Thread: A new "Missing Link" from Umphang to Kamphaeng Phet via Mae Wong National Park!

So, a normal person who had to ride some ~500+km from Mae Sot to Bangkok on a dirt bike would probably take the direct route, right? Well, now one has ever accused the Bangkok Weekend Warriors of being normal!


But, I'm getting a bit ahead of myself. I needed to do a quick border run to extend my visa and there's a crossing from Mae Sot, Thailand to Myawaddy, Myanmar. I told Satonic to sleep in and I'd do a quick border run in the early am.

I rode to the crossing and proceeded on foot as it's still quite difficult to bring a Thai-registered motorcycle into Myanmar. (Permission needs to be arranged in advance via a licensed tour company and you need a ton of paperwork and a guide.)

Cool and chilly this morning!

Crossing the Thai-Myanmar Friendship Bridge from Mae Sot to Myawaddy-


(Noticed something a bit funny- if you don't want to bother with the immigration check points there are long tail boats in plain sight of the bridge that were doing a brisk business running illegals back and forth across the small river that separates Thailand and Myanmar.)


The immigration officials in Myawaddy were very friendly and I asked them about bringing my bike over- they said I'd need written permission from the Permanent Minister of Transport... Oh well, doesn't hurt to ask!

Wandered about Myawaddy for a bit to check out the sights and get a feel for the place. First impression, shockingly poor. Mae Sot, Thailand is bustling and quite clean, while in Myawaddy they seem to just be getting by...

Morning market-


Cute kid


Monks collecting morning alms-

We had a long day ahead of us so I hustled back to the hotel in Mae Sot, hooked up with Satonic for breakfast, and we hit the road! Normally you'd head east on the 105 to Tak to get back to Bangkok but I told Satonic I'd found a shortcut to the south that would shave off at least 30km. He's so trusting! Southbound on the 1090 to Umphang!

Now, anyone familiar with this road will tell you that there's no way to get from Umphang to Bangkok, and if you're in a car or riding a road bike, they'd be telling you the truth, but on dirtbikes it can be done!

Here's the GPS track showing our route across the mountains from Tak province to Kamphaeng Phet, via Mae Wong National Park:


And the .GPX file should anyone want to try this route: http://www.asianconnection71.com/201....53%20Auto.gpx

We cruised south a ways on the 1090 and turned off a bit past the small town of Phop Phra in Tambon Khirirat. Note to any who go this way- top up your fuel here- there isn't any gas available again until you reach the small village of Ban Nam Phung on the other side of the mountains.

The bridge over the Mae Lamao river is the last "real" bridge until you reach Ban Nam Phung-




From here on it's rough 4wd tracks; Satonic, on his D-tracker with 17" wheels and road tires started giving me dirty looks right about this time

It didn't much help that he got a puncture early on...


What a cute little Karen village. I forgot the name already. They were off the grid, with only some solar panels for power, but folks there were very friendly and they had a small shop with drinks and snacks, but no fuel. Note the TV / radio antenna in the background:


We got the puncture repaired in pretty good time, but it was already getting close to noon... Hmmmm, I'm starting to think it's going to be a long day!

Shortly after this village you get into the National Park and this trail was very rough and challenging!


Somewhere in here is that crazy hill with all the boulders at the bottom and all the loose dirt and sand at the top that claimed a clutch when Brian, Rob, Mike and their amigos from the States went in the opposite direction a couple weeks later: Chiang Mai to Bangkok - The Long Dirty Way Down.


(Chiang Mai to Bangkok - The Long Dirty Way Down.)

I made the unlucky decision to swap bikes with Satonic just before that hairy hill...

The first bit is super steep and loose. Rear brake was useless and when I found myself accelerating down the hill I touched the front brake and promptly went over the handle bars

Bruised but otherwise undamaged I struggled for a good while to pick the bike back up on the steep slippery slope. It was hard to stand, much less get the bike back up as every time I tried to lift it it just slid down the hill. Huffing and puffing I did eventually get the bike down to a less steep bit where I could stand it up. Then comes the crazy boulder section- a steep off camber hill with large boulders and lots of loose rocks of various size. Again, a lot of work on the D-Tracker, but I did make it down without dropping the bike again

This part of the trail is single track and quite technical, I caught up with Satonic and opined that IF the trail got even worse further on we'd have to think about turning around, but the idea of climbing up the hill we'd just come down didn't appeal to either of us, so we pushed on. Fortunately, that was the worst bit and the trail leveled out a bit further on. Lots of small water crossings but nothing very deep or challenging-


You could tell we were in the National Park by the gates, lack of recent clear cutting, and absence of livestock, and fields-


Someone had run a tractor through here and graded the road fairly recently so we made good time, though had to be careful in the shady parts where the moss was growing thick on the red clay and made the trail super slippery.

Eventually we spot signs of civilization again- we've reached Kamphaneg Phet province!


Stunning views from the ridge trail that descends down the mountain-


Satonic goofing about in the corn chaf. Dude, don't you remember what happened when you did that last year??!?


What a fantastic ride and a beautiful area!




Satonic got a couple snaps of me on the descent-


Actually looked and felt like it might rain at one point-


We arrived at a small settlement on the edge of Ban Pha Phung that was THICK with livestock- it was almost like a hobby farm, full of pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, goats, cattle, etc. Seems the folks here must have plenty of meat on the menu, or perhaps they haul it out for sale at a nearby market?




Coming in to Nam Pha Phung we encountered a small traffic jam


These pickups were hauling corn down from the fields. Eventually we managed to work our way around them-


Woohoo! We've finally made it to Ban Nam Phung! Both running low on fuel so we topped up on pricey gas here-


Filling up, one liter at a time-




Brilliant ride!! I wasn't sure if we could get through, but we made it!!

From here on it was a mix of dirt and paved roads all the way to the main highway 1 in Kamphaeng Phet, and from there a long slog down to Bangkok. After the sun went down it got very chilly and Satonic donned a cheap disposable rain poncho under his jersey to cut the wind. Sounds a bit goofy but this works really well


Somewhere along the way Satonic told me my front tire was flat. I didn't believe him; I'd dropped the pressure to ~12 psi a few days earlier and thought that was why my front end was a bit wonky in the corners, but we pulled into a service station, I tried to air up the tire, and sure enough, it was flat. What an oddly stiff front tire that I could ride all this way with no air in it! Satonic encouraged me to put in a new tube, but frankly, I figured if I'd gotten this far, another 2-3 hundred more km to Bangkok probably wouldn't be a problem. I rode that bike around for a couple more weeks with a flat front tire before my son finally insisted I put in a new tube


A surprisingly good dinner in Nakhon Sawan where the drunken proprietress all but molested me in front of her kid... WTF was that all about?!


We reached Bangkok well after midnight, buzzed and exhausted at the same time. Fantastic ride and can't wait for the next one!!

You might recall that Satonic had bought that D-tracker just a couple days before we left on this trip. That bike was very clean and you could tell it had never been taken off road. I quite like this before and after pic:

Until next time, The End!

Nice report! After you repaired the flat, did you inflate the tire with a pump or an aerosol can? Flat tires in the boondocks suck

Originally Posted by Lancelot

Nice report! After you repaired the flat, did you inflate the tire with a pump or an aerosol can? Flat tires in the boondocks suck

Thanks

I carry a compact bicycle air pump. Took us a while to set the bead on that D-Tracker tire but we got it done!!

another great trip.

thanks

My wife is from Tak I stayed at that same hotel with my parents last year and got sick as a dog from some street food.