Gorgeous North

Since about a week we have left Isaan and are since then riding in the Northern part of Thailand. We loved Isaan. We also love North Thailand! It's been wonderful riding most of the time, and we're truly enjoying it.

Hehehe, finally, after more than 5 weeks!

Specialty of this village: brooms. And then these colourful spinning things (what's it called?) are probably "market diversification"

Back to Uttaradit where I wrote the previous blog post a few days ago. The second evening of our stay in Uttaradit, that is after our very relaxed day, we had a fantastic Thai dinner, probably one of the best we have had so far on this trip. Plaa saam rod, yam phak bung (delicious!) and a mushroom dish with tasty tofu; none of it really spicy, yet spiced enough to make it delicious. And we got to bed early, because... it is best to start cycling early again! To beat the heat, we left at 7am anew! The ride was so nice. First, for a while, we went through early morning busy city traffic. Normally you would not like that, but somehow this time it was nice - probably just because we hadn't had such traffic on our journey yet, it was not that bad at all, and it all went smoothly and safely. Traffic lights, little jams, school drop offs, motorbike traffic to work, ... Once we were through the city traffic, we were able to get onto small roads, until we had no other choice than joining big highway 11. Even that was not too bad, holidays are now over and traffic was rather light! The scenery however was becoming really beautiful, surrounded by hills (or mountains?), lush nature here (clearly greener and richer than the past few weeks in Isaan!), bamboo bushes, small fruit plantations - it all started to look much like the typical northern Thai scenery.

Farangs on bicycles in the Uttaradit morning traffic

Only in Thailand... What a funny place, in the middle of nowhere

Up up up

We had a coffee stop in a very charming, friendly, and chill place, where drip coffee was the "specialty" (always funny for us, because in most of Europe drip coffee is the standard, daily way of making coffee - nothing fancy about it). The place was great, but the coffee was not so nice. Soon after the coffee stop we had a long stretch of uphill riding, but it went up very smoothly and gradually at around a 5-6% slope, and was very feasible. There were some durian stalls on the way up, we would have loved to eat one but we kept it for the downhill - you don't want to work your way up a hill with your stomach full of durian. Of course, no more durian stalls on the downhill! Ahhh! Anyway, it was a long and pleasant downhill ride, with a few minor bumps, and soon enough after 51km of cycling we found a good place for a lunch stop.

Another nice quaint coffee shop

With a "fancy" drip coffee stand

With this kind of setting, you'd truly want to stop for a coffee, no? Even if the coffee is not that great, it's still a very nice break!

Drinking coffee and eating, that's all we do on our trip

Lovely simple and tasty Thai meal at a tiny restaurant at the riverside

After this lunch, we continued on very small roads, sometimes as wide as a cycling lane would be in Belgium and with really fantastic scenery. We took the long and winding route to Phrae, thereby avoiding the big roads, doing some extra kms in the end, but it was absolutely worth it, so beautiful. After a nice 81km we arrived in Phrae, in the early afternoon, found a nice place to stay, and went for our usual afternoon treat with an ice caramel macchiato and orange cake this time.

Fantastic cycling on a very small, quiet road

And more like that; the trees on the left side are teak trees; Phrae used to be the centre of teak logging and production, and to some degree probably still is. In any case, we saw several wood working shops along the road.

The villages in this region are well maintained, clean, and peaceful

In Phrae at the market, where we bought mango, guava and watermelon - seems we were craving for fruit

One of the (many) temples in Phrae

Another Wat - opposite a school, hence all the stalls selling drinks and sweets

We had planned to stay in Phrae for a day, as it seemed an attractive little city, and so we did. We did not have the same lazy day approach like Uttaradit though. In the morning we rode to the old city, to have breakfast and explore a little. From there, we cycled to Ban Thung Hong, the indigo village - known for its indigo dyed clothing. The village was very nice, so peaceful, clean and attractive, but we did not see any dying or other textile activities except for the dozens of shops selling indigo coloured clothing along the main road.

Inside Phrae town; opposite side of the canal, there is the old city wall (no photo of that unfortunately)

Ban Thung Hong, nice village, no sign of any textile activity at all...

Next stop Phrae Muang Phi, a forest park with fascinating rock formations (well, that's a theme on this trip, special rock formations: Phu Pha Thoep and Phu Phrabat were on the route too). Then back towards Phrae, with a stop for lunch and another one for coffee, and time for a little rest back at the hotel in the hot afternoon. Late afternoon we cycled back into the old town, to continue some sightseeing, and have dinner at the night market. All in all, a pretty active day, probably still around 35km on the counter. This Phrae stop has been really worth it, it is indeed a nice, attractive town, and clearly still not on the tourist map.

Phrae Muang Phi

Phrae Muang Phi; it's a small site, but worth the trip

Ah well, just a nice photo

Casual lunch stop at a small village restaurant on the way back, kway teow soup; the owner was very friendly, and surprised to have farangs in his restaurant

A nice, fancy coffee shop, in the middle of nowhere, about 5km from Phrae town

Interesting Wat in Phrae town, Wat Phong Sunan, quite different style

A school building; there are still quite a few big and very beautiful teak buildings in Phrae, but most of them were closed when we passed by. The school building was actually one of the most impressive ones!

A Burmese Wat, Wat Chom Sawan, also a teak construction, beautiful architecture

... artist impression ...

Hungry couple at the Phrae night market

We left Phrae again in the early hours of the day, to enjoy some very cool riding (while the days get hot, the nights and especially mornings are "cold" - like 16-17C that is; perfect to be on the bicycle!). Looking at our options for the route towards Chiang Rai, we found yesterday that there was a nice alternative route a bit east of the main axis Phrae-Phayao-Chiang Rai, and we decided to go that way. It means we will bypass Phayao, but we already had a few towns on our route recently and most Thai towns are not that attractive anyway. On the good side, we are convinced that we now have a much nicer route to cycle, with pleasant roads and little traffic, through beautiful scenery. We also decided not to make the side trip to Nan.

Early morning view towards the mountains in the east

The Yom river, with a Wat in the distance (the red roof)

Village cycling

And then, again totally off the beaten track, a surprisingly inviting, nice coffee shop!

And yes, it didn't disappoint at all today! We were able to avoid all the major roads with the exception of 2km on the 103, and it was just absolutely gorgeous. Rice paddies, mountain views, charming villages, good coffee shops still (!), good roads, very little traffic, some uphill riding - nice for the challenge, and nice for the subsequent downhill, a delicious khao soi before the major climb... The kind of day you love when on a cycling tour! So happy we made the choice to go this alternative route. We arrived in the early afternoon in Ban Sa Iap, with a good 80km on the counter - which also means we have now exceeded 2000km on this trip so far! Ban Sa Iap is a small town with nothing much to see or do, but for some fascinating reason there is a really good guest house (Mountain Lodge, probably best value for money we have had on this trip, 490THB (13EUR) and it is very comfortable with everything you need), and 2 fancy coffee shops!!! Say no more...