March 31, 2016
Thaton to Chiang Saen
We started out a bit later this morning because the mornings have been cooler. We had decided to cheat a bit and catch a song thaew up to the turnoff to Mae Salong - long ten degree climbs are not what we're here for. We found the station and were quickly shown which one in which to load our bikes (Thais are so kind and helpful).
Soon after seven we were on our way. The first 25 kms made me think we had missed a trick by catching the song thaew but suddenly the hill became very steep and, apart from a 3km downhill section, didn't stop until the turnoff. The song thaew stopped at the turnoff to the Mae Salong we happily paid our fare of 50 baht each. Then we had a lovely freewheel downhill for about ten kilometers before the 107 started to flatten out again.
Breakfasts were first bananas after a kilometer or so, then the most amazing pork dumplings after about 15 kms finishing off with some pineapple at about 26 kms. A lovely relaxing ride with light traffic and beautful scenery.
At the junction with Highway 1 we did a little jiggle to miss the major roads and intersections - thank you MapFactor Navigator for a lovely tour of the canals and rice paddies - before joing up with the multilane, flat-as-a-pancake 1016 to Chiang Saen. Watching paint dry would have been more interesting. At the least the traffic was light.
Chaing Saen is a border town, and looks like one, where trade been China, Thailand and Laos is big business. We first checked out the Chiang Saen Guest House that has been recommended on CGOAB and other sites (turn left once you hit the T-junction at the river - it's about 500m up) but it was tired, smelly and not too clean. So we decided turn it down and went off to look for some lunch. 100m meters back towards the T-junction we found a Chinese plastic chair place and wolfed down some rice and pork with fried kale plus a couple of Cokes. Then we went to look for the guesthouses marked on Open Street Maps. The first one we looked at, up a Soi just before the Chiang Saen Guest House, was Tanrak Home where two teenage boys were busy cleaning one of the rooms. At 400 baht for the exact opposite of Chiang Saen Guest House, we snapped it up in a second. The rooms aren't overly large (but I guess we could still fit the bikes in if needed) but it is new and clean and fresh. And the youngsters manning the place were very pleasant. It's the Thai school holidays (they last about 3 months) and while many of the kids still seem to be very involved in school outings and organized activities, the older ones are often seen helping out at family businesses.
Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 910 km (565 miles)
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