Category Archives: Explore

On Friday a couple dozen of us headed into the mountains again with Wat Mae Takhrai as our first destination. We had been given a steer towards this place by a friend that said it was a site worth visiting. Apparently, there was a large display of sculptural objects that represented one Buddhist’s vision of hell. Our interest was peaked and off we went in search of yet another temple with yet another unique group of objects on the temple grounds.

Wat Mae Takhrai is located several kilometres outside of Chiangmai in the foothills. It could be reached by Songtaew if you told the driver exactly where you wanted to go but, again, these types of places are much more accessible by scooter or car. The winding road eventually entered the small village where the temple is located with a typical Thai temple complex visible at the side of the road. I won’t say that “if you have seen one Thai temple, you have seen them all”, although it is getting to that point with us these days! They all have their own individual character but, at the same time, have very strong similarities.

The first thing that is noticed as you approach the village is a huge sculpture of a monk that rises into the air and can be seen from quite a distance. I tried to find out who is depicted by this large work of art but to no avail. If anyone knows the story behind it, please comment below. Up close and personal, it is even more spectacular. Near its base, another larger than life head is part of a small shrine. All are gilded with randomly placed small squares of gold, which I doubt are the genuine metal! In any case, it is something to see. Read More

Last Friday, about ten members showed up for our weekly ride. It was a pretty small group compared to the couple of dozen that appeared last week. I’m not sure if people were busy or if they were still recovering from the challenging roads we faced during our previous jaunt!  This time we headed into the mountains northeast of the city.  The group meets every Friday morning at the Shell station on the west side of the moat and heads out at 9:30am sharp.

We rolled up Huay Kaew Road and then took a right turn onto Highway 11 (aka Superhighway) at the Maya shopping center. Veering left onto the frontage road at Home Mart, we then turned left onto Highway 118 at the Central Festival shopping centre. This road eventually takes you past Doi Saket, and if you stay on it a few more hours, Chiang Rai.  It doesn’t take long before the city is left behind and you begin to enter rolling hills with the large mountains visible in the distance. The traffic can be busy but safe enough if you stay to the left and follow normal common sense.  It seems in Thailand, everyone loves to cross the centre line on curves so that is one thing that always needs to be watched when there is no median. It really does not become a big problem until you get onto the smaller secondary roads in the mountains. Read More

Our little Honda PCX150 was never meant to be a cruiser or dirt bike but yesterday it showed us its capabilities at tackling just about everything this area has to offer in terms of riding. We recently joined a newly formed motorcycle club and headed out into the mountains with at least a couple dozen riders for a few hours. If I hadn’t known better, I would have thought this was some type of initiation as we encountered steep winding mountain roads, washed out gravel, rain, fog, mud, and road construction. With our 60 000 km or so of motorcycle cruising experience around North America on our Kawasaki 1500 and in China on our CJ750, we managed to emerge unscathed and fairly clean at the end of the day. I was especially proud of the fact that my runners were mud-free at the end of the day, especially after tackling a long stretch of ankle deep mud without having to put my feet down!

The group has been recently sanctioned (this week) as a branch of the Ulysses Club, a club for motorcyclists over age 40, that originated in Australia. The Friday ride was only the second organized group ride but the large number of folks that turned up for the event are a good indication of the interest in town regarding this type of activity. There was a good variety of larger bikes present along with a few scooters for good measure.

We headed out on Highway 108 from Chiangmai towards Doi Inthanon National Park. This first jaunt was a typical highway that could be found anywhere else in the world and we were able to make very good time. Our little Honda kept up with the best of them at an average speed of about 100km/h. This is about as fast as I would want to go on a scooter!  They are just too small and light to feel really stable at higher speeds and I find the wind blown effect increases exponentially very quickly. About an hour from town we took a right onto 1009 and headed up into the park.  Read More