Dirt tracks, forest, incredible valleys in Northern Thailand - Episode 5

In this episode, I ride down some single track through a forest, navigate some water crossings, ride down a spectacular valley, and come across even larger Buddha statues. I'd spent the day riding through the jungle and farmlands, then over the last climb before dropping into the city of Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand after Bangkok. A quick search online and I'd found this place to stay. It had a pretty cool vibe and actually had an adventure bike in the main area, definitely my kind of accommodation. The room was super clean and had plenty of space. I went back down to meet up with Song, the owner of the accommodation, and he also explores Thailand on a motorbike. So this is Song and he's been helping me with some local roads. There's not really like dirt tracks like in Australia or the US. There's like MX dirt bike tracks which are single lane or it's like a local those concrete roads. So yeah, we're just trying to find some north towards the border. More challenge. More challenge, yes. Like this and like this, yeah. And it's a little disconcerting. He's got me on the TV and it's a little weird. There was one particular valley that looked like the type of track I like, so I marked the starting point on my map. I walked down the street and got something very tasty to eat. This is so good. I went for a quick spin around town to check it out. Chiang Mai, meaning New City in Thai, was founded in 1296 as the new capital of Lan Nang, succeeding the former capital Chiang Rai. Chiang Mai's old city wall and moat forms a 1.6 by 1.6 kilometer square created by These historical red brick fortifications were designed to protect against invasion, specifically from Burma. The city also has five main gates which some have been restored. Picked the right place to stay as Song definitely helped me out trying to understand tracks around here. Probably missed a few going around the loop. You can actually go through the but we'll see. He sort of gave me a rough idea to go north. Right now though I'm going to go and head out and check out the bazaar which is basically a market just really big with a lot of everything I think and get something to eat. Chiang Mai boasts over 300 Buddhist temples with around 200 located within or immediately around the city center. I rode around and came across a lot of different markets, many on the side of the roads and some actually on the road. Nothing really inspired me to get off the bike so I kept riding around checking out the light displays they had and just taking in this bustling city's nightlife. It was time to head off north to see if I could find this valley and to make my way to Chiang Rai. Cool an old defender. Spotted an interesting temple. It looked ancient like it had been discovered in a dense jungle lost for hundreds of years but it was just across from the moat and the old city wall. Beside it was a wooden temple that had been restored with fine timber details. There was some military hardware on display cannons and tanks. That is the second passenger plane I've seen in random locations. The other being the Thai Airways Jumbo in the middle of a farmer's paddock. There was an elephant sign. Maybe I'll get lucky and come across one. I saw a sign that said Chang Do Elephant Training Center. Well it sounds like I might be able to see an elephant there and be able to get a photo so I spun the bike around to see if I could find this place. The road soon turned into a two-wheel track. I rode up the small valley past some dogs. It looked like the kind of vegetation an elephant might be hanging out in. I went down into a small gutter. Once up the other side of the path had now turned into a single track. I rode for a bit further but still hadn't seen any other signs. This was looking more like a track through different farming paddocks than a road to an elephant training facility. I'm no expert but I gather an elephant track would be a little wider than this narrow one. The track ended up at what seemed like a farmer's house so it seems this exploration down a random track was not that fruitful. So back I went. Morning. Well I've gone down a random track. There's a sign that said elephant training or something or obviously I've misread it as there's nothing here. Fun little single track but that's about it. Yeah well these things happen. If you don't have a look you'll never know. I'll see if there's anything at the front again but we'll see. Right now still heading north hopefully to find a little bit more dirt trails. Apparently there's some up here and eventually making my way to Chiang Rai. So I've been avoiding a lot of temples and things because apparently there are pretty spectacular ones there and I don't want to overdose on temples before I actually get to the good ones. So we'll keep making our way back along the track back out on the main road and then see where we go do next. I double checked this blue sign as the main sign that said elephant training center was blue as well but all it had was a three on it that was a distance in kilometers. There was a local cable footbridge. Although there were two lanes I was going to wait until it straightened up to go past. The lean looked just a bit dicey. Two monks approached the store. This is a tradition in Southeast Asia. The act of donating food and necessities to monks who are walking on the street is known as alms giving. I grabbed some water from the store myself and headed off. I spotted a massive statue so of course I had to check it out. Now this statue is rather large. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 15 stories. I don't know. It is massive. So there's actually rooms underneath. Seems like there's a monastery around here as in there's a lot of monks and I can hear a lot of chanting when I came in. This thing is next level. So I got actually into the temple. I don't know if it's a temple. Statue base. I had to take my shoes off. Boots. A little tricky but got it done. So the monks out front are actually assembling candles. Made these waxed like flower candles. There's a lot of intricate work inside as well. Stunning. I think there's a photo but it's from a bit further back. Back down where I came in. You can hear the monks chanting going on. It's very soothing. I grabbed a couple of photos of the statue with the mountains in the background. Then set off again with the next stop hopefully being the valley. Not all monks walk everywhere. I had made it into the area with all the valleys. I reached the mark on the map Song had shown me. I rode into what looked like a rubber plantation. The trees weren't scored and didn't have the collection cups at the bottom. So I'm gathering the trees may still be too young to harvest but I'm not sure as that is an uneducated guess. This was the valley I was looking for. It was a stunning valley but watch out for the chickens and roosters. Looking back in the rear vision mirrors I could see they had gotten through unscathed. There were a bunch of different crops in the valley. I came past a couple of farmers off to spray their crops. Coming around the corner and seeing the mountains bathed in sunlight with so much green rich vegetation was a special sight to see. The track became narrower and more overgrown. It seems this section of the track wasn't used as much. I finally came out into the next valley then started the descent back down. I come to my first water crossing. I thought I'd better do the sensible thing and check the depth of the water first. It wasn't that deep. About a foot on the leading edge but the surface below the water was a bit more unpredictable. So I was going to go slightly upstream which would be a bit deeper but the under the water would be more consistent. I just had to pick up my backpack I'd left on this side. I quickly checked that everything was secure and I set off again. I had made it onto another gorgeous valley road just waiting for the wave to go through from the guys at the checkpoint. I rode into a small village and as I'd been riding for a long time with no stops in the heat I was looking for a store where I could get a cold drink. It seems I stopped at a place in town, a local store. Well that track was very enjoyable. This sort of bike's made for a little tricky in spots but nothing really hard. As I mentioned before a lot of the tracks around here are more dirt bike friendly we'll say and you need buddies to pull you out. So that was that was really good. It was really cool going through there too like the temperature changed a lot through it. Now we're off to Cheng Rai. To see the entry of this temple the tiles look like they were made of mirrors. They sure know how to bring up a temple here. That's an impressive stairway up to another temple. I saw a side track dirt road to the left that might get me a better view of what was ahead. The track was pretty chewed up and as it was well into the afternoon I took it very slowly not wanting to drop the bike this late into the day. You don't get a lot of clear views through these roads here, well not so far. So I saw this one, thought there's a little dirt track to get down here just to get a better view of these rolling hills. You've got these little villages just dotted in each little valley and there's so much agriculture through here as well just nestled in amongst. It's not quite like Vietnam with the conical hills but similar. Okay hopefully I can make it back up the dirt road. So the roadwork guy pointed me to go across to the right. I rode into Cheng Rai. In the next episode I finally get to the incredible temples. I ride through a tea plantation. I head into the mountains where I get to see a stunning sunset.