[Trip Report] Thailand Solo Trip - 16 Feb to 2 Mar 08

[Ah Fai]

http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd12/sanna45/salute.gif http://i223.photobucket.com/albums/dd12/sanna45/salute.gif and also salute his super4, power~!

[PaLmEr]

some homemade videos of Mae Hong Son Loop

 

[YahooRider]

One of the best solo rider around . See u in thailand once again

[sabbaha]

some homemade videos of Mae Hong Son Loop

 

 

Great Vidz bro!

[kUmAr 02]

Well Done .. When Wil U Be Going For Next Trip.. To Thailand?

[kUmAr 02]

DID U GET ANY CERTIFICATE FRM THE LONG NECK VILLAGE @Mae Hong Son .. FOR RIDING UP TO VILLAGE?

[PaLmEr]

DID U GET ANY CERTIFICATE FRM THE LONG NECK VILLAGE @Mae Hong Son .. FOR RIDING UP TO VILLAGE?

 

no cert from the village, but there is one from mae hong son itself

[NaPTuNe]

Hey, great trip report and photos. Continue to ride safe and enjoy.

[Simon Soh]

PaLmEr,

 

great trip.

 

not only did u enjoyed it, but u made an extra effort to picture it back.

 

yea i did.

[PaLmEr]

Hey, great trip report and photos. Continue to ride safe and enjoy.

 

PaLmEr,

 

great trip.

 

not only did u enjoyed it, but u made an extra effort to picture it back.

 

well, no problem at all, its good to share trip reports with others so the rest who intend to travel to that region have something to refer to.

[PaLmEr]

i couldn't find this place tho:

http://www.picturesky.com/albums/userpics/10859/gt.jpg

[Touer Sam]

couldn't find this place tho:

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 667x217 and weights 41KB.

 

 

This is @ traffic light junction of intersection route 1290 South-East(Mai Sai-Chiang Saen) to 1016 South-West(Chiang Saen-Mae Chan).The BIG SIGN BOARD would be on your LHS abt 45 degree near traffic light.Route join back to 1 n back to Chiang Rai town.

[housejam]

Well done ,,,,,,

 

 

I enjoy your picture,,,,,,you took,,,,,

[PaLmEr]

couldn't find this place tho:

This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 667x217 and weights 41KB.

 

 

This is @ traffic light junction of intersection route 1290 South-East(Mai Sai-Chiang Saen) to 1016 South-West(Chiang Saen-Mae Chan).The BIG SIGN BOARD would be on your LHS abt 45 degree near traffic light.Route join back to 1 n back to Chiang Rai town.

 

thanks for the detailed directions!

[feeufee]

Palmer, or anyone does record info for trips that you guys have been on?

I am looking at 1) GPS waypoints for POI & other important landmarks, 2) Recommended accomodations, 3) Die die must go / see POI on unbeaten tracks.

I am willing to share the above for trips I went and is looking to expand the data .

[PaLmEr]

Palmer, or anyone does record info for trips that you guys have been on?

I am looking at 1) GPS waypoints for POI & other important landmarks, 2) Recommended accomodations, 3) Die die must go / see POI on unbeaten tracks.

I am willing to share the above for trips I went and is looking to expand the data .

 

i rode this trip the old school way, so no GPS.

[zhenhong]

a trip well done.. thumb upsss for you bro

[justrideit]

hi Palmer,

 

hey, me tip my hat to you, my dear warrior, and your loyal steed; that’s a warhorse man. Imaginable, the journey was a tough one; but surely, a damn satisfactory one. We should all agree that the cb is really a size too small for that kind of task. But, Palmer, you have proved it again -- where there’s a will, there’s a way. By the way, how badly was your butt hurt? ha-ha.

 

I did almost the same route some years back, twice; the first one was a solo too. I find it quit lonely to do long distant solo, unbearable; though I agree, that’s biking about. When we travel in places like Thailand, sometimes it’s quit difficult to communicate with the locals, I mean in villages and not so touristy towns. Many of the people there don’t speak English, and we can’t speak their language. It makes me feel so isolated when I can’t talk to others for days, like a prisoner. But sometimes these turn out to be something enjoyable. I once had this pleasant experience, somewhere in Phetcha Buri; I left Kanchna Buri that afternoon, heading back. It was getting dark when I came near Phetcha Buri, I had to stay a night there. I was asking for the way to get to a hotel, none of the by passers could understand what I want; so I went in to a shop where there were few young ladies, none of them understand me too. A young woman shown her eagerness to help me, and this young woman could not speak a single word in English. I used all kinds of hand language, but just couldn’t get things across. I was about to give up, and she too got very frustrated; she could understand what I want, but couldn’t reply in English. And, all in a sudden, she burst out plain Mandarin, very naturally; very well spoken Mandarin that made me feel ashamed. I speak Mandarin day in, day out, but not as good as she does; really a lovely woman. She was small in size, but a very pretty woman, a thai chinese. She even led me all the way to that hotel with her tiny bike, with me followed behind with that big motorcycle. And we had a nice and warm conversation in that common native language we shared after she had shown me the hotel; just to get rid of my loneliness; it seemed the same to her. I had been isolated for many days prior to this; it come just in time to ease the desire, to talk to someone. As a solo rider, it also gets me on the defensive all the while, and after a long day ride, it becomes very tired. This charming young woman, she was an easy going kind, the chat made that evening much unwound; and the day ended quite relax. That was a great experience. Oh, yes, I got my butt badly hurt since the very first day, and struggle through the rest of the journey. I worked out something practical on the second trip to overcome this problem; that’s another issue, we should have that some other times.

 

You had Doi Mea Salong in you list; so did I. I had that on both trips. I enjoy that particular part. Did you have the luck to enjoy the sakura view? It was about the right time. I had that on my first trip, though it wasn’t the season; it was way too early. That was in the early January, well, just my luck. It’s on the way to the general Duan Xi Wen’s tomb, the small road going up. It’s hardly we would get a sakura viewing in Southeast Asia other than Mea Salong.

 

You mentioned in one of your picture about the Thai government granted those KMT leftovers refugee statuses. In fact, that was not quite the case. I would rather say the leftovers gained their recognition in exchange with their own lives. They fought against the then thai communists for the thai government. That was in the height of the international communism movement then. There were communist rebels all over Asia, the northern Thailand, Lao, Myanmar, North Vietnam, Cambodia, as well as Malaysia; and the Chinese communist took over main land China not long ago. That’s the reason these KMTs were driven out of the PRCs’ territories. Here, that’s what the Chinese Martyr Memorial Museum means for. This was built with the donations and supports from the Taiwan people; the Taiwanese also supported them in the tea cultivation, brewing of tea leaves, fruit tree plantation, the packaging of tea leaves and marketing, etc. I understand that the Taiwanese pull out right after the completion of the Museum, partly because of their own economic downturn; it’s now more or less on their own. Here, the leftovers displayed hundreds of little headstones; those were the sacrifices. In one of the main hall, these headstones were laid side by side, several levels, from one end of the hall to the other end. In some of the battles, they lost more than a hundred warriors in a single fight. However, we should consider that they did win the war. They fought so hard to gain the right to live in the northern Thailand hilly district legally. Duan accepted the grant in Bangkok, he went down Bangkok to accept the honor personally; it was presented by the young thai king. But this old man knew well what was going to come. It was a suggestion made by one of the thai generals then, which become the prime minister years later. Duan and the thai general was good friend prior to this. This was also a strategy to counter the long time disturbance caused by these leftovers. Dung’s group and the other KTM leftovers’ groups were the main providers for armed security guards for the ‘maban’, the transporter for the opium traders at that time; that wasn’t a problem for them, they possessed much better weapons then the local bandits. They got their weapons from the US, which had been supporting them in the fight against the Chinese main land communist. They made good money from doing this, which was their main income. Duan and the other generals always denied they had any direct involvement in the opium production. The old Duan knew damn well, that was the only way to get out of this, to allow the next generation to live there peacefully. The old general led some of the early battles himself, he was in his seventies, and was already an opium addict then; with his shivery body, he led the fights and go together with the fighters. They said he had won all of his fights. With the strong determination and leadership, he demonstrated the earnest eagerness to settle down. I understand that’s the meaning of the words ‘Mea Salong’ in thai, peaceful place. Most of his solders were in their fifties, and already settled with families, for the damn sake, they put on their webbing, fought again and again for their will; many of them did not make it to see the outcome. Duan and his men where called many times more after that, even after Duan’s death. Lately, they had to mix the very old and the young generation to form the fighting forces. The other two KTM generals settled in golden triangle also contributed to these fighting forces. I learned that many young generations were not keen to stay in the hilly district; many of them worked their way to Chaing Mai, Chaing Lai to have a better living. Well, that’s life.

 

When Duan died, the Taiwan people make donation for his tomb construction. Also the very famous Asia opium warlord, Khun Sa; he paid his repect with his original name, Zhang Qi Fu. Many of the opium warlords attended Duan’s tomb commemoration; it shown the high respect Duan received in that area. The thai general that made up part of this history, flew in in his military helicopter; there wasn’t a proper road to go up to Mea Salong yet. He put his pipe on top of Duan’s coffin, to be buried with it. This is the higher respect paid only by the very close friends, according to the thai culture.

 

I would recommend this little guesthouse named Shinsane. Cheap price and nice room, as good as the one Palmer had. Ho (He, in today PRC Chinese) is the owner; he runs a small eating house in front of his guesthouse, cheap stuff, but they taste all the same; whatever you order, they come with lots of vegetable; vegetables were much cheaper than meat in the hilly district. Wake up early in the morning, walk further up, that’s the morning market, nice stuff; there is another morning market near the Martyr Museum. Ho’s father was also one of the fighters in the early days, he said his father was more on the administrative side, did not get involve in the actual fights. But I sensed that the young generation tried to deny the sad pass by saying they knew not much about the early days. By the way, ‘Shinsane’ means ‘new life’ in Mandarin.

 

When I was negotiating up this Doi, I came across many villagers, going up the hill with their tiny bikes, possibly honda cubs, 90 cc or so, with two huge baskets hooked up to the back seats of their tiny cubs. These were about 30 inches in diameter, 2 feet height, were mainly used to transport vegetables. Just imagine what if we have to deal with the two big baskets of vegetables and the Honda cub, to negotiate up this Doi. Luckily, they had full loaded baskets only on the descending. What about lean angle? The two baskets almost hit the ground, hardly any lean was possible. Thought they were much slower than me, I felt really embarrassed; looked at my huge monster, the high end panniers. I didn’t dare to go fast when I passed them, I overtook them slowly, just be very sure not to make any disturbance to them.

 

Did you come across this tea house right below gen. Duan’s tomb? It’s run by gen. Duan’s daughter in law. That’s another love story. She was a Taiwanese, a graduate from the United State. She met the son of gen. Duan in the state when she was studying there. This young lady did not know he was the son of this famous general in the early part; when she came to know this, she had already deeply in love with Duan’s son. She left the state and went back Taiwan after her graduation, and paid a visit to Doi Mea Salong and golden triangle. It was to her astonishment, that human being could live in such an environment, no water, no electicity, no toilet, no shelter, no life at all. She met with fierce opposition from her parents back home, combated them all, and back again to Mae Salong to marry Duan’s son. The young lady left behind whatsoever, forwent her Taiwan citizenship; and have been living there with the general’s son since. Just unbelievable, doesn’t that sound like a romantic tale? isn’t it too Qiong Yao? Oh, I suppose you know who Qiong Yao is. Where can we fine such a soul mate and life partner like that these days?

 

I have managed to come this far with my inadequate English, hope you don’t mind. Hey, you guys enjoy stone age love story like this? and the stone age martyrs story? Those are for the stone age guys; any out there? Have fun! I have to stop here for the time being.

 

Just enjoy your rides

jri

[PaLmEr]

hi Palmer,

 

hey, me tip my hat to you, my dear warrior, and your loyal steed; that’s a warhorse man. Imaginable, the journey was a tough one; but surely, a damn satisfactory one. We should all agree that the cb is really a size too small for that kind of task. But, Palmer, you have proved it again -- where there’s a will, there’s a way. By the way, how badly was your butt hurt? ha-ha.

 

I did almost the same route some years back, twice; the first one was a solo too. I find it quit lonely to do long distant solo, unbearable; though I agree, that’s biking about. When we travel in places like Thailand, sometimes it’s quit difficult to communicate with the locals, I mean in villages and not so touristy towns. Many of the people there don’t speak English, and we can’t speak their language. It makes me feel so isolated when I can’t talk to others for days, like a prisoner. But sometimes these turn out to be something enjoyable. I once had this pleasant experience, somewhere in Phetcha Buri; I left Kanchna Buri that afternoon, heading back. It was getting dark when I came near Phetcha Buri, I had to stay a night there. I was asking for the way to get to a hotel, none of the by passers could understand what I want; so I went in to a shop where there were few young ladies, none of them understand me too. A young woman shown her eagerness to help me, and this young woman could not speak a single word in English. I used all kinds of hand language, but just couldn’t get things across. I was about to give up, and she too got very frustrated; she could understand what I want, but couldn’t reply in English. And, all in a sudden, she burst out plain Mandarin, very naturally; very well spoken Mandarin that made me feel ashamed. I speak Mandarin day in, day out, but not as good as she does; really a lovely woman. She was small in size, but a very pretty woman, a thai chinese. She even led me all the way to that hotel with her tiny bike, with me followed behind with that big motorcycle. And we had a nice and warm conversation in that common native language we shared after she had shown me the hotel; just to get rid of my loneliness; it seemed the same to her. I had been isolated for many days prior to this; it come just in time to ease the desire, to talk to someone. As a solo rider, it also gets me on the defensive all the while, and after a long day ride, it becomes very tired. This charming young woman, she was an easy going kind, the chat made that evening much unwound; and the day ended quite relax. That was a great experience. Oh, yes, I got my butt badly hurt since the very first day, and struggle through the rest of the journey. I worked out something practical on the second trip to overcome this problem; that’s another issue, we should have that some other times.

 

You had Doi Mea Salong in you list; so did I. I had that on both trips. I enjoy that particular part. Did you have the luck to enjoy the sakura view? It was about the right time. I had that on my first trip, though it wasn’t the season; it was way too early. That was in the early January, well, just my luck. It’s on the way to the general Duan Xi Wen’s tomb, the small road going up. It’s hardly we would get a sakura viewing in Southeast Asia other than Mea Salong.

 

You mentioned in one of your picture about the Thai government granted those KMT leftovers refugee statuses. In fact, that was not quite the case. I would rather say the leftovers gained their recognition in exchange with their own lives. They fought against the then thai communists for the thai government. That was in the height of the international communism movement then. There were communist rebels all over Asia, the northern Thailand, Lao, Myanmar, North Vietnam, Cambodia, as well as Malaysia; and the Chinese communist took over main land China not long ago. That’s the reason these KMTs were driven out of the PRCs’ territories. Here, that’s what the Chinese Martyr Memorial Museum means for. This was built with the donations and supports from the Taiwan people; the Taiwanese also supported them in the tea cultivation, brewing of tea leaves, fruit tree plantation, the packaging of tea leaves and marketing, etc. I understand that the Taiwanese pull out right after the completion of the Museum, partly because of their own economic downturn; it’s now more or less on their own. Here, the leftovers displayed hundreds of little headstones; those were the sacrifices. In one of the main hall, these headstones were laid side by side, several levels, from one end of the hall to the other end. In some of the battles, they lost more than a hundred warriors in a single fight. However, we should consider that they did win the war. They fought so hard to gain the right to live in the northern Thailand hilly district legally. Duan accepted the grant in Bangkok, he went down Bangkok to accept the honor personally; it was presented by the young thai king. But this old man knew well what was going to come. It was a suggestion made by one of the thai generals then, which become the prime minister years later. Duan and the thai general was good friend prior to this. This was also a strategy to counter the long time disturbance caused by these leftovers. Dung’s group and the other KTM leftovers’ groups were the main providers for armed security guards for the ‘maban’, the transporter for the opium traders at that time; that wasn’t a problem for them, they possessed much better weapons then the local bandits. They got their weapons from the US, which had been supporting them in the fight against the Chinese main land communist. They made good money from doing this, which was their main income. Duan and the other generals always denied they had any direct involvement in the opium production. The old Duan knew damn well, that was the only way to get out of this, to allow the next generation to live there peacefully. The old general led some of the early battles himself, he was in his seventies, and was already an opium addict then; with his shivery body, he led the fights and go together with the fighters. They said he had won all of his fights. With the strong determination and leadership, he demonstrated the earnest eagerness to settle down. I understand that’s the meaning of the words ‘Mea Salong’ in thai, peaceful place. Most of his solders were in their fifties, and already settled with families, for the damn sake, they put on their webbing, fought again and again for their will; many of them did not make it to see the outcome. Duan and his men where called many times more after that, even after Duan’s death. Lately, they had to mix the very old and the young generation to form the fighting forces. The other two KTM generals settled in golden triangle also contributed to these fighting forces. I learned that many young generations were not keen to stay in the hilly district; many of them worked their way to Chaing Mai, Chaing Lai to have a better living. Well, that’s life.

 

When Duan died, the Taiwan people make donation for his tomb construction. Also the very famous Asia opium warlord, Khun Sa; he paid his repect with his original name, Zhang Qi Fu. Many of the opium warlords attended Duan’s tomb commemoration; it shown the high respect Duan received in that area. The thai general that made up part of this history, flew in in his military helicopter; there wasn’t a proper road to go up to Mea Salong yet. He put his pipe on top of Duan’s coffin, to be buried with it. This is the higher respect paid only by the very close friends, according to the thai culture.

 

I would recommend this little guesthouse named Shinsane. Cheap price and nice room, as good as the one Palmer had. Ho (He, in today PRC Chinese) is the owner; he runs a small eating house in front of his guesthouse, cheap stuff, but they taste all the same; whatever you order, they come with lots of vegetable; vegetables were much cheaper than meat in the hilly district. Wake up early in the morning, walk further up, that’s the morning market, nice stuff; there is another morning market near the Martyr Museum. Ho’s father was also one of the fighters in the early days, he said his father was more on the administrative side, did not get involve in the actual fights. But I sensed that the young generation tried to deny the sad pass by saying they knew not much about the early days. By the way, ‘Shinsane’ means ‘new life’ in Mandarin.

 

When I was negotiating up this Doi, I came across many villagers, going up the hill with their tiny bikes, possibly honda cubs, 90 cc or so, with two huge baskets hooked up to the back seats of their tiny cubs. These were about 30 inches in diameter, 2 feet height, were mainly used to transport vegetables. Just imagine what if we have to deal with the two big baskets of vegetables and the Honda cub, to negotiate up this Doi. Luckily, they had full loaded baskets only on the descending. What about lean angle? The two baskets almost hit the ground, hardly any lean was possible. Thought they were much slower than me, I felt really embarrassed; looked at my huge monster, the high end panniers. I didn’t dare to go fast when I passed them, I overtook them slowly, just be very sure not to make any disturbance to them.

 

Did you come across this tea house right below gen. Duan’s tomb? It’s run by gen. Duan’s daughter in law. That’s another love story. She was a Taiwanese, a graduate from the United State. She met the son of gen. Duan in the state when she was studying there. This young lady did not know he was the son of this famous general in the early part; when she came to know this, she had already deeply in love with Duan’s son. She left the state and went back Taiwan after her graduation, and paid a visit to Doi Mea Salong and golden triangle. It was to her astonishment, that human being could live in such an environment, no water, no electicity, no toilet, no shelter, no life at all. She met with fierce opposition from her parents back home, combated them all, and back again to Mae Salong to marry Duan’s son. The young lady left behind whatsoever, forwent her Taiwan citizenship; and have been living there with the general’s son since. Just unbelievable, doesn’t that sound like a romantic tale? isn’t it too Qiong Yao? Oh, I suppose you know who Qiong Yao is. Where can we fine such a soul mate and life partner like that these days?

 

I have managed to come this far with my inadequate English, hope you don’t mind. Hey, you guys enjoy stone age love story like this? and the stone age martyrs story? Those are for the stone age guys; any out there? Have fun! I have to stop here for the time being.

 

Just enjoy your rides

jri

 

fantastic writeup on your side! More knowledge for everyone!

[oORuByOo]

very interesting story mention justrideit.. *clap*

 

enjoy ur photo palmer.. ^^ make ppl heart itchy to go for a trip~

[geraki]

damm u let me have this idea to ride alone to thailand...thank plamer!! till mine bike is ready...

[PaLmEr]

damm u let me have this idea to ride alone to thailand...thank plamer!! till mine bike is ready...

 

would like to see and hear more riders heading to out of the way places!

[loufu]

bro, how come ur FC so high??

 

 

Fuel Consumed:

THB 12680 (S$568)

MYR 280 (S$125)

S$693

 

Distance Travelled:

10485KM approx.

(15.12KM/L)

[PaLmEr]

bro, how come ur FC so high??

 

 

Fuel Consumed:

THB 12680 (S$568)

MYR 280 (S$125)

S$693

 

Distance Travelled:

10485KM approx.

(15.12KM/L)

 

I redid the calculation again, based it on Thai fuel prices of THB34. Most stops had fuel prices higher than THB34. Consumption increased also due to the poorer quality fuel and the altitude (much backfiring) Total expenditure on fuel was almost S$1000.

[PaLmEr]

LOL! Thats one way to put it. But I'm sure you'll find this the easiest stretch to ride ya?

 

easiest but the most boring part.