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I have never been beyond Samoeng before, just in & around the villages there.

Starting out from Hang Dong, I rode out towards Samoeng on the 1269. Just after Krisada Doi on the left and then Phujaya on the right, I took a short detour up to the left, to find the Doi Lium View Point but without success, just a heap of rubbish. The track went on but I wanted to press on. That is Phujaya in the distance.

Onwards & upwards, & through to Samoeng.

Today was the last day of the Strawberry Festival, so the place was packed out!

Kao Kaa Moo gap and a lot of garlic for lunch and back on the road. A road I had not ventured too far upon before.

The 5032 is a fairly pleasant road if you are able to dodge the odd rut or two and appreciate the paved road surface as you enter Khun Khan National Park area.

Beautiful scenery, birds and trees.

Now, not trying to nit-pic or anything but when I got to a place called Haui Mana (on the GTR map), I looked on my obviously inadequate GPS (nothing much more than this main road) and found that GPS said I was at Bo Kaeo. The GTR map says Bo Kaeo is further south 2.7km.

Here the main road continues to the right and a small road drops down to the left & is sign posted to the Police Station. I stayed on the main road to test out the discrepancy & sure enough, found the road to bend sharply left next to a pond and a school / government building on the right.

So I back tracked to the Police Station turning and rode to & through the GTR map Bo Kaeo. Here I was amazed to find a massive quarry area. Now, the road condition turned from poor to… gravel and dust.

I was now getting accustomed to the ride and when I found first a single and then a double, wheel wide concrete strip, I felt almost privileged.

Eventually at the top of a rise, I came upon a fork in the track and after looking at the GTR map, I considered taking the right hand track. With that, 4 mini buses & a couple of pick ups followed by several motorbikes bumped and swayed from where I had come and also took the right fork.

After going down hill for quite some time, I arrive at tarmac. Looking at the map, I believe I am in Mae Hae, so I turn left and into a village scene of a dog resting in the shade and a couple of kids chasing each other with sticks.

As the photo shows, I am on the way to Mon Ya Tai and when the tarmac runs out & I almost run over these little porkers, I realise I am travelling on the GTR map little orange track.

I fancied more tarmac, so I head back to where I came off the mountain dirt road and continued straight on and eventually found myself joining a fairly decent road.

I head back to where I came off the mountain dirt road and continued straight on and eventually found myself joining a fairly decent road.

This is the ‘Chiang Rai 5119’ road! Now I can correlate the GPS with GTR map and know I need to stay on this road which will become the 1013, through to Mae Wang.

At times it is hard to stay on the bike, let alone on the road, with massive pot holes, many of them, trenches, you get a nice pace going and then karrrrang !

After a return to dirt, then paved road way and then broken tarmac, the road eventually starts to improve when you pass Huai Tong and slowly builds to be a right rip snorting twisty through to Mae Wang.

The coffee at the market is not bad at all !

A great day out, 167km loop, both start & finish are great for bigger bikes, it’s just the middle bit that poses a problem, especially for novice riders like me.

And in case you thought I was on the Yamaha Dragstar today, wrong! No way. Maybe with some kind of ‘after-market off road make it lighter rodeo kit’ but my little Honda Wave 125 has that already !

Beyond Samoeng

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