Road bike tour Northern Thailand - 8 days on a road bike through Northern Thailand
Why is this American smiling like that when we tell him about our plan? "So, so," says Chris Dolan ambiguously, "over the mountains, to the Mekong and back?" Yes, that's our plan, a stage trip with a small rucksack in eight days. We hire a racing bike for my companion Jörg from Chris, who works for the cycle tour operator SpiceRoads in northern Thailand's largest city Chiang Mai. SpiceRoads also organises road bike tours up to the Mekong and thus to the border with Laos - but these tend to be through gentler terrain close to the river. However, because the mountain ranges in the north of Thailand rise over 2,000 metres into the sky, the topography tempts us cyclists to leave the valleys from time to time. We are yet to find out why Chris finds this so amusing.
Chiang Mai lies in the wide valley of the Ping River, which flows southwards from the mountains in the north. For cyclists, the Ping is a welcome guide - preferably against the current. But we don't follow it along the main road, preferring to slalom across wide fields, around groups of trees, through the villages and stay overnight
in a pretty hostel in the middle of the jungle. At eight o'clock the next day, the morning sun glints through the bamboo trunks as we take the road up to the Royal Gardens of Doi Angkhan, which lie in the far north of Thailand, on the border with Myanmar. The landlord, whose jungle hostel we stayed in yesterday, told us at breakfast that the road to the foot of the mountains near the village of Arunotai is pleasantly laid out in the landscape. His politeness spared us from having to take the mean-spirited continuation.
You can download the entire article and the GPS data for these tours below:
- Day 1: Chiang Mai - Marisa Resort (Chiang Dao)
100 kilometres, 450 metres in altitude, max. 16 % gradient
- Day 2: Marisa Resort (Chiang Dao) - Doi Angkhang
78 kilometres, 2,300 metres in altitude, max. 28 % gradient
- Day 3: Doi Angkhang - Phu Chaisai Resort (near Mae Chan)
137 kilometres, 1,700 metres in altitude, max. 27 % gradient
- Day 4: Phu Chaisai Resort (near Mae Chan) - Rai Saen Arun Resort
86 kilometres, 230 metres in altitude, max. 6 % gradient
- Day 5: Rai Saen Arun Resort - Upcountry Bungalows (before Thoeng)
115 kilometres, 1,500 metres in altitude, max. 20 % gradient
- Day 6: Upcountry Bungalows (Thoeng) - Phayao
99 kilometres, 300 metres in altitude, max. 6 % gradient
- Day 7: Phayao - Doi Farang Resort (near Phrao)
140 kilometres, 2,200 metres in altitude, max. 23 % gradient
- Day 8: Doi Farang Resort (Phrao)- Chiang Mai
106 kilometres, 510 metres in altitude, max. 13 % gradient
