Picture post!

This is the kind of sign you want to see after a long climb. 

Approaching Sirikit dam

The floating restaurant at the end of the road where we waited for the ferry

We arrived at lunch time at the restaurant and thought we might as well get a meal here rather than cooking ourselves. The owner said there wouldn't be a ferry crossing til 2 o clock so we decided to eat there -how pricey can a fried rice n veggie be? We watched several ferries going back and forward, mostly empty the way we were heading, thinking it was a bit odd..By 1 o click we had finished our dinner and suddenly there was a ferry waiting for us. We quickly paid the man, turned out the fried veggies (which we actually had brought ourselves), cost us 200 baht!! What a scam, but guess a man has a living to make when you live on the wrong side of the dam. 

One of many ferries passing by while we ate.

Water caravan.

Local "delicacies", caught in that brown water you see behind, also the place where they washed our veggies and the toilet flushed..good thing they give a spank to the frying!

The right side of the dam -this is where the magic happens, had we only knew..

Burning hot under the sun.

Damn you dam!!

Finally some downhill, going through the hills..

20 km outside Nan, the road turned wide and very busy, something we're not used to anymore.

aaarrrgggghhhhh!

Miki's new high performance purchase.

My home made tire patch, stuffed inside my old tire, actually lasted pretty good.

Went sightseeing in Nan with our friend Jin. This is at a Temple some 40 km north of town, it's an old weavers house where the local women made the traditional clothes from the area.

The Gong -for good luck.

Our friend Jin.

Eating at the night market. You pick up food from the stalls and sit down at the end of the market in front of a stage, where local kids perform all sorts of stuff.

Amazing old house in Nan.

Coffee time! One of many.

The story continues..

Sorry, we know, we've been lazy with the posting lately! Actually we've been busy sweating our asses of crossing the mountains in Nan, Phayao and Chiang Rai district. It's been a crazy ride and it's been some of the toughest we did so far, maybe except those nasty climbs outside Na Haeo..We finally made it to Chaing Rai, after a few days on the bike, a small stop in Tung Chang to make a visa run for Laos and doing some sightseeing in Nan province and a 5 days non-stop biking through some amazing landscape and small hilltribe villages. We're both amazed to find such places still existing in Thailand, who would have thought after spending so many winters in the more touristy parts of Thailand. I feel much more attracted to this country than ever before, though driving through these great places, makes it hard to return to the bigger cities again, surrounded by other tourists and all the nasty that goes with it -people who've been here, you know what we mean!!

Well back to the story of our crazy adventures. After some sickness days in Nam Pad, it was hard to get back on the bike, not cause i didn't feel like it, more cause my body kept on saying NOOO..well i guess i should have listen, cause that first day back on the road was hell! Fuck!! After 10 km it started going up and up and more up. I wasn't ready at all and really struggling with no energy inside of me, as if my legs just couldn't do it. I never felt like that before, so i was pretty freaked out. Mikele also didn't feel so well, so when a dude stopped to offer us a lift,just as i was taking a break going up a steep never ending hill, we said yes. I always thought it was weird when cyclist took rides with trucks, but now i fully understand -it was great!

crossing the sirikit dam with the small ferry -if you can call two long tail boats tied together with some wood and pulled by a third boat, for a ferry.

 Not sure at all i would have been able to get up that mountain by myself. Later on, after some more ups and downs, we faced another steep long hill in the mid heat. Again i felt like shit, cursing myself for doing such a ridiculous thing as a bike trip in the mountains of Thailand in the baking sun! I mean how stupid can you be? Then came the downhill and the landscape unfolded in front of us -amazing view! I was still pretty smashed though and when we faced another steep long uphill, i stopped the first pick up truck and asked for a lift into town -no problem, people are so super friendly down here, i mean, how often would a thing like that happen at home? In town i waited about an hour at the local shop before mikele came flying down the hill. They sure don't see many tourist in that place and it felt like the whole village came down to have a look at the strange falang with tattoos and metal in her face. It was nice though, doing some small-talking with the bit of thai i speak and the bit of english the different locals spoke and an hour passed by real quick. At night, laying in the tent, camping at the local police station  (yeah, who would have thought that would ever happen,haha), full from yet another amazing home cooked meal and a bucket shower from the station, i was sooooo relieved that the mountains where behind us and the next day would be a fairly easy 85 km to Nan.

Nan was great, second time I'm there, first time with my good friend who's now at home being a mom (i miss you!!), so i already knew where to go and how to find my way around..We ended up staying for 5 nights, meet so many nice people and had a great time chilling around, drinking coffee and planning our next move.
Well, when we finally got back on the bike it felt great and i was feeling so much better than the last time. There's a direct road going north out of Nan to the border of Laos, but we decided to do the more scenic one, going by smaller roads through the hilly parts of the area. (Look at the map to get an overview)

our friend Jin, also happen to be the owner of the most amazing veggie spot in Nan

First stop was Pua, a small town on the main road heading further north, about 70 km by the road we did. We couldn't find any journals on crazy guy on a bike about this specific  area and after our hell day of crossing the sirikit dam, we weren't sure what to expect. It turned out to be an amazing ride, what a day! I was all ecstatic when we made it to town, you know, one of those days where you can just keep on going and being on your bicycle feels like just the right thing to be doing! really days like these is why we do this shit, no?!

Phua in the morning, just before hitting the road.

We read that there was suppose to be a really nice place in Tung Chang, which was only 35 km or so from Pua..what to do? we only just started biking and didn't really feel like such a short day on the bike. we decided to have a slow morning, drinking coffee and catching up on some writing, by 10 we were on the road..we took some smaller detours, but around lunch we couldn't stretch it longer..only 44 km..fuck..well, let's check out the place anyway. We followed the signs down a small street and there it was, it was like a dream (well not really, but pretty close to) what a place, set in a valley with the views of the mountains. i immediately though, i wanna stay! And so we did.

we just arrived and look at the mess!

The owners, a thai/italian couple were super friendly and after a chat with Marco about the road to the border, we decided to stay for the night, leaving our shit there, race to the border, get the fucking stamp and rush back to our nice bungalow..well, guess we should have known better..no way a trip through the mountains down here will be a smooth going. fucking hell, some crazy ass ups and downs and the thought of having to go back the same way we came almost killed me! Some of them where so steep that even without the load, i had to stop several times, holding the breaks hard for the bike to not slide, what a struggle. well we made it, 106 km and some waiting at the border + 7 hours of cycling i was ready to go to bed at 8!
The plan was to leave next morning and everything was ready and packed, we just needed to have one coffee before..we ended up chatting with Marco for a couples of hours and suddenly it was 11.30! What the hell, let's stay another day, rent a scooter and head up some of the mountains to check out the local hill tribes and some caves, so we did. It was such a nice stay we had and i deffo wanna go back, maybe stay a bit longer and spent some more time in the area. so many beautiful and interesting things to see and no other tourists while we were there -just the way we like it.
The morning after, we politely turned down a morning coffee with Marco, very well knowing how it could turn out and really, we both wanted to get back on the road, exited to do a route through some more mountains. next stop, Ban Pha Lak.

from Thung Chang-Ban Pha Lak, after climbing up for 2 hours..deffo worth the effort.

another picture from the top, we know, you've seen this before, but it's still pretty nice,eh?!

between Song Kwai and Ban Pha Lak

cleaning our bedroom at the hospital, ban pha lak.

Breaking down days...

From Bang Khok to Nam Pat we rode in a valley, nice to feel some flat land again, riding fast and leaving a few points on the map behind us, it makes it feel like you are actually going somewhere.

The little town of Nam Pat seemed more of a big city to us, it had a quite big market and some nice stalls to drink coffee or shakes, sit around and watch life pass by.

The moment we arrived we both thought "rest day!".

Unfortunately our laziness soon turned into mission to get us straight for the road again, in fact in this tree days several things happened: we got sick for a couple of days, our camping stove let us down and i had to fix my soon exploding tyre.

Perhaps i should have thought, that a tyre which already rode 5000km,  1000 of them on a dirt track through the Australian desert, might not be suited for another bike trip...what a bike mechanic!

The burner got clogged by some M150 (a popular Thai energy drink), the kerosene we bought was sold in those bottles and it gave the same result as pouring sugar into an engine.
My tire got fixed with a double patch made out of a truck inner tube and a scooter tyre, all stuffed into my own tyre. About our sickness...a day on the toilet did it.

Pretty broken too!

What a task when you set your mind on doing nothing!

Shitty-ing times at the resort, lovely place

The town offered us a pleasant accommodation that eased out the whole process and the last day we met Jack, one of the two brothers owning the resort.

He introduced himself the same morning we where leaving, trust us, Nam Pat is nice, but after tree days there you really want to go! We had a short chat with him and a walk to the big fair that also took place on that day, what a great timing. He bought us some snacks for the road, and we took off.

Riding to the fair

Getting out of town

Na Haeo to Bang Khok

This morning was really fresh, it often happens when we are close to the mountains, sometimes at night it's even cold, probably because we are use to stand 35 degrees during the day, so when it drops to 20, it feels like it's freezing! Fortunately we had a warm cup of coffee brought to our doorstep, which often happens at resorts in Thailand.     We rolled back into town and bought some rice for our usual "rice and banana snack" after 30 km of cycling; and then left a bit worried, if what we had was enough calories, to keep us going through the hills.

The mountain is waiting for us!

We rode through some villages and flat land at first, it was almost as if the landscape wanted us to forget about the mountains ahead...All of a sudden we noticed a pickup truck on the side of the road, with a lot of plastic bags hanging from it. Local people and flies where surrounding it, giving the impression something very much needed was sold there!

The very well appreciated market pick up

Once close to it, we found out it was a rolling market, passing from town to town selling veggies, and not so great looking meat and fish -that's what the flies where on to! I guess this is the way to keep fed all these small villages that has no markets.

The locals wondered what business two like us had to do there, but once they saw we knew what it was about, they started pushing their products.

It really saved our day, we got a big bag of veggies, well as big as you can fit on a bike, and got two meals out of it.

There it was at km 20, the wall was waiting for us, it was hard to get to the top but for some reason , maybe the good experience from earlier on, we got on it and got rewarded with an amazing view and a sign telling us we where on a pass 1115m high. (hard to believe once i biked 4 time as high as that  with my good friend now home with a flat tire ;) all my love dude).

The 4 km downhill that came afterwards where pleasant too, after the experience, the rest of the day seamed like nothing.

We got to the village of Romklao, another nothing, and pushed through to the botanical garden, where we knew we could camp.

To get up there tough, we had some crazy steep 2 km to go, which we were not ready for, but once on top another surprise: toilet, showers and even Internet!

Camping at the botanical garden, what a luxury

The day after, we finally had some luck with the hills starting with a long descent, which brought us to a police checkpoint on a intersection, i noticed a boiler under a roof and told Stine, we may get some water out of the cops for a warm coffee. Once we stopped, we realised the place was actually a tourist stop where coffee was available for free and from the pictures on the wall, other cyclist passed by and camped there.

The intersection, free coffee and accommodation, only happens outside the western world

Our new friend, a cop , who would have ever said!

The cop in charge was really excited and took lots of pictures, could tell he loved it, exchanged some words and let us rest a bit. We both thought that the next time we come through,  we'll skip the camping uphill and go straight for this place!

From here on we biked through a long stretch of beautiful, green jungle, passing  waterfalls and having great view of Phu Soi Dao, a big mountain in a national park overlooking the area. This is one of the very few places in Thailand, where tigers can still be found and riding around it, i was  glad it got turned into a national park because once out of there, not a tree is left standing.

Instead pineapple plantations rule the landscape between one village and another. Lunch time was getting close and once again a pickup shop saved the day.

Phu Soi Dao waterfall provides another amazing camp spot...just mind the tigers...

Some jungle riding pictures

Cooking under a bus stop, we noticed some people taking something down from a tree, using a long bamboo stick. It was a red ants nest, a great construction, the size of a coconut made of leafs somehow glued together, something you would say a bird made.

Once on the ground, it was laid on a tray and let to rest for a while, until the angry ants had left in panic, i felt like the bite of this insect was pretty painful and the distance those people where taking from it, confirmed my fears, i guess a whole nest can seriously injure you!

Finally the ants abandoned their house and by shaking the nest, a woman was getting larva out of it, it looked like spelt grains, i often seen it sold in markets, but i would never have guessed what it really was!

What an emotions packed day! Now we only had some few km left before getting to our first "big town" in a while. We heard this place was bigger than other villages we previously passed and people loved to remark, "it even has a supermarket!".