bicycle museum in Chiang Khong - Don’t know if it still exists (I’m a bit of a bicycle nut - Both my grandfathers built bikes, I raced for a living for a while, and now my daughter does the same....except more successfully).
Here’s a little fixie (called ‘Wee McGregor’) that my grandfather built for my mother and uncle to learn to ride on, back in the 1930’s. My sister and I both learnt to ride on it, and her kids (now adults) did, too...
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a001 by Eoin Christie, on Flickr
 

DavidFL

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Outside the Wat & also on display at the museum across the street are long tail boats & some elaborate boat prows.
Once upon a time the abbot of Wat Boon Yuen, Phrakhru Jakdhamsunthon, was a renowned carpenter famed for his design of long tail boat prows & in 2005 was awarded a trophy of excellence in boat art from King Rama 9.
In Wiang Sa at the Wiang Sa Museum you can see beautiful boats and prows on display.
Consequently Wiang Sa is famous for it's boat racing, and if you look carefully at the main intersection in town, there is a road hazard sign for "Long Boats Crossing" that I forgot to get a photograph of..
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Across the street at the museum
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More to come...
 

DavidFL

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The Wiang Sa Museum is straight across the street from Wat Boon Yuen.
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The museum is important to the local Wiang Sa people because it is the first place in Nan that King Rama came to & actually set his foot on the ground in Nan province. The date was 16 March 1958.

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The bench that the King & Queen first sat on is on display in the museum along with a fine collection of photos from those wonderful days.
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The museum also has an interesting of old house hold & farming utensils that most young Bkk people would not know or have ever seen.
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Perhaps if you've been around in the North a bit you may know some of them, but if your from the big city & led a sheltered life, then what people had to make do with and use once upon a time, & not so long ago, is damn interesting.
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DavidFL

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Wiang Sa old city

Wiang Sa is full of beautiful old buildings - wooden & cement and in the centre of the old town, so you can clearly see that the modern concrete shophouse scene is yet to hit.

It is worth taking a stroll down town & looking at some of the buildings.
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7-11 & CP haven't quite taken over yet.
 
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DavidFL

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Back to Wiang Sa for the GTR Dinner & a big night at the Khon Khun Khao resort
Wiang Sa Accommodation

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Monthly Gt Rider Up-country Dinner Rendezvous Rides

A visit to the Bicycle Museum was the highlight with a nice run down on the museum from Khun Nai, the owners daughter, who seemed absolutely delighted to have GTR there.
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Youngie showed how it's done on the Penny Farthing
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Bungy reminisced about the good ol days having a Raleigh Chopper
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A tip off from Khun Nai at the bicycle museum saw 4 of us head back downtown to the amphur museum & check out the original steam roller from 1927?; bought by her father to make the road from Wiang Sa to Nan.
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3 of us made it back upstairs to the main museum. Heineken & Youngie had not seen it before...
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Heineken headed back to Nan with Sean, so Youngie & I hit the Chang Nan Art & Coffee Gallery for a cuppa
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If you want a real god cuppa in Wiang Sa, the Chang Nan At & Coffee Gallery is the place to go.
Wiang Sa Restaurants
and if you're in luck you maybe able to hook up with the Krung Thai bank gals for a pic or two.
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Another trip to Wiang Sa beckons....
 

Heineken

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Great write up David :cool:


Regards the Steam Roller would you believe I found a UK website that lists all the vintage steam rollers in Thailand, AH430 is believed to be one of 7 x Aveling & Porter Invicta Rollers sold to Thailand, they say the one in Wiang Sa is the last Aveling & Porter Roller to be sold in Thailand, in the early 1950's..........................there records show locations of 90 Steam Rollers of different brands and where they were sold to in Thailand :eek:


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Heineken

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The museum was very interesting, 2 x lovely Nan girls to show 3 of us around...................and upon departure the head of the Land office came out of his office to thank us for attending, and he is still working at 74 x years of age.


That was a unique design table and chairs in the foyer, looks like Youngy is ready for a beer on the chair :)


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