Mae Hong Son Fly-Ride Route

A 304 km loop

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Why this ride

A rider’s loop: clean exit, memorable middle, calm return. A 304 km loop that starts and ends near Krathum Baen, about 5 h 32 of riding. On the way it passes Bang Yai, Scenic stretch near Pathum Thani and near Khlong Luang. near Krathum Baen is the high point.

Roadbook

1. Fuel stop near Krathum Baen fuel

   Krathum Baen is a district of Samut Sakhon province, south-west of Bangkok, where the city's sprawl meets factories, shrimp farms and the last of the old orchards. The Tha Chin River, a distributary of the Chao Phraya, flows past on its way to the Gulf of Thailand, and the land is crossed by canals that once carried produce to market by boat. It is a working area, busy with trucks and commuters, and a place most riders pass through on their way to somewhere else.

   Samut Sakhon, the provincial capital at the mouth of the Tha Chin, is famous for its seafood market, one of the largest in Thailand, and for the salt pans along the coast, where salt is still harvested by hand in the dry season. The Rama II Road, Highway 35, runs south from Bangkok through the province towards the beaches of the western gulf and the south of the country, and it is one of the busiest roads in Thailand.

   The riding here is hot, flat and chaotic. Traffic is heavy, with trucks, buses and countless motorcycles, and the roads can be rough and potholed. Motorcycles are not allowed on the expressways, so you will be on the main roads with everyone else. The heat and humidity can be intense, and the rainy season brings sudden downpours.

   Fuel stations are plentiful, many with convenience stores and coffee shops, and street food is everywhere. A plate of seafood in Samut Sakhon is a fine reward for braving the traffic. Mae Hong Son lies far to the north, a long journey through the central plains and into the mountains.

2. High point near Krathum Baen pass

   There is no real high ground on the Tha Chin plain west of Krathum Baen; the land is as flat as a table, built from river silt over millennia. What passes for height here is the hump of a bridge over the river or a canal, and from such a vantage the view is of water, palms, temple roofs and the occasional factory chimney. The river curves lazily through the landscape, and long-tail boats still ply its brown waters.

   The area straddles the border between Samut Sakhon and Nakhon Pathom provinces, and it is a mix of old and new. Orchards of coconut, pomelo and guava survive between the factories, and temples line the riverbanks, some of them old and richly decorated. Nearby, the Don Wai floating market, on the river in Sam Phran, is a popular weekend outing for Bangkok families, with food stalls and boats selling fruit and snacks, and the nearby Wat Rai Khing, with its revered Buddha image, draws pilgrims from across the country.

   The riding here is flat, hot and busy, with trucks and motorcycles on the main roads and narrow lanes winding through the villages. The surfaces can be rough, and dogs often sleep in the shade at the side of the road. The heat is intense for much of the year, and the rainy season brings sudden storms and floods.

   Fuel stations, convenience stores and street food stalls are everywhere. A meal at the floating market, perhaps a bowl of noodles or a grilled fish, is a pleasant break. Take plenty of water, because the long ride north towards Mae Hong Son begins in heat like this.

3. Near Bang Yai finish

   Somewhere north of Chiang Mai, on Route 1095 towards Pai and Mae Hong Son, a sign announces 1,864 curves, and riders queue to have their photo taken with it. That road, through the mountains of the far north-west, is the heart of the Mae Hong Son ride, and this point in Bangkok's western outskirts is where it all ends, back in the flatlands after the bikes have been flown or trucked home and the last kilometres ridden across the city.

   The area around Thawi Watthana and Bang Yai is the old Thonburi orchard country, a district of canals, nurseries, fruit gardens and new housing estates, where the city is still in the process of swallowing the countryside. On weekends, the Taling Chan floating market, a few kilometres east, is a relaxed place to eat grilled fish and noodles on wooden platforms over the canal, with boats selling fruit and sweets alongside. It is much less touristy than the famous floating markets further out of town.

   Bang Yai itself is a fast-growing suburb across the border in Nonthaburi province, with huge shopping malls, markets and a new metro line overhead, and it has every service you might need. Ending a ride here means you are close to the main roads north and west, but away from the dense traffic of central Bangkok.

   The contrast with the north could hardly be greater. Up there, the roads twist through teak forests and mountain villages, with cool mornings, misty valleys and long climbs. Down here, it is flat, hot and humid, and the traffic is intense, especially in the evenings. Motorcycles are not permitted on the expressways and motorways, so stick to the surface roads, keep to the left lane and watch out for buses and pick-ups pulling in suddenly. Fuel and food are available on every main road. After weeks in the mountains, a bowl of boat noodles by a canal is a gentle way to readjust to the lowlands.

4. Scenic stretch near Pathum Thani scenic

   Pathum Thani means city of lotuses, a name said to have been given by King Rama II when the local people presented him with lotus flowers during a visit. The province, just north of Bangkok on the Chao Phraya, was settled by Mon refugees from Burma in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and their culture survives in temples, festivals and food along the river. Wat Chedi Hoi, a temple decorated with millions of ancient fossil shells, is one of the area's curiosities.

   Today, the province is a mix of suburbs, industrial estates and rice fields, with the Chao Phraya flowing broad and brown through its heart. The river is lined with temples, houses on stilts and riverside restaurants, and boats still carry goods and passengers. The canals that cross the land were dug in the nineteenth century to irrigate rice fields, and some of them are still used by farmers and fishermen.

   The riding here is about navigating traffic and heat. The main roads are busy, with trucks, buses and countless motorcycles, and the heat can be intense. Motorcycles are not allowed on the expressways, so you will be on the main roads. The minor roads along the river are quieter and more scenic, but they can be narrow and rough. In the rainy season, floods can be a problem; the great flood of 2011 left much of the province under water for weeks.

   Pathum Thani has plenty of fuel stations, markets and restaurants. A meal at a riverside restaurant, with grilled fish and spicy salads, is a good way to break the journey. The road north towards Mae Hong Son is long, and the mountains are still far away.

5. Photo stop near Khlong Luang photo

   Khlong Luang sprawls across the flat rice plain north of Bangkok, a district of canals, industrial estates and university campuses. Thammasat University's Rangsit campus, the Asian Institute of Technology and Thailand Science Park are all here, along with Navanakorn, one of the country's large industrial zones. It is a busy, modern place that gives little hint of the countryside it once was.

   The canals are the key to its history. In the late nineteenth century, under King Chulalongkorn, a grid of canals known as the Rangsit system was dug across these marshy plains to irrigate rice fields and open them to settlement. Khlong Luang means the great canal, and the waterways still define the landscape, with houses on stilts, small boats and lotus ponds between the factories and shopping malls.

   Riding here is about navigating traffic. Phahonyothin Road, Highway 1, runs north towards Ayutthaya and beyond, busy with trucks, buses and countless motorcycles. Motorcycles are not allowed on Thailand's motorways and expressways, so you will be on the main roads with everyone else. Expect heat, humidity and sudden downpours in the rainy season, from roughly June to October. Watch for vehicles entering from side roads and U-turn points.

   Fuel stations are everywhere, often with convenience stores, coffee and clean toilets, and many of them are open around the clock. Street food stalls and markets offer cheap and tasty meals. The Mae Hong Son route starts its long journey north from here, so this is a good point to take a break, drink plenty of water and get ready for the long ride towards the mountains of the north.

6. Near Bang Pakong, on the way back swim

   The Bang Pakong River reaches the Gulf of Thailand here in a wide, muddy estuary, fringed with mangroves, shrimp ponds and fishing villages, about an hour east of Bangkok. It is not a classic swimming spot, and it is honest to say so: the river water is brown with silt and the shore is mostly mud. The reason to stop is the estuary itself, and if you want a proper swim, the beach at Bang Saen, about twenty kilometres south in Chonburi, is the place most people from Bangkok head for, with a long sandy shore, shady trees and stalls selling seafood.

   The estuary has a surprising resident. Irrawaddy dolphins, a small, round-headed species found in coastal waters and rivers of South-East Asia, live around the river mouth, and local boat operators offer trips to see them, especially in the cooler months. Spotting their grey backs rolling in the brown water is a quiet thrill. The mangroves are also full of birds, from egrets and herons to kingfishers.

   Upstream, the river flows past Chachoengsao, a provincial capital known for Wat Sothon Wararam, a huge white temple housing a revered Buddha image that draws pilgrims from all over Thailand. The countryside around is flat and green, with rice paddies, fish ponds and orchards.

   On the way back to Bangkok, the main road is Highway 34, the Bang Na–Trat road, a wide, busy route lined with factories and warehouses, with heavy truck traffic. It is not a pleasant ride, but it is direct. The smaller roads along the coast and through the villages are slower but more interesting. Fuel, convenience stores and seafood restaurants are easy to find along the way. Riverside restaurants serve grilled prawns, crab and fish, and eating them by the water as the sun goes down, before the final push back into the city, is a good reward.

7. Bang Bo District food

   Bang Bo lies on the eastern edge of the Bangkok metropolitan area, in Samut Prakan province, where the urban sprawl starts to thin out into a flat landscape of canals, fish and shrimp ponds, rice fields and factories. It is not on most travel itineraries, but it hides a lovely old market, and it makes a good place to end a ride with a meal.

   On the canal that marks the border with Chachoengsao province, the Khlong Suan Hundred Year Market is a row of old wooden shophouses facing the water, connected by walkways and bridges, where families have traded for generations. The market has been carefully preserved and revived, and on weekends it is full of Thai visitors eating local sweets, noodle soups, grilled fish and coffee brewed in old-fashioned cloth filters. It has an unhurried, nostalgic atmosphere, a glimpse of what life along the canals was like before the roads arrived.

   The canals here were the main transport routes for centuries, linking the rice-growing areas east of Bangkok with the city and the sea. Many are still used by small boats, and the waterside villages, with their wooden houses on stilts, are a reminder of a slower way of life. The area is also important for aquaculture, and the ponds produce fish and shrimp for the Bangkok markets.

   As a finish point, Bang Bo is convenient for the eastern side of Bangkok and the airport at Suvarnabhumi, which lies not far to the north-west. The main roads, including the Bang Na–Trat highway, are wide, busy and full of trucks, so stay alert. The smaller roads along the canals are narrow, sometimes poorly surfaced, and shared with scooters, dogs and pedestrians. Fuel, convenience stores and food are easy to find. The heat in the middle of the day can be intense, so a late afternoon finish, with a cold drink by the canal, is the best plan.

8. Back to Mae Hong finish

   The sea smells different at Samut Sakhon. The Tha Chin River winds through town to the Gulf of Thailand, and the land around is a flat patchwork of fish ponds, mangroves and, near the shore, salt pans, where seawater is dried in shallow beds under the sun and raked into white heaps.

   Samut Sakhon is one of the country's main fishing centres and processing hubs, and the harbour is thick with boats, nets and ice trucks. A huge seafood market starts before dawn, with baskets of shrimp, crab, squid and fish, and the town has a large community of workers from Myanmar, so the shops and food stalls offer Burmese tea leaf salad and curries as well as Thai dishes. A short train line runs from the market to the old railway at Mae Klong, and a small ferry crosses the river to temples on the other bank.

   The ride from Mae Hong Son, the mountain province on the Burmese border, which this route nods to in its label, is a very long way north, so this finish is a gentle ending after the bends of the north. The roads here are flat and straight, with canals and ponds on both sides and long lines of lorries. Surfaces are generally decent, but busy and sometimes rough with patches of repair. Summer heat is heavy, and in the rainy season the roads can flood quickly. Early morning is the best time, when the air is cooler.

   Fuel is easy, since stations are on every main road, and nearby Krathum Baen and Sam Phran have more services. For a meal, go to the market area for grilled seafood and crab curry, and be ready for fish sauce in everything. Watch for motorbikes and for slow trucks turning without warning.

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