Chiang Muan - Phrae - Frankie goes to.....the North of Thailand (2019)

November 11, 2019

Chiang Muan - Phrae

I have to admit I was a bit concerned about the 100+ km ahead of me today. Looking at the map there were a lot of green patches I had to go through and this usually means climbing. After a double breakfast at the excellent little khao mun gai (boiled chicken on rice) shop more or less opposite my hotel my concerns materialized soon along the #1120. Nothing as steep as yesterday´s middle section but I find this continuous up and down more challenging than a couple of "real" mountains. Very demanding, physically and mentally. Physically because these steep ramps bring your pulses up to the max with the descents being to short to recover before it is back to hard work. Mentally because the downhills are not noticed as a reward but only delivering you to the start of the next effort. Plus you never know how many more there are waiting. After 30 km and as many efforts up the hill I stopped at a little temple and got some new inspiration by talking to a local monk who articulated very encouraging words to me. As soon as I rolled back out to the road I met the first fellow cyclist for this trip. Young Frenchman Julien has only been riding on his second day and when I asked him why he picked this area to get started he responded that he likes the mountains. There are many ahead of you on your way North, Julien! His good news for me was that my day would become much easier once I got down to Song. Actually the hard bit was already over after roughly 40 km into the day. You will notice how the scenery opens and while approaching the intersection with the #1154 it becomes flat and remains like that until Phrae. Not a particularly nice approach while rolling along the busy highways 103 and 101 but at least the shortcut between the two on the #3017 gives some more entertainment.

Not half as difficult a day as I feared in the morning though and I was very keen to get to my hotel and showered as the Loi Krathong Festival was waiting. To me Thailand´s most colourful big event with parades and several other events, the release of the floats (krathong means float), either on water or airborne, in particular.

It being one of the country´s biggest public holidays I decided to book my room in advance and got a great "deal of the day" through agoda for the Phrae Nakorn Hotel. 593 Baht with breakfast included - certainly are a great deal for such a decent pkace.

PS. As I only got home late tonight, I will post the Loi Krathong photos tomorrow.