Trip Dates - October 22 - Nov 2, 2014.
Part 1, Bike trip to Laos.
This article is written in 3 parts, has a bunch of my own stories, observations, and opinions, but also half of the details written are to offer some more information on this route, also some things along this route. While researching this trip, it was actually challenging to find up-to-date information. Specifically, there was no useful information available in English on the Laos leg of the trip (a few random blog posts from 2009, and then one Thai blogger from 2012). Of course, anyone can take the main roads from place to place, have a great time doing it too!, but I wanted to research trips and do them using side roads, opening the opportunities to get lost but to get lost safely. It was challenging for the areas through which we rode…
6AM, just off the train from Bangkok, starting the trip from Phrae, Northern Thailand.
The location of the most famous temple in Phrae, Wat Pra Tat Chaw Hae
Awesome stone work at every turn.
The general idea of the trip was-
Train North from Bangkok, bike West across the border from Nan province, ride West through North/Central Laos, turn South after reaching Luang Prabang, ride down to the capital of Vientiene, ride back to Thailand, then train again South through North-Eastern Thailand (Esaan) towards Bangkok. 11 Days of riding, and 2 days (1 on either end) for catching trains…
* I give the bike trip in a bit more detail at the end of the 1st article section.
No point to load 3 pages if the distance/routes/town names are what you need *
So far, in 4 years in Thailand I’ve spent most of my time traveling in Esaan (What seems to be Eastern Thailand while looking at a map, but what Thai people call the North-East). This is easiest for me of course, as I happen to live in Esaan.
A few trips to Chiang Mai, and one amazing trip to Chiang Rai (the Northern-most province of Thailand), I have spent only a small amount of time in the North (maybe just 1 month overall out of my 48 months here). I have always wanted to visit the North by bicycle, and I finally got the chance over my last school break. I went riding with my good friend Bank for 7 days, and then alone for 5 more days riding back from North Central Laos to get back to my home in Nakon Ratchasima, Thailand.
I saw so much, was blessed to witness such a wide scope of the types of lives people on this earth lead… I cannot hope to capture it all in a simple article of two thousand or so words… I’m sure even one of my favorite writers, Ernest Hemingway, would have a hard time capturing such a trip in so few words. (But if you want to see how he does, please enjoy the two books “Green Hills of Africa,” and “Under Kilimanjaro” the latter being one of the best books I’ve ever read. The beautiful yet simple descriptions he can give make any writer jealous, and any reader who happens to be missing Africa will feel what I call, ‘Africa Blues’).
Outside of Phrae, entering the province of Nan
I took this map shot because I wanted to know for future reference, where the MOST beautiful 50km of riding took place... definitely going to return at soonest convenience.
It was cool to see a sign like this, I know to a pro biker 228km is 1 day, 2 days at most, but with our gear and inexperience... Yeah, it felt like a big deal at the time.
Past Phrae, now entering Nan.
Departure, Day 0 - Train leaves at 8:10pm from Hua Lampong, 8:25 Sam Sen Station, or 8:30 from Bang Sue. Great train for the price, was on time, we had seats in 2nd class (Fan overhead and windows that work)
316 Baht per person + 90 for each bike, 10 hour train ride. I was able to sleep fine in the train seat, the second class seat reclines significantly, and I was ready to ride when we arrived in Phrae at sunrise.
October 23, Day 1 -
Riding through the town of Den Chai, towards the provincial capital city of Phrae, you will pass a few markets, see some lovely open sights of fields and some small rolling hills, and enjoy light morning traffic to and from whatever markets are on the way. There is a well-maintained side road, paralleling the main road, and this road takes you right to one of the main attractions in Phrae; Wat Phra Tat Jaw Hae. A famous temple with a huge golden pagoda, the detailed walls, pillars, and artwork found inside and around the temple’s church were awesome! See the photo below, quite an old temple, I didn’t really know that temples in Thailand were much older than 1300 AD, the same time the Khmer Empire was building its famous temple complexes in Cambodia and South-Eastern Thailand. Temples in the North of Thailand though, as I soon learned, are often more than 1,000 years old! If you are interested in seeing unique temples (Thailand has tens of thousands of temples, its common to hear a “seen one, seen ‘em all” attitude from travelers, but some of them really are amazing, and definitely NOT all the same! Each region of Thailand has its own definite style). Wat Pra Tat Jaw Hae is one of these, its worth a visit.
Personally, its even more worth the visit as this was the first place we were recommended to find Kao Soi, the awesomely famous Burmese Curry Noodle dish famous in the North. A porcelain bowl of Rice Noodles, a Northern version of Thai Red Curry paste, Pickled Cabbage and/or Bean Sprouts, and Deep-fried Tofu. It is a mildly spicy, creamy, warming dish, often made with honey instead of sugar (The best place I had Kao Soi was Kao Soi Nam Peung in Lampun Province!).
If you’re into food and travel then it is probably the one Northern dish that you cannot afford to miss. Ok, I take that back, you better have a side-order of Sai Ua, Northern Thai spicy sausage, along with your bowl of Kao Soi.
*and coming in second would have to be Northern style Laab… The same pronunciation as the wonderful pork dish from Esaan, aside from keeping Pork as the main ingredient, Northern style Laab is pretty much different in every way. One genius move they use for the sour flavors is to roast and pound a basic combination of native Northern herbs, mix the herbs into the meat, then dry grill it all a second time, instead of the simple (but awesome) squeeze of lime juice after pan-frying that Laab gets when preparing it Esaan-style!
The rest of the ride today was high-lighted by some Teak Forests, Phrae being one of the 3 places in Thailand (I’m told) where Teak Trees are still natural. The famous (and nearly extinct) Thai Golden Teak is now pretty much only found in this one province, Phrae, all the famous Golden Teak has been cut down and used to make houses. After the forests, it started to rain, we were still 20km from our destination, it was already late-afternoon, and we were in a very wide open-field area. We were able to hitch a ride after about 10 minutes to the next town of Rong Kwang. We slept there at one of the two hotels, a very nice hotel named Saeng Buri, 450B a night for a very, very nice room, and we played pool with the owner at his restaurant next door.
Actually, a funny thing from this night is worth remembering. I hadn’t played pool in awhile, so it took me awhile to warm up. I ended up playing 5 games before dinner against the same guy, a friend of the owner’s who turned out to be the “Big Man” (I didn’t know it at the time) of the road project currently going through the town of Rong Kwang. Out of 5 games, I only won one, and he happily invited my friend and I to eat with him. During dinner, the entire restaurant slowly filled with what we found out were this guy’s workman. The guy I played was the Foreman, the head Engineer of the project, and I guess he was excited to finish dinner so that he could continue to beat the Farang in pool :)
(I knew this because I speak Thai, and (I’m not trying to be too critical here, just describing a fact of life in developing countries) it was NOT because he spoke English. The state of affairs might be different in some developing countries, obviously countries that I haven’t yet visited, but I remember that in Africa, the same thing holds true as was true here… a mid level “Big Man” may or may not speak English, may in fact be extremely sharp and well-educated, or may just be another (usually) rich man riding his train to the next level, it seems to be random… but! A real Big “Big Man,” the top top guy of whatever it may be - school, project like this one, government position - is almost guaranteed to NOT speak more than a few words of English. Or be an expert in anything at all for that matter. HE doesn’t need to - everything is taken care of for him, no one will ever laugh at him (out loud) for making a mistake. People are too polite, and the Big Man culture is too firmly in place. The Big Man literally knows no shame, can get away with the most boldfaced ignorance with just a hearty laugh, and does not even recognize that its somewhat embarrassing for the leader or director of an organization to not know answers to what might seem to many as the simplest and most relevant of questions. (Unfortunately “Big Woman” is so rare in developing countries that, although the system in place does totally favor over men over women, is openly and extremely sexist, the term Big Man itself here really is true, and not a sexist term, as there really are only “Big Men” in Thailand).)
I will take this opportunity to remember that my own school’s Director declined English lessons when I offered to teach him 2 hours a week, one-on-one, for FREE, at HIS convenience :)
Ok! Having prefaced with all that! Dinner took about 2 hours, I don’t know if anyone could count how many bottles of whiskey the entire team went through, but I’ll just say that the Foreman was even happier than before about the chance to continue our round of pool. It was just 10B per game for this table, there was only one table, and I think its normal for the loser to pay for the next one, thats how I’ve always played, but like many other games, its common to play for money in a double-the-bet type of betting increase. He hadn’t even mentioned betting when we played before dinner, even when he was beating me, but after I won the first game of the second round, he said “Again! And let’s double the bet!*”, I got just a bit nervous. I declined, but my friend wanted me to play, he reminded me that the foreman was taking care of the bill for the great dinner we just had, and I shouldn’t be afraid of losing 20 Baht. “Just make the Big Man happy!”
(That was what he said in Thai… what he said in English was “You! Two!,” and pointed to the table. …ok, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt and imagine that he spoke flawless Chinese…)
We played again, I won again, played again, I won again, 3 more times and the bet was up to 400B. Another game would exceed the price of our room, so for me personally, we were at the limit of the amount of money I’m ever prepared to gamble (My rule being to bet only the price of one day’s accommodation IF I ever take a bet in the first place, only a few times in life that I can remember).
I don’t ever play anything for money except poker with friends, 5$ per game, so in an unfamiliar town I was definitely unsure of how to act. Of course, after losing 5 straight games, now his worker buddies were giving him a hard time, and many people were now watching us play. I wasn’t intending to make him pay up if I won, really, he had just treated us to a great dinner, but I knew that If I lost, he was going to take great satisfaction in making me pay… I didn’t want to just give up, and honestly I didn’t want to pay for something that I could really win in a fair contest.
Luckily, after I won the 5th game, much closer actually as now he started asking friends (some of them very good!) to take some of his shots, he said, “Ok, Fine! Last game!” Haha, oh man,… so the Big Man was ok with cheating too, so now I was very nervous. Anywhere in the world it would be embarrassing to get beat several times by a stranger, more so when it was you who called the bet, AND way more so when its happening in front of all your friends. On top of all those normal scenarios, in Asia there is also the huge cultural significance in a “loss of face,” and honestly I should have just played it safe to begin with! In this situation what I should have done, for the sake of culture too, was of course, to lose the second game, pay him, smile, and quit. We were not at home, and this is the type of stuff in Thailand that I have always avoided. I don’t have any bad personal stories after living 4 years in a country that is SUPER famous for bad travel stories, and suddenly I was opening myself to a potential first…
My opponent was definitely not smiling, he was concentrating on every shot, and I was definitely sweating. I won the game after we both shot once on the 8-ball, all other balls down (his TWO buddies having made more then half his balls for him!, by this point I was warmed up, I wasn’t drinking, and my friend was the opposite of steady, if not for his helping buddies it wouldn’t even have been a contest…). I pocketed the 8-ball, neatly put down my stick, gave a big “Wai” (Thai bow/greeting), and went to the bathroom. Whew!
When I came back, the money he had put on the other side of the table was gone, and the Big Man himself was gone as well! I got even more nervous, for just a second, until his friend told me that he had had enough to drink, and had gone to bed. Even bigger sigh, Whew! About an hour of nervousness, but now I was just laughing that the guy refused to pay a traveler after being the one to insist on gambling in the first place! Very funny memory from that town… And I’m glad too that if I ever go back, which I would love to do as the morning bike ride the next day took us through the prettiest and most relaxing section of the whole trip, I know that he won’t be there as the road construction will have moved North…
Oct 24, Day 2 -
So - quite an eventful first day; got lost once, had great weather, had rain, had a great dinner with a lot of new friends, didn’t know where to stay but got lucky with a cool and very nice hotel, got caught up in gambling,… the next day was just pure riding. It was 90km from Rong Kwang to the provincial capital of Nan, and the road was starting to get more hilly.
This section was the most beautiful of the trip, and looking back it really was the best because we still had enough energy to enjoy every bit. The later days were equally full with gorgeous scenery, but tired legs, tired rears, one of us sore from a bike spill in some gravel, neither of us sure of directions… it ended up with me easily picking this day as the best day out of the twelve.
We rode out from Rong Kwang, enjoying about 90 minutes of gently moving hills, and stopped for breakfast at one of the most wonderfully situated coffee shops, just after passing the first sign for Huay Kon (our last destination in Thailand, the name of the Border Checkpoint). There was seating for about 15 but we were there alone, and the lovely woman of grandmother age made us tea, Thai coffees, and Kai Luak (flash-boiled eggs, the whites have slightly cooked, the yoke is still totally liquid, and is usually drunk from a small glass after being seasoned with oyster sauce and black pepper). My friend also ordered a plate of Pad Thai for us (a dish I don’t care to order, but Grandma recommended it as her specialty dish… ok :) had to try it, and yes, out of the 7 or 8 times I have had Pad Thai in the 4 years here, it was the best indeed!), and I had my cinnamon oatmeal with peanuts, some fruit, and a Vietnamese style coffee. The entire restaurant was just a massive bamboo patio perched on a very steep hillside, it was attached to some surrounding trees for stability, and it overlooked a valley that appeared to have no other human residents. This shop can’t be missed, it was the only building for at least 1km, it is on the left-hand side of a side road driving from Phrae to Nan. We were not yet to the main road, or else Im sure Grandma would have had many more visitors. It was a perfect place to sit and enjoy the cool Northern morning weather, and we were very slow to leave.
The next set of hills started to get much steeper, but we were somehow going down more often than up, I wasn’t complaining at this point, but of course we could realize that we would then have to make up the elevation soon enough. Someone actually recommended to me a different way Northwards from Phrae, and I really have no idea why someone would want to avoid this area. I can’t imagine that a road could be much more beautiful, this road was a perfect example of what I think of when I picture the North in my mind. Many less people than Esaan, many more trees, same wide open spaces, same clean air but cooler and more breezy, just a great day to ride a bike.
Riding the second 30km leg brings one through huge hills on either side, the road seeming to follow the path of the river through the hills, there are many bridges back and forth, and a cool thing of this section was that I noticed many more buffalo being used for work. In my province of Korat, its actually much more common to see a machine doing work that a buffalo has done in Thailand for so many centuries, even just plowing a small field. It was cool to see that Nan was not as modern as my area, in this way anyways, even though it is so much bigger than my town! The North does have a more picture-friendly culture its true, a more colorful one, but maybe they really do more than just some cultural dances in traditional dress to preserve their unique and beautiful old ways.
After lunch, we made it to the huge open plain where the capital of Nan province sits, and from here the smaller road we took intersected with the main area highway, Route 101. A nice and easy final 30km took us into the capital, and we found our accommodation within 600m of the town’s main intersection. It seems that the place we picked on Agoda.com, The Nan Guesthouse, was extremely common with backpacker tourists, and the staff all spoke very clear English. Actually some of them spoke German as well! Very cool, very cheap, very basic rooms but the staff was so friendly it is definitely not a step down from anything at all. I think that I have never seen so many photos and posters on the walls, photo books of the area, options for travel, guide books, brochures, help numbers for tourists, bus/train schedules etc. available at any hotel yet! I recommend this place if you want to visit Nan. I think our room was 240 Baht per night? Shared bathroom.
At least 50 shades of green in this rice field. Perfect timing for it too, wide open space at about
5:40 PM, just perfect to enjoy the already beautiful scenery. Right before entering the city
district of Nan (Amphoe Meuang Nan).
———————
Riding Hitching/Bus
Day
1 - Phrae Train Station to
Wat Pra Tat Cho Hae (Easy 39km), A. Mae Lai to A. Rong Kwang (19km)
riding on Route 1022,
then to A. Mae Lai - (Easy 23km) (Hitched due to Rain)
2 - Rong Kwang into J. Nan, on to A. Wieng Sa (Medium 36km)
A. Wieng Sa, turn North towards M. Nan (Easy 26km)
Route 101, from Intersection to M. Nan - (Easy 26km)
