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Papaya rules!

Returning to Chiang  Mai from our second loop we stopped once again in the city to relax some days and fulfil all our cultural needs in such a ancient city, such as eat eat and eat!!!!
Once again we planned to stay only for a couple of days because of the love and hate for the place but ended up stay for a whole week, it was just nice to enjoy the company of Blanca , Carlos and Bell the 20 years old chaotic owner of the guest house. Since we where the only guests it really felt like being home and we spent the days laying around in the floor, not many furniture in the house, and having a bit of a laugh, i must admit, about Bell's building projects.

Entering curves land requires appropriate signals.

Time went by fast and it was soon time to move on, i was excited because at the end i was gonna cycle a fresh new road of the country i have never been on. This last ride started in Chiang Mai to shortly head north west towards Pai and then all the way south to Mae Hong Son, Mae Sariang, Mae Sot and finally back to the steaming hot flatland in Tak, Sukhothai and Phitzanulok.
I felt like i needed to spend some days on my own and ride by myself to follow my own rhythm, so i split from Serjio for a while to meet him again at the end of the mountains. He decide to ride on the same route and left one day before me.
The day i left it was pretty late, i planned to enjoy myself and take it easy, the noisy road north out of the city was busy and it wasn't a relaxing bike ride but sure plenty of entertainment, after only 20 km i was already pulling to side of the road for a noodles soup at a vegetarian restaurant and right after for a coffee and a long chat with the owner of the stall. I did not care how far i was gonna get or where i was gonna sleep i had everything i needed to spend a comfy night.
Eventually the turn off for the highway 1095 towards Mae Hong Son came and it felt like turning loud music off, or better, exiting a metal workshop!
Finally it was quiet i could hear my own thoughts again and i was looking forward to the first steep climbs this route promises the riders.

Finally going up, but nothing serious yet.

I didn't keep in mind that the 1095 it might ride through the mountains for hundreds of kilometers, but is still an highway! It means is plenty of treats for you in Thai style along the way so you will never feel fed up with it because probably what you are wishing is waiting just around the corner. Still the nature is gorgeous and on the first day by nightfall i found shelter at the Mae Lao Wildlife Sanctuary where the rangers offered me a camp spot on a golf course kept lawn and just by the showers, couldn't really ask for more.
In the morning i kooked up my breakfast overlooking a misty valley, and a pack of cranky dogs... Coffee shops along this road are very many and perhaps more than needed, i wonder if every single shop owner can make a living out of it! On the other and this route I'm travelling is very popular among motor bikers too due to the 200 somethings curves along it, perhaps in high season the road is busier and all the street vendors able to live from it.
At twelve o'clock i reached the famous tourist destination of Pai, the paradise among the hills, I really heard a lot about this place through my previous trip in Thailand and every time i mention i mostly ride on mountainous terrain everybody tells me to go to Pai, there, where a big music scene take place and a breeze of freedom from the sixties can still be felt. So i decide to stop, find the vegetarian restaurant, eat and run the fuck out of the place! No, seriously, the afternoon market was very nice and plenty of snacks to pacify my hard journey (not!) and the locals felt very friendly; the vegetarian restaurant was terrific! So really the thing that made me run was the sight of the side street where the western "Khaos-an road" like madness take place.

One of the many view points.

And its smoky view.

Anyway the many more nice towns and villages makes me really enjoy the ride, the road got more and more beautiful too, as soon as the mountains got worst, a lot of view points where to rest and admire the smoky surroundings ans fast descends that made me hope it would last the whole way to my destination.
The rain finally arrived, and i got afternoon showers for a couple of days i had to find shelter waiting for the raging storm to pass, everything seems cooler for about an hour but straight after it gets steaming hot if the sun is shining.

Huge trees along the way.
The only way to photograph a whole one
is with a panoramic picture.

I must look at the bright side, being camping the past two days i hadn' t had the occasion to shower and a little storm is perhaps what i needed! One day away from Mae Hong Son, town where i planned to take a rest and explore, a lunch brake at a national park gave  the chance for a refreshing dip in the river, from here just very nice Myanmar style temples and huge holy threes lined my way to the final destination. The road is not even half as challenging has i though...or hoped!

A pretty desolated Chinese town along the way.

One of the abandoned buildings provided shelter during the storm.

One of the first temples along the way built in Myanmar style.

Finally in Mae Hong Son, here is a view of the lake and the temple.

Back to low gear

The Pin river.

Our favourite eating spots, vegetarian restaurants, this one in Chiang Dao.

Left Chiang Mai once again for another loop in the mountains, this time north east towards the border with Myanmar.
Partially i covered this same route last year but this time I'm going for mountains the whole way. At first we took the highway out of the city which was pretty chaotic and rode the first 30 or so kilometers in a endless smoggy city.
The first leg to the town of Chiang Dao was pretty easy and even offered one last green jungle stretch and a dip in the Ping river before destination.We learnt from a cop at the police station where we camped that the mist we encounter everyday from early morning through the whole day is actually smoke from the burning Forest around. There is so much smoke around that we couldn't even see the huge Chiang Dao mountain standing behind the village.

Low visibility along the highway,
what we first thought it was mist or humidity,
turned out to be smoke.

Nothing could be seen off this cliff.

 After it, came quiet Fang and from there a hilly road to Chinese Arunothai. Still zero visibility, i though it was gonna change with the altitude but it didn't.
This year we started the climb very late, around 11 in spite of that we reached town pretty early in the afternoon and had the time for a ride around, a snack at the lake in the middle of it and even to ride to the border on a dirt track to jump into Myanmar from a hole in the fence.

Chinese tombs in the middle of the forest on the way to Arunothai.

Camping at the police station.

My favourite place in Thailand, Arunothai, this is town,
all of it pretty much.

The gate.

In the morning after some southern Chinese delicatessen for breakfast and the best padongkoo (Chinese donuts) i ever tried in Thailand we proceeded towards the unknown road to Wiang Haeng. All i knew about it i read from a website called "Crazy Guy on a Bike", and the person cycling it say it was too difficult due to a long stretch of dirt road, so he had to catch a lift to complete the journey. It sounded just like the type of ride i wanted to try.
It wasn't too long of a ride  to the first and last village, then the climbs, a few, up and down for 3 or four kilometers, it made me more tired than a single long one. Pine trees surrounding us once again, after fourty km, on a road getting worst and worst we decided to stop and have lunch. Under the shadow of a bamboo hut a fresh breeze was blowing and took some of the smoke away, it really seamed like the monsoon was gonna come anytime.
The refreshing wind sure helped getting back on the saddle, the road turned immediately into  proper dirt and it staid that way for 20 km more. We had to make it to next town because we had no dinner with us and it was getting dark.

The cabbage mobile.

Some might think that is motivation that
pushes us, but really is just
electrolite drinks...

...And shitty cookies, by the way notice
Serjio's identical posing!

What a road i seriously loved it!

Not sure cycling is as healty as many people think...

We made it but didn't find much there, asked at a school about camping in the yard (is normally allowed) but the bunch of drunk teacher that welcomed us denied it, to make up for it they invited us to 5 shots each of rice wine, not exactly what u need as soon as you jump off your bike. Their names got stocked in my mind: "Abdun, Mario, Superman, the Big Boss and the two in the middle".

After spending the night at a guest house, in the morning we realised that perhaps we needed a rest day in a place a bit more alive than the village we where in, so we moved to the capital of the district Wiang Haeng. Not much more there, this whole area seems pretty forgotten by everyone. We found at least another guest house, very relaxing place where we laid around all day.

Some scary curves on the way.
I should had erased one of the Serjios with photoshop.

On the way in and out of Lisu villages This offers are left on the side of the road,
they tide up their traditional dress with strings giving it a human shape
then put food, animals statues and all sort of weird things,
from mobile phones to jewellery or their beautiful
patches.

Lisu people.

Another shitty picture, me running back to my seat for a timer picture,
rest day in Wiang Haeng.

In the deserted town it was even hard to find food but with some cycling and searching we managed.
Another hilly but beautiful stretch was waiting for us the following morning, once again hoping the long downhill to the valley would come sooner than later. Only three Lisu villages on the way and a lot of amazing nature, we biked all day with a short stop only for some food, we where back in smoky land and the good side of it is that the sun was hidden behind it lowering the temperature to a bearable level.
Pass by the city of Phrao, once again for me, then down to Chiang Mai, we choose a secondary road parallel to the high way but not necessarily quiet, last year the scenery was pretty sad, this year even worst, there was not a single alive three, everything was burned down.

In Hill Tribe land you will find Hill Tribe scarecrows.

Unimog truck! Poor military they really though i wanted to take a picture of them!

At the police station in Phrao.
On the left of the tent Mr. Serjio, on the right, Mr. Loco del Pueblo,
 who slept in the house behind us.

Eternity trees said the singe, not much left...

I passed here last year too and i remember being amazed from this place.

I think this year i finally fully understood the damage that fire brings, three years in  northern Thailand showed me how big and fast destruction is, what was on fire last year is paled or covered in weeds now and new places i ride across are now burning, and look at my maps, i don't have much more to ride in this country.
Well, now some rest days in Chiang Mai, which remind me of being in a Mad Max movie, an intense traffic all day long going around the wall of the old city, let's see how long i will resist in this mess! At least is filled with vegetarian restaurants!

Here they goes, Hmong people, my favourite, psychedelic
tribe. I found the picture on Google of course, i really
cant be on people face with my camera.

Chiang Mai one of very many temples,
doesn't matter how many times i have been here,
still cant remember a name.