A NIGHT IN PHAYAO AND ONWARDS TO CHAE SON VALLEY

Now admittedly we were not there long enough to explore exactly what Phayao has to offer. The lake is huge, and I suspect good for boaters. But we were dissapointed to see no evidence of swimming areas and for me, apart from its size, I found the lakes landscape to be quite boring.
In town, the lakeside road has been nicely manicured and by the number of brand new Thai cars parked along the waterfront, it appears to be a place for rich Thais to take a break.

All efforts to find a guest house failed. The only information we got was on hotels costing 600 baht a night minimum and some lake side bungalows , which turned out to be closed down.

On the verge of looking further out of town, we came across a place with two rows of rooms , each with a curtained off carport in front. A Thai motel where, before being given rooms, we were informed that this was usually for people who ‘came to have sex’. At 220 baht a night for what turned out to be very nice rooms with shower and TV, I wasn’t about to let that concern me.

Having sorted our accomodation we went back down to the Lakeside where there are many bars and restaurants and had a very nice evening meal, where we ordered a few different dishes and shared. A little above Chiang Mai street prices but very good food and reasonable cost.

In the morning we headed south having checked the map and decided to go check out Chae Son Valley and another big lake shown on the map.

It was another baking day and we took it slowly again, always on the look out for more waterfalls , which proved to be quite elusive. We did find this small one just a little way into Chae Son valley.
After a quick splash to cool off, we carried on in search of what turned out to be an equally elusive lake.

On the map it appears huge and Chae Hom supposedly sits at its edge, but we couldn’t find it ,and the couple of locals we asked didnt seem to know it either.

Finally, when we stopped at a small shop to get drinks, we were directed to the road to Lampang.
Spotting a sign for a waterfall up a right hand turn we first stopped for lunch at a cafe on the corner before heading up to check it out. It was in National Park but the cafe owners told us it was only 40 baht to go to the waterfall…….For locals yes, for farang 400. We decided to carry on looking for the lake, cheapskates that we are.(

FINDING THE LAKE AFTER A LONG SLOW RIDE

Just a little way down the road we hit a long stretch of roadworks, where I thought it prudent to stop and put sunblock on as there was no let up in the scorching sunshine and my knees were starting to look very red.So it was a slow dusty ride for quite a way, and we were giving up all hope of finding the lake. It was around 2.30pm and we were about to turn around , when we spotted the sign post for Kiu Lom lake.

Taking the small side road, a couple of Kilometers brought us to lakeside.

This trip was turning out to be full of anti-climax. I can only imagine that this lake increases in size considerably in the wetter seasons. Still we had been riding a long time in the heat of the day and it was still a nice place to take a rest and relax for an hour or so.

Again this is , by all accounts a boating lake, the lake bed being far to muddy for taking an enjoyable dip.
THE LONG SHORT-CUT THROUGH LANDSLIDE COUNTRY

Having exhausted the day with the search for cool water , the plan was to head back towards Chiang Mai , with the hope of finding a guest house along the way.
Never being happy travelling the same roads twice , we had chosen to try , what looked on the map like, a shortcut through the mountains, from Chae Son Valley over to Doi Saket.

Having trouble finding the connecting road to the mountain pass we stopped for a while checking the map and a helpful young local guy stopped, seeing that we might be a bit lost. Maybe we should have taken more notice of his incredulous look when we told him the way we wanted to go. Doing his best to impress on us that it was no short-cut and that it was very steep, he directed us back to the road to Lampang, longer in distance but good fast roads.

Hey, but we were on an adventure, we pressed him for directions to the mountain pass, which he gave along with a look of despair.

It wasn’t long before we found out why. And if I ever do it again I will use a more powerful bike. Be warned, the road from Mueang Pan is extremely steep in many places and takes you up and down several mountains as it takes you across to Doi Saket.

With all the effort it took to get up those steep rises without blowing the bike up, it was soon night time and we hadn’t spotted any guest houses.

Treacherous enough in the daylight, there was little chance of finding anywhere by then and we made the descision to press on all the way home.

Four hours of sometimes nail biting riding, as we passed signs of recent landslides and stretches where the road was clearly breaking up and being reclaimed by the mountainside drop, had me discussing the advisability of being far more prepared than we were.

Once the light dissapeared it got bloody cold up in those fearsome mountains and all we had was our sunny day wear. Had we hit a problem, we had no tent, no chance of a phone signal, no food and little water. Ok , we had two bikes so hopefully one of us could have gone for help, but the look of those roads in places suggested that the chance of landslides ahead and behind us was not totally impossible. Just as well I hadn’t thought of all this before we started, or else we would have missed out on an awesome trip. I can’t say for sure how high we got but about half way down the last hill we passed a sign that read 14,500, (ft, i think).

The atmosphere was very spooky at times riding through the still, dark, misty,mountain forest roads.

Tired, cold but totally exhilirated, we arrived back home at around 9.30pm….and slept very well.

For people specifically interested in motorbike & road trips, there is a dedicated website providing all sorts of bike info regarding Thailand, Laos & Cambodia. Check out www.GT-Rider.com and if you would like to see another (daylight ride of Chae Son) read a trip report here …