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Saturday is a great day to ride, if you had breakfast already. But for John, as usual, it was a nightmare as he was starving well before lunch time and there were no places open to eat.

We met up on the 1317 near the junction with the 1006 and road up the 1317 and took a left and followed the canal on gravel and soil tracks. The canal disappeared into the mountain at one point & after taking a trip around a pig farm or two, we found the can again on the other side.

After a while, the outlook was getting same same so at the sight of a temple we turned left into it’s grounds.

This place is very run down and there is no English here but I am reliably informed the name of this temple is Wat Doi Zil, although the exact spelling of Zil, translated from the sign outside the gate, caused a lot of debate.

A little further on we diverted right, across the canal and up to what is shown on my gps map as “Thi Reservoir”. This is nowhere near Ban Thi and this reservoir is nowhere near the other Thi Reservoir we visited last week !

Eventually we exit onto tarmac and turn right up to Huai Hong Khai 7 and enter the government grounds only to find a restaurant I was hoping to eat at, closed. There were lots of people sitting at tables eating at another place but that was private party ! We were hungry.

So off we sped north to Huai Hong Khai 2, where the Royal Project buildings are. We found nowhere immediately to eat and were just riding away when we spotted a sala with tables laid out and food on plates. We called out across the lake to 2 people there, asking if the restaurant was open & they said it wasn’t a restaurant. We said we were hungry and put on a disappointed face and they invited us in.

They were expecting a coach load from Bangkok and they had not arrived yet. They had 4 dishes of food, iced water ready & waiting. With us being hungry they put all the dishes in front of us and 2 plates of rice, we scoffed the lot & they didn’t want any money! But we gave them a tip.

Up to the turning towards the childrens homes and turned right and followed the red dirt road.

At the Shelter for Children we met some of the staff who John wanted to talk with about his interest of helping children in some way. They immediately invited us to a party in the evening at Joy’s House, a guest house that appears to be a business in support of the shelter.

Further on the track we turned right and eventually onto the 3005 and pulled into 196 Coffee Corner to meet kh Kueng & Chai along with their dogs to enjoy their coffee (& bananas!).

Well that was nearly the end of the trip, except for a ride down to Mae On and the Mueng Mae On Cave temple.

In the car park one of the vendors spotted farangs and quickly started handing out parking receipts for 10baht. I refused but John succumbed. At the ticket office, out came the 20baht tickets and I made another issue of demanding the 10baht ones. (I just can’t stand being abused).

So up & then into the cave and a bit of a cool down.

Back at the bike in the car park, a songthaew driver hands me my gps unit I had left laying around during the 10baht dispute. I must be very mean, stupid and extremely lucky.

Another great ride and a few pics to show some new places, not as many as usual as I have done some of this route before in May 2009 before I had the 60CSx to record the route.

We ended up at a coffee shop out near Bo Sang on the 1006 but not without having fought our way through the Saturday afternoon market diversion.

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San Kamphaeng Irrigation Canal

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