Big Bike Tours first run pre-Covid19.
5 days in reverse
An article series by: Tom Stenshavn
The 5 day tour, Fantastic Lanna Kingdom, in oposite direction.
Article 3: Day 3 – 26.08.20
Wednesday 26.08.20 – What about those mountains…. ? Let`s ride!!!
What a great night out in Pai last night… there was actually some tourist there. Mostly locals and expats, but still it was some people gathered in the bars witch is nice to see. Pai is such a nice little town, and the vibe there is also great.
Today, we are riding a bit later than usual. There are two reasons for that, and the first is that we all had a night out yesterday and we let people sleep in a bit, and the second is that we dont have more than about 170 KM to Mae Hong Son today.
Anyway.. we startet the engines at 10 AM, and head out to some of the most beautiful mountain roads in Thailand.
I turned on the Norwegian Radio P6 Rock on my headset and about 11 am in Thailand it was 6 am in Norway. They came with the morning forecast of 5 degrees celcius and rain… later i heard there was huge pile-up with cars as people was on their way to work. I couldn`t stop thinking about how lucky i am to ride here in these beautiful country.
The first ride was about 60 km and we went to a view point about 2 km oustside the main road to a nudle shop with stunning view that we heard was taken by a land slide and was devastated from the rain. When we arrived there, they had already built it up again so we took a rest and enjoyed the stunning view. After that we head to the first big view point on the main road.
After these two stops, it was time for some serious riding. We hit the mountain roads with great attitude and rode with passion for the next 60 km, and took the long detour to the village called “Baan Rak Thai” on the Myanmar border.
Ban Rak Thai is yet another of the several Yunnanese towns to be found in Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son. The villagers are descendants of KMT soldiers from China, now living in peace in a beautiful corner of the world. It’s considered as one of beautiful travel destination in Mae Hong Son, in the North of Thailand. The weather there is cool throughout the year.
Most people in this village migrated from Yunnan, China and set up this village for their community. It maybe because of their love to be in Thailand, they named their village as this, “Baan Rak Thai”, (Village Loves Thai).
It’s really interesting and fascinating that almost everything in this village are in Chinese style; culture, their ways of life, houses, foods, etc.
Here i am struggling on telling the story again. I am probably the worst TV presenter in the world. I need more practise and also more knowledge about what i am talking about 🙂 LOL
We had lunch in one of the famous chinese places specialized in chinese food culture, and it was a great experience. I`m sorry that i forgot the meny, so i will get back to the food there on my next visit.
After lunch, we visited the border crossing point to Myanmar, but it is not allowed to cross the border here. Anyway, the rangers was kind enough to let us cross into Myanmar side just to take some photos.
Off we go, and back down the steep mountain sides from Baan Rak Thai to the main road R1095. We have only one more stop and that is to check out a bridge that also apparently had a problem by the flood. But it turned out to be ok. 🙂
After this visit, we all ride directly to our final destination this day, Mae Hong Son and Phiya Guesthouse. Tonight it is a dinner for the GT Rider blog that we are attending, so see you all tomorrow!
Tom Stenshavn
stenshavn@gmail.com
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