JAB?…John, Ally and Boon:). Yes after a long break from our road tours; mostly because of me being tied up with the sale of The Brick Road Cafe;  at long last me and Ally went out for one of our motorbike tours, and this time Boon came to.

As we needed to return to the motorbike market to complete the paperwork for the orange Wave we had agreed to meet Ally there at around 9am.

After sorting the paperwork and having a quick look at the bikes , we took coffee at Mee Mees’ before heading off on quite a lengthy tour.

First we cut across to the Doi Saket road and headed past Doi Saket into the mountains.

Taking the right hand turn towardds Ban Huaw Kaow, Ally first took us to what she called , ‘the alternative hot springs’. There is a Hot springs further up the main road, at Pong Nam Rorn, with a market and several food and drink outlets , which is used as a tour rest  stop.

This one appears to be an abandoned attempt to develop one deeper in the mountains.

The water is, without a doubt, extremely hot , but is also disgustingly black in most of the pools and stinks to high heaven.

Interesting but not one to rush back to.For me the highlight of this visit was the small but proud looking chameleon we spotted.

A little further down the road we were ready for more coffee, we had been riding for an hour!

Ally, having done this road before, took us to The 196 Coffee Corner, a lovely little place that does extremely good fresh coffee at a fraction of the price you’d pay in town.

We were met enthusiastically by the owners golden labrador who refused to stop barking until we’d all said hello.

If you get the chance, take a walk up the driveway and take a peek into their private garden which contains the owners collection of wood ‘scuplture’. Another gem of a place in the hills.

All caffeined up, on we went, wending our way through the hills working our way over to our main destination of Doi Khun Tan National Park. It was a long and beautiful ride. On the way we made a slight detour to our surprise lunch destination,(thanks again Ally), Tharntong Kitchen, at Tharntong Lodges. This wonderful place, nestled up in the mountain forests, with a mountain stream running through it, has been beautifully landscaped and has many wood cabins spotted around in which you can stay if you wish. With the cheapest room being 1,200 baht a night , its out of my usual budget; but for the stunning surroundings and excellent facilities, including top notch food, I’d say its worth it.

Treating myself to wild pig in red curry sauce, (120 baht..excellent quality and good portion),

I managed to swallow a whole bay leaf that got lodged in my throat, very nearly requiring the Heimlich maneuver, thankfully a good slap on the back from Boon dislodged it.

If you find this place I hope you’ll get to say hello to the resident cockatoo who is extremely friendly and poses well for the camera. He was most gentle when taking the fruit that Ally offered.

So, happily fed, it came time to get back down to the road to Khun Tan.

We had turned off to the left for lunch, so it was back town and left back towards our destination, stopping briefly at the Cosmo Petrol station to refuel the bikes.

Another long, but very enjoyable ride, through more stunning scenery.

There was a long stretch where the tarmac road disintegrated into mud and gravel base, but the slow bumpy ride was worth it as it took us to one of the best view points, overlooking the Mae On Valley.

Ally warned me to take a deep breath as we walked the few steps off the road to the view point, and well I needed to. It was quite a sight indeed and we were lucky with the weather, so stormy in recent days, sunny and clear giving a crisp few for miles around.

After spending some time socking in the splendor of the valley below, we carried on down the road that would take , first through the valley and then on to Khun Tan. A few kilometres on we were back on to tarmac and very soon took a stop at Wat Maer Takai.

This relatively modest compound holds some beautiful Temple buildings.

But the most interesting feature is the huge and varied amount of images;

Buddha to Ganesh to King Rama and more.

That said, the front of the main temple building is also stunning in its artwork.

From here we then rode on, following our leader Ally , who took us into the National Park area and up to Khun Tan Railway station.

What a beautiful spot, its like something out of The Railway Children, with palm trees. Lovingly landscaped and manicured, you feel you are waiting in somebodies garden rather than a station. We came across a group of farang who had been staying in lodges and had a little gripe about how long they had been waiting for the train to come. I could only remark about what a wonderful place to have to wait.

We stayed for coffee and saw their train arrive, exiting the tunnel from the mountain, that looks too small from the platform.

Look out for the Khun Tan butterflies basking in the sun.

This quiant surprise of a place is well worth a visit, another one of those spots to kill some time in my sort of ‘comfort’.

We had had a long ride through the day, so from here it was basically continuing on to meet the Highway 11 at Mae Ta, where we also visited the train station. Although not in quite such a stunning location, this station was equally well cared for and landscaped, where waiting for a train could only be a joy.

Heading back down the highway towards Chiang Mai, another 20 odd kilometres got us home to Lamphun, where Ally stopped for coffee and to get her long lost memory card. Next week Ally?

For more photos from this day please visit our photobucket album here.