Day 26 - Relax @ Chiang Rai (Fang / Mae Salong loop)

Woke up quite late today as I had a late night. Probably went to bed at about 3+ am. All I can remember is I walked out a long way to have noodles as I was very hungry. Too many drinks.

Anyways, I left the hotel for today's ride at about 12pm. Rode southwards on highway 1 and paid a visit to the very famous temple 'Wat Rong Khun'

The place is absolutely magnificent and built with expert craftsmanship. But it is also crawling with many tourists and visitors. Went in to take some photos and a prayer. Foreigners are required to be accompanied by a local guide but I managed to stroll and not pay anything.

Turned in to highway 118 which leads to Chiang Mai followed by highway 109 leading to Fang. It was great fun riding along the twisty mountain road but there were a number of landslides along the way with road collapses and big boulders crashing down from the hills.

Reached Fang at about 2.15pm. It's quite a small town but I can sense that it's a nice place. Along the main road, I saw many numbered markings. There must be a big night market here. I went to 'Tesco Lotus' to have my lunch there. Lemon chicken rice and coke. Cost: 50B

After lunch, I proceeded toward Mae Salong. Along the way I chanced upon 'Ban Lorcha' which is an 'Akha tribe village' which is open for cultural visits. At first I was abit apprehensive about how to approach this. So I parked my bike and took a look at the gathering area taking a look at the display posters and buying some souvenirs.

I enquired if they would allow me to do the visit as I was alone. The reply was yes and there was an entry cost of 80B. Immediately I agreed and they assigned a guide to bring me through the village.

Although I know that this is a 'model village' for visitors, I was appreciative that they introduced me to their culture. The trek was for about 1.2km and my visit lasted about an hour. Tipped the guide 100B for being willing to bring me around even though I was alone.

As my cultural visit, I proceeded towards Mae Salong which is situated deep in the mountainous region. I can sum up riding in this area as being extremely technical and very very steep inclinations. There were a couple of instances whereby my little bike died climbing the slope on gear 1. I kind of panicked when the bike slid downhill backwards. Lucky I managed to control the bike almost professionally.

In the end, I had to dismount the bike and walk the bike 'half clutch' in the bike. Phew! There's a large Chinese community atop Mae Salong. It almost feels that I was in China.

I really wanted to stop there for a rest and to have some Chinese food but that was not possible as it was already 6pm and it will be pitch dark in an hour. I certainly do not want to be stuck deep in the mountains when it's dark. Who knows how cold it will get and what spooky things reside there.

It was already dark as I returned to my hotel at 7.45pm. Today's ride is 250km and lasted 7 hours+ (compared to the 150km and 5 hours that I estimated previously) Feel really good today as I feel I've seen a lot of new things.

Dinner was once again settled at the night bazaar. Had a katsu don, misc fried snacks and grape shake. Cost: 125B.

Went to 'Lomobar' which is cheap and good to watch soccer and play pool till late.

Expenses:

Hotel - 450B
Petrol - 400B
F&B - 375B
Entertainment - 600B