Motorcycle Tour of Northern Thailand

Richard and I are back from our "Absolutely Thailand" motorcycle tour. More particulars on Website www.absolutelythailand.co.nz. This was one of a series of tours that Roy Watson of Tauranga and his Thai wife Duan organise during the "cooler" season in Thailand when they are there. For the hotter months of the year they live in Tauranga.

We met up with our 7 other enthusiasts at the Auckland Airport. Bev and John from Whakatane, Kay and David from Tauranga, Bruce from Whakatane, and Anne and Johnny from Pahoia near Tauranga. We flew Air Thailand to Bangkok about 12 hours non stop. Here we met Roy (and the heat) and eventually all taxied to the Hotel and bed. The next day we had a shortish tour around some of the concrete jungle that is Bangkok and later a river cruise on a longboat which meandered past many types of houses, all awash with the 'king tides'.

Then North off to Changmai by plane. I thought this would be a smallish city, but I was told it has 6 million people. Crumbs, the whole of NZ plus 2 more million! It looked as though they are mostly on the road at all times!! The streets are congested with all manner of vehicles and thousands of scooters darting around fearlessly often with 2, 3, or 4 people on at one time. (Even babies) The quick and the dead!

Next day was mainly sight seeing, visiting craft places and a huge temple high on a hill overlooking Changmai. Dinner was at a beautiful banquet hall with beautiful, graceful Thai dancing to entertain us. The girls and boys and their costumes were amazingly .

Next day we took delivery of the bikes. Ours was a 400cc V-Twin Chopper style bike. The sitting position was unsuitable for Richard because of his back injury. He was sitting back with feet and legs forward. We tried it for one day, but that was enough. Johnny (a Harley rider) was happy to change with his bike a Honda Phantom 250cc which had a somewhat better riding position for Richard. However it would not have been practical for me to pillion due to the mountainous roads we were encountering . So I went in the backup (The air-conditioning was lovely..) The heat was intense 30 - 40 degrees approx. We found it tiring and were more than ready for bed each night.

Our visit to the Elephant Park was great. These amazing animals played up to the large audience and after their show of skills they and their trainers came over to us swapping our hats around but eventually returning them to the correct head.

They then deftly collected notes of money (tips) which they passed on to their trainers. Bananas were appreciated to by the elephants too, though we had only a banana skin which our elephant threw down on the ground with a contemptuous snort. Afterwards we went for an elephant ride through the jungle for half and hour which was a unique experience.

We travelled over mountain ranges with plenty of "Oh My God" corners. The interpretation of these are ascending and descending corners with often up to 30 degree rise or fall. Often these corners were only 300 - 400 meters apart which entailed hundreds of gear changes. We are travelling North West to the town of Pai. The resort we stayed at here had bungalows set in beautiful gardens and a swimming pool. Great!. The dining room was upstairs in a 2 story building with no sides, just a roof. Very nice. Next day we climbed over a range or two of mountains, 5500 feet high, through jungle, past little mountain villages and stopped at one where coffee was served, also "Fish & Ship" (yes, that is how it was spelt) We only had drinks. We were taken to a huge cave which was accessed by some flexible bamboo rafts. The size of the cave and its stalagmites and stalactites were very impressive. Young Thais carried lanterns for us to see the walkways. Next day we travelled 280 kms over the same type of roads interspersed with fertile valleys growing rice, sometimes vegetables and orchards. Most villages have market stalls with clothing and food at very cheap (to us) prices. No maintenance is done on buildings and they are simply left when they are unusable. There are lots of scooters and dogs in the villages.

The breakfast in the hotels was American. We filled up on bacon and eggs, omelettes, tomatoes, sausages etc and at nights we asked Duan to choose for us, and a good choice she made too. A lovely selection of different foods with many flavours.

In the part of the country we were now traversing some of the locals are Burmese and some are Chinese Nationals who have escaped from Communism. We had a Chinese Tea Ceremony at one stop. We are now passing pineapple and tea plantations. That night we are in Maesai, the northern most town in Thailand, right on the border with Burma. The border is actually a river, and the bridge where we cross over has Thai authorities on one side and Burmese on the other. On this morning the authorities ( immigration, army and police ) are bristling with importance and officialise and we meekly "sit", "wait", "stand" when told and got photographed. Rather dazed we eventually are let into Burma and some serious shopping at their splendid markets. The return trip to Thailand is not quite so fraught and we are all weighed down with some excellent shopping. Also on this amazing day we travel to "The Golden Triangle" where the mighty Mekong River marks the borders of Thailand, Burma and Laos. The river barges trade up and down this river, taking among other things, apples from China to Thailand and returning with oranges from Thailand to China. We looked at an Opium museum here and then carried on to the city of Changrai which is 1000 years old.

Now it is the last day of the bike riding. It is mostly easy riding. We saw a magnificent temple, privately built, decorated with mirror mosaics which glittered in the sun. We also saw a small zoo and sanctuary for monkeys, bears, snakes and porcupines and had lunch at a place called "Cabbages & Condoms". We sat outside under trees and were all slightly sad that this trip is nearly ended. We have visited orchid places (beautiful), butterfly places, a snake exhibition (awesome), gemstone places, silk places and witnessed the whole production from the silk worm to the finished garments, we've tasted the sweetest bananas, we've been impressed by the politeness of the Thai people and enjoyed the company of our fellow travellers. We appreciated the efforts of our Thai guide/leader Danny who was a really good singer and guitar player but most of all we appreciated the hospitality, care and consideration we received from Roy and Duan. They are a special couple.

On our last day in Changmai, we all did our own thing. Bruce, Richard and I went for a TukTuk tour and later we all mini-bussed to some leather places. That night we dined at the Riverside Restaurant and watched the fireworks and lighted paper lanterns going up. There was to be a big festival tomorrow and the locals were having a bit of a dress rehearsal.

Time to go home. Changmai to Tauranga about 30 plus hours. We were tired when we started and by the time we arrived home we were shattered. BUT we were glad we had this whole experience and we will treasure our memories forever.

Marie Patching