The typical Thai 500 baht hotel / guesthouse room

The almost haunted Chiang Dao Inn @ Thb 500, old but the only deal in town

How can any traveller with or without a bicycle go wrong with this ?

Just Thb 500, all of  US$16.50, or in the better days, $12.50, and you should have the essentials of air conditioning, a newish bed, a TV, (LCD and cable in the better establishments) bathroom with a hot shower, a toilet with a seat, most times a small mini fridge, and hopefully peace and quiet. What is not assured are the midnight door slammers and 6 am engine revving buffoons. Better places will throw in a small breakfast and refreshments with a smile and security for your bicycle. 95% of places should have the all important wifi too.

Of course there will be variations of up to Thb 200 from the Thb 500 median, depending on location,  season, length of stay and how desperate the establishment is, or you, the guest are.  I’ve stayed at so many, I’ve lost count, but the nicer ones have my many repeat visits and a familiar face to welcome you.

Note : Most of these photos are from the North Thailand 2009 trip.

The Mae Malai 'Mansion' was more like a truck stop, but it was new and had an opening rate of just Thb 350, and a fan (and AC) to dry your cycling clothes !

What more could you want? Thb 450 @ Phayao same same something hotel with a nice view of Phayao Lake

One of my favourite northern Thai towns is Fang, and it has the Baan Fang Hotel @ Thb 450 plus breakfast

His and Hers urinals at the Akhamsri guest house in Lampang Thb 550, with matching sandals and walls

This is a small bungalow at 1200 meters asl in the mountains of Mae Salong, no AC needed and I got a 'regular' rate of Thb 300 (without asking) down from Thb 500. Amazing. Google Little Home Mae Salong GH

Little Home's IT room

Baan Warabordee in Chiang Rai town Thb 450 down from Thb 500 as this room did not have a fridge. How thoughtful. Small breakfast and coffee/tea in the lobby all day and night.

The Royal Panerai is a nice hotel in a bad location in Chiang Mai, but with any bicycle, it sure beats walking around. Thb 500 less one baht, down from a steep Thb 1600 ! One night was marred by former cave dwelling guests from China who discovered 'door slamming'

When you see a sign like this, hit the brakes, cycle in and make some enquiries

The Sawasdipong in new Sukhothai city Thb 550. It came with a surprisingly good western breakfast and there was a good massage joint across the street

A nice villa in the mountains of Pai, North Thailand. Low season Thb 600 after a 50% discount

This resort is one of the many dozens that has sprung up around the Pai valley, in the Mae Hong Son province of North Thailand. The once sleepy town became famous after a many a Thai rom-com (romantic comedy) movie was shot there. So in the high season room rates double or triple and still the hordes from the cities make the drive into the mountains, clogging the streets, shops, restaurants and guesthouses during the year’s end. Desperate tourists without reservations will have to make do with renting Thb 500 tents to camp by the Pai river, and sharing bathrooms and toilets with 100 other people.

If you need to experience Pai, try the mid year ‘green’ ie sometimes rainy low season when things are more sane and the room rates are not in the thousands of baht. Pai has lost it’s charms from say 10 years ago. Many locals have sold out and moved on. Who could blame them, when offers for your land/homes are 10 times their value ? That said there are many road and off road trails in the vast valley and the cool weather is enticing. Pai in the northern Shan Burmese lingo translates as ‘Go’ or ‘Migrate” I guess the tourists will still go, while the former locals with fat bank accounts will do the other. After 10 trips to Pai, it’s time to move on to other provinces.

The resort in a former rice field

Lampang to Chiang Mai

Wednesday October 7, 2009, 37 km (23 miles) – Total so far: 623 km (387 miles)

If you are doing research through this wonderful CGOAB encyclopedia, please note that Lampang to Chiang Mai is about 120 kms on Hwy 11 with a mountain pass to overcome. 37 kms listed above is my milage from pottering about my start and end destinations for today. I did the same for the ‘ride’ Phayao to Lampang 2 days ago. Though cycling Hwy 11 should be fun and challenging, some journals have it as ‘all boring’ highway, when riding up from Bangkok, as that route almost parallels the railway heading north.

As I am taking the train today, there will be nice pictures of that ride and hopefully not too much detailed ramblings taking up a few paragraphs. I was tempted by the train ride, as not only does it do the hill climbing for me, it also passes by Khun Tan National Park and crosses the watershed that separates the Ping river valley (Chiang Mai) from the Wang river valley (Lampang) The air is cool and the jungle scenery very thick and jungly. The highlight must be a very long and dark tunnel at Khun Tan. It got all the schoolgirls in the train screaming.

I reluctantly check out of my ‘home’ for the past two nights, a bit surprised that I had to pay the high season rate of Thb 550 instead of Thb 450. Well, I had crossed into October. They lent me some cutlery. A blue mosquito coil outside the room each evening. Excellent housekeeping. Check out girl took pains to say that the owner might give me a discount, but as a mere employee, she could not. As if to apologise, she struck off my small internet bill, but I paid in full. It was a really excellent stay after all, with absolutely no ghosts.

I rode a whole 100 metres before fruit juice Granny waved me over for another ABC. Aah sweet beet root and it’s anti oxidant properties. For the uninformed, it might make your stools a little purplish red also. Don’t panic, it’s not blood, but that’s hard to tell sometimes, mainly because I am not a doctor, and I am not you. Speaking of panic, I did, the first time.

Got to the station at high noon for the highly anticipated 1241 hrs departure. Buy ticket for an amazing Thb 23, but the time printed on it is cancelled and replaced with 1300 hrs. Drats. At 1.00 pm, the time on a whiteboard is changed to 1350 hrs. Train rumbles in at 2.30 pm. Double drats. Think carefully, why do they even bother with 1241 hrs? Just say early afternoon after 1 pm or thereabouts.

If you have bike trouble, there is an adequate bike shop right by the fountain outside the station. I spot new Shimano stuff. The owner is also into high powered motorcycles. Nice to gawk at. The motorcycles.

I had two and a half hours to observe the goings on in a rural Thai train station.

Nice German inspired architecture. A really Nazi looking black and white clock, with a stern black eagle motif, hanging from the ceiling, which did not make the train arrive any faster.

There’s a Chevy van parked outside. Steering wheel on the right.

A monk talks for 2 hours on his cell phone.

I buy an expensive Thb 7 bottle of water. Usually Thb 4 – 5 outside. Thb 6 at 7/11.

I move the bike around 3 times, just because I felt like doing so.

Many many boisterous school kids on a field trip, writing notes, sitting on the station floor. One teacher, though middle aged, is fashion savvy and would not look out of place in a Thai disco. Imagine a Marg Helgenberger from CSI, but with a Thai face.

Went to the gents once and there were 3 newly pubescent boys in school uniforms, applying eyeliner and lipstick. Check to see urinals, yes I am in the right convenience.

There is a book titled, ‘The Third Sex : Kathoey, Thailand’s Ladyboys’ by a Richard Totman. Mildly enlightening. Amazon has it.

I got hit Thb 100 for the bicycle, but after 30 minutes I was issued a receipt. Almost 5 times the fare for a human that weighs 3 times the cargo. The only logical conclusion is that the rail authorities are trying discourage bulky cargo in the passenger trains.

Speaking of bulky cargo, I notice the highest ranking train official in a peak cap and pseudo military uniform messing with his cell phone across from me. What a job, just sitting all the way from Bangkok and working his phone. 3 other flat tummy underlings run around, checking and issuing tickets, writing up stuff, opening and closing windows, gawking at the intricate brake and gear shifting system on my bike, and saving a life when a clueless schoolgirl almost leaves the end of the train in search for the ‘hawng-nahm’ or bathroom.

That made the train general quite angry and he stood up, went to some teachers and barked something like, control your students. Students being students kept quiet for a while before playing, I touch you, you touch me back, and I hit you back, repeat 100 times.

Ironically, as a lone cycle tourist, I am allowed to the back of the train, but not beyond a rusty chain, to take photos.

This Khun Tan park place seems nice, could be a good overnight cycle trip from Chiang Mai itself. There are bungalows to stay in and at least some food from what I saw during a very brief 5 minute stop at 600 metres above seal level.

Thanks Dave Early, for planting another seed, http://daveearly.com/2009/06/28/khun-tan-railway-station-and-tunnel

hiang Mai has too many hotels and guest houses for it’s own good. Building and re modelling continues as there’s no Thai translation for recession. Even though the recession of late 08 is, well, late a year or so in Thailand. Although it sounds like I am complaining, I am not, as I sense a forced discount rearing it’s lovely head once again. This time I get to share it with fellow guests who shamelessly pull up in Volvo XC 90s and BMW 740is, impeding my LHT’s way into the hotel basement car park.

On the first day of the trip, I did a double take when I saw a sign saying ’499′ outside a posh hotel. 3 days later, I cancel my Thb 650 room reservation in a downtown guest house for tonight and tomorrow. The last 2 nights will be here, at the Grand Panerai Hotel, part of the Royal Peninsula Group, whatever that is, as I am not in Hong Kong. (That super Hi-So one orders Bentleys in bulk). Both are located in a low traffic area of town, but are just 100 m from the famed north east Sri Phum corner of the city moat, which is pretty darn touristy. So close and yet so far. A location that only a lone cycle tourist, passing by at 25 km/h, on his/her way to the farm lands along the Ping river, will take real notice of.

It was great to get to Chiang Mai relatively early before dark and settle in to such luxurious but ridiculously well priced surroundings. Clean up, then off to hunt for food on a bicycle. I eat a very healthy stir fried tofu and spinach over white rice dish, at the town’s finest Chinese restaurant, Jia Tong Heng, along Sri Donchai Road, and takeaway a box of Shanghai fried noodles, just in case. That’s Thb 150 for both, and the price of 3/4 of a spare tube in some countries. I did not eat the little piggies, they are more palatable in a sausage or patty form. Cycling and eating. What a wonderful, vicious circle. I guess the secret is, to cycle enough, so you don’t end up looking like a circle.

Lampang

 

Tuesday October 6, 2009, 70 km (43 miles) – Total so far: 586 km (364 miles)

Sort of skipped breakfast this morning. Nearby grandma’s beef noodles didn’t seem quite ready and though she was very apologetic, who am I to rush a senior citizen at 7 am? There are loads of other places to eat at, but in this quiet neighbourhood, the sound of a juice blender by the road should irritate a dog or two or three. That’ll be one ABC , or apple, beet root and carrot juice please. As a tourist I am given an upsized one. Just Thb 20, and a meal in itself and it lasted the 24 highway kms to the Wang valley’s most famous sight, Wat Prathat Lampang Luang, or ‘The Great Relic Monastery of Lampang’

While some temples claim to have a Buddha ‘relic’ of some sort, a tooth or strand of hair, this high walled temple complex and it’s importance comes from Buddha’s actual presence at one time here. He also left a whole tuft of hair, now preserved in the chedi behind. Alas. the magnificent 45 metre high chedi was under going a face lift. I was not that enthusiastic seeing it covered with a green netting under cloudy skies, from a kilometer away. Managed to lock the bike near temple security and did spend an hour walking on centuries old earth strewn courtyards.

I manage to leave just before the white tour buses arrive and try to find a more rural way back to town. This was much more fun than Route 1, so I headed north east through a place called Hang Chat, why I don’t know, but there were really posh homes among the rice fields, and once I hit the Wang river it was all small riverside roads all the way to Lampang proper.

Found another granny food stall, opened at 10 am and the cheapest but best noodles on record so far, Thb 20 with some crunchy fried bits of lard on top, the icing on the cake, the crown jewels atop other lesser blemished ones, the R in your XTR. What I am trying to say is, that though kiddy portioned, thus not too fatal, it was sooo good. The shop was a bit messy and disorganized. I shut out all thoughts of being adopted here.

After a while, a daughter shows up in a pearly white Toyota Camry Hybrid. Partially assembled near Bangkok, also known as the Detroit of Thailand, for you car buffs. It is utterly new with the plastic sheets still over the leather seats. Speaks to me in Thai while I nod in approval of the noodles. After I am done swallowing and able to converse, in broken Thai, she giggles in embarassment, for mistaking me as a local. Happens all the time, to this lone cycle tourist, and she switches to English. How am I ever going to learn more Thai ? She’s slightly clairvoyant and tells me that the train station is to the right, 500 meters further on. I am on my way there to look at the German inspired architecture, check schedules and see how much longer I can stay in this town without missing my flight home.

At the entrance, there’s a roundabout and big fountain with ornamental baby elephants frolicking in it, as well as a restored steam engine train to indicate that you’re just 50 m away from the train station. A slow mail train from Bangkok gets here at 1241 hrs and takes 2.5 hours to reach Chiang Mai 125 kms away. Looks like another lovely, relaxed late departure tomorrow.

In a never ending quest to document my trip in detail, I bring you more of Lampang, such a laid back town, say compared to Chiang Mai. If Lampang stresses you out, er, there’s always…..Phayao.

With too much time on my hands, I schedule in a post lunch siesta, some internet time, go circle the town of Lampang, again and mostly just cycle down any road I fancy. The riverside promenade ones were the best, car free and you get to hear heart thumping Thai aerobics at dusk and see locals on their bicycles. Met the boys on fixies again who confirmed that Highway 11, the main route back to Chiang Mai has a long and hot 60 km hill climb. They did that on their Vespas, and not on fixed gear bicycles. They told me that the town fountain was the best place to ride such bicycles. I have no idea why, but there are many coffee shops with wifi and bike parking in that part of town. So much saner in the daytime without a chance of getting lost.

Started pedalling again after the siesta and found some really nice looking Burmese influenced temples close to the guesthouse. Wat Don Tao, I think. Though Burma is quite a distance from Lampang, many Burmese were brought to this part of Thailand to work in the logging trade. Apparently there were 4000 elephants in the business as well, but that was a really long time ago , as I did not see one single elephant this whole trip. It was teakwood central during the early years of settlement, when the British controlled much of teakwood logging.

Dinner was 2 takeaways from 2 different places. Reached ‘home’ asked for my keys and I am given a dining set, like last night, plate, bowl, fork and spoon. There’s some idle banter among the staff, just a mother and daughter team tonight, about this lone cycle tourist eating alone in his room, surfacing only to ride his bike. Ride I did. 70 kms today.

Phayao to Lampang

Monday October 5, 2009, 32 km (20 miles) – Total so far: 516 km (321 miles)

If you’ve been checking my daily distances cycled above, and have the Berndtson Thailand North map and a calculator handy, don’t bother. Map says 158 kms from Phayao to Lampang. Road signs on Route 1 are more optimistic. 125 kms. I cycled 32 kms today around Phayao and Lampang, both pretty small towns. In between, I let the Thailand Green Bus Company fill in the gap, 3 hours at an average speed of 50 – 60 kmp/h would add up to 150 – 180 kms. That’s a really long way, even on a 7 kg Italian racing bicycle, so the bus was a wise choice. Leave Phayao late at 12.00 noon and get to Lampang in the early evening. The rough plan was to see the lake shore in the morning. It was misty, cloudy and gloomy, unlike yesterday’s sunset. There are some nice, and well kept old wooden homes, some are huge mansions by the lake whose heyday must have been decades ago.

In a matter of hours, I have spoken to a local who tells me he has a Miyata ‘California Road’ race bike and some carbon Trek MTB. The guy sports very red shoes, and is walking his very frisky 9 month old German Shepherd, named ()bama. I kid you not. I call out ()bama and get a tongue full of saliva. Such is the attraction of the lone cycle tourist. Then my criterium around Phayao’s small hills with nice views of the lake fills up the time before I pack up and ride to the bus station. Before this, I pull up to one of the town’s 4 7/11s (that’s also a German cologne) get a dog to guard my bike, while I takeaway a sticky rice spicy pork burger for brunch.

Don’t knock any of the thousands of 7/11s in Thailand, they may spell the death knell for some mom and pop businesses, but to the lone cyclist they are oases of cool weather, icy drinks like Coffica, or mineral water, if you’re a purist, and fast tasty food that cyclists crave. Once my BP skydives, I might even patronise Tesco Lotus Express, arch enemy of the 7/11, as they deal in imported frozen meats like hickory smoked bacon. I’ll just have to figure out the grilling part.

At Phayao’s bus station, 2 minutes from my hotel, the bike and I are minor celebrities. Even on the open road, I am sometimes gawked at like an oddity. I don’t mind that as I am on the move to another exotic village or same same town. At the bus station people should gawk at well, other people. I remove the panniers, pay up Thb 65 and get a receipt, then wait at the bench with the Lampang sign over it. As there are no buses to be seen, I guess the bus is coming from somewhere else. No point asking when, as no one knows, not even the driver I guess, whom you can’t ask as he’s on the way from somewhere else. It arrived within 20 minutes.

On an irreverent side note, glitzy, Swedish made Singapore buses are satellite/GPS tracked, and there are electronic signboards at smoke free bus stops, that have LED displays of bus numbers and their arrival times. What our first world buses are seriously lacking in, are the cargo holds of Thai buses, a real important feature for the lazy or fatigued or both, solo cycle tourist. Maybe it’s because our savvy bike commuters would rather commute on our buses, mostly to Starbucks on a folding Brompton with titanium bits. Hence, no real need for a cargo hold.

It’s quite a nice change to ride a Thai bus, or in a Thai bus, as now I can become the gawker, observing the goings on in and outisde the bus. I still look like a tourist, as the conductress makes a pedalling motion with her hands and says ‘ha sip’ or Thb 50 for the bike. No receipt though, just a big smile from her. She’s short in one leg, but I don’t want to insult her by giving some more baht. Conductors also scream something like, ‘Aye-eeee’ after some one has alighted, thus telling the driver to move on. Stopping the bus is easier. Press the stop bell.

Monks get priority seating on a public bus, and no female is allowed to sit next or even near him. I see a monk and another male switching seats just because a woman finds an empty seat next to the monk. Soldiers have it better. One is really excited as he spots a really good looking woman in denim shorts and a t shirt tighter than her skin, as the bus pulls out. He indicates to me and his soldier friend not to miss this opportune moment. Soldier friend rebukes him, as in what’s the big deal or behave yourself, then goes back to sleep. I know he’s sleepy. In love or gay, not sure. Insufficient empirical evidence.

I am also at the rear of the bus where there’s an open space for all manner of cargo to be dumped on. Small luggage, bags of vegetables, a guitar, some fruit jostle for space among my pricey waterproof panniers. At some point I doze off, then wake up to find 3 school girls next to me. Being of that age when boys are a new discovery, or a real hassle, the girls are chatty, smile a lot, check out their faces and hair every 30 seconds and for some strange reason are wearing hooded polyester jackets in a tropical country, the back of which read, Faculty of Medicine, xxx University. Wow, that is a lot of studying left to do. The girls get off at Lampang too, but not before a final touch up with Kao brand facial blotter to remove excess oil from their noses. They should turn out to be pretty doctors or just pretty if they fail their exams.

Outside the bus, there are really long, lonely down hill stretches, of Route 1, but it’s still all highway, concrete barriers with lots of evidence of skids and crashes around the tighter bends. If not for the pretty, potential doctors, and the blazing mid day heat today, I’d feel a tinge of regret for not riding.

Once I am clicked in and cycling, I promise not to write this lone gawker, micro observing life on a Thai bus, thesis again. I cant say the same, once on a Thai train. There’s one from Lampang to Chiang Mai.

nfo from guide books claim that Lampang is a more laid back and less touristy town than Chiang Mai 120 kms northwest. This is very true as I see very few signboards in English and a serious lack of say Italian, German, French or any other non Thai restaurant, that you come across every 50 metres in Chiang Mai. The Thais too, love Lampang’s slower pace of life and appreciation for all things retro, be they old homes, cars, buildings and even bicycles.

Baby boomers here, and for that fact even where I come from, hanker for an old Volkwagen Beetle or Vespa as collector’s items and for showing off, but in Lampang the old stuff is actually lovingly looked after or if need be restored because they are still very useful and I suspect, sentimental to their original owners. I stop by a business which even repairs old horse carriages. Another pleasant surprise were the number of restaurants, pubs and coffee places that have custom made racks for bicycle parking. Better to smash up your bicycle than car after a night of drunken stupor. Actually not.

There are few overt signs of modernity in this town except for new cars and a huge Big C supermart which I did not have time to wander in. Lampang’s sights took up what was supposed to be a rest day tomorrow.

I’ll spend 44 hours at a great intenet find, the arty fartsy, Akhamsiri Home, nestled in a quiet leafy neighbourhood. My pink room is best described as modernist Flinstone-ish. The surrounding homes are large, meaning posh and hi-so. There’s a granny selling beef noodles and fresh fruit juice in the mornings, outside her modest wooden house, on a large plot of land, which I suspect has not yet been bought over by some yuppies, or waiting to be sold off by her children. If my Thai was better, I would ask her to adopt me. Then any touring cyclist passing by, giving me the secret password, like ‘Neil Gunton’ will get a free fruit juice.

If I venture just 5 minutes down the road, I’ll reach the Wang river that winds through town. There are 5 bridges spanning the river and I manage to ride across all of them several times during my stay. Close to the river banks are many rustic old wooden shop houses of old Lampang. On ‘Old Market Street’ lined with beautifully restored buildings, there are quite a few guesthouses and riverside restaurants of the Lonely Planet persuasion. Found them a bit too cramped, crowded and backpackerish. I don’t think my LHT would like it too. Too many world traveller gawkers, might get dazzled by it’s twin strobe lights in front, and Knight Rider style red rear blinker.

I lost my way in the dark for a while, and though some people looked intelligent, no one could point me in the direction of the very visible during the day, Wang river that floods from time to time causing bridge damage. Met some guys riding fixies and they put me on the right path.

Dinner was a 3 course takeaway, bought from 3 different places, while I was hopelessly lost. No point eating out when I have a designer room to have a Sabai time in.