CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A one-way ride of 552 km, Chiang Mai to Mae Chaem - roughly 9 h 29 in the saddle. The stops in between: Pai, Mae Hong Son and Mae Sariang. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,050 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Chiang Mai rests in a broad valley in northern Thailand, ringed by mountains, and its old centre is a perfect square, bounded by a moat and the remains of brick walls. King Mengrai founded it in 1296 as the capital of the Lanna kingdom, a rich northern state with its own language, script and style of temple, and the old city still holds dozens of wats, glinting with gold leaf and carved teak. Doi Suthep, the mountain rising to the west, is crowned by a temple that is visible from the city at night.
Read the complete Chiang Mai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chiang Mai is where the day begins. Next is Pai.
Pai is a small town in a green bowl of hills in the far north-west of Thailand, near the Burmese border, and it has been a backpacker retreat for decades. The Pai river winds through a valley of rice paddies and tobacco fields at about five hundred metres, and the mountains around it hold bamboo huts, hot springs, waterfalls and the villages of Shan, Lisu, Lahu and Chinese Yunnanese communities. The town itself is a cheerful tangle of guesthouses, bars, cafes and craft shops, with a night market along the walking street, where stalls sell grilled corn, fruit shakes, noodles and handmade bags.
Read the complete Pai write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Pai comes up about 129 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mae Hong Son.
Mae Hong Son sits at the end of one of the best-known motorcycle journeys in Thailand, in a bowl of hills right up against the Myanmar border. The town is small, with about nine thousand residents, and its southern and western streets are overlooked by mountains that trap fog in the cool season. Locals call it the city of three mists, and on a December morning you can ride out of town into a world where the lake and temples float on white cloud.
Read the complete Mae Hong Son write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 235 km into the recorded legs you reach Mae Hong Son. Next is Mae Sariang.
Mae Sariang is a quiet river town in the far west of Thailand, with Myanmar a short ride away over the hills. It sits on the Yuam River, wedged between the Thanon Thong Chai range to the east and the mountains along the Salween to the west, and the feel is of a place at the edge of things. The people here are largely Karen, along with Shan and Thai, and the markets sell sticky rice, pickled tea leaves and bundles of fresh vegetables brought down from the hills. Burmese-style temples with tiered roofs and white stupas recall the teak trade, when Burmese and Shan timber workers came to cut the forests and left their religion and their architecture behind.
Read the complete Mae Sariang write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Mae Sariang, late in the day. Next is Doi Inthanon junction.
At about two and a half thousand metres Doi Inthanon is the highest point in Thailand, and the road to the top is one of the few in the country where you will be wearing a jacket in the tropics. The mountain is the southern end of the Himalayan chain, and its slopes are covered by forest that changes with height, from teak and bamboo at the bottom through oak and pine to a cloud forest dripping with moss, orchids and tree ferns.
Read the complete Doi Inthanon junction write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Doi Inthanon junction. That is the ride.
Chiang Mai → Pai is 129 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Pai → Mae Hong Son is 106 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mae Hong Son → Mae Sariang is 163 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Mae Sariang → Doi Inthanon junction is 154 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.