AlexUSA
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 19, 2011
- Bikes
- XR280R, Dash 125 (supercup) , DT125
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It was good but unlike any Kao Soi I've seen. All the ingredients were seperate and there was no meat. It did have the taste of Kao Soi and a really nice flavor when mixed with the red spicy sauce.
As we ate, more and more people arrived and eventually a representative of the Shan Army showed up to ask who we were – very politely. A teacher from the local school asked if we wanted to visit the school and we obliged, just catching the afternoon flag lowering ceremony.
As we first entered this village, we had planned to continue deeper into the Shan territory as there was no visible military checkpoints or anything to stop us. This seemed to be a civilian area and I think we are safe to go quite deep in this area. However, it was getting to be mid-late afternoon by the time we left the school and we had a ways to go back. On our next trip, we will enter through this village and continue much deeper into the Shan territory.
Above picture shows us heading down out of the mountains on downhill singletrack that dropped us near Wieng Haeng. Taking an alternate route back, we really surprised a few Shan Army checkpoints who couldn't figure out how we were coming from the Myanmar side. After a few minutes of them trying to figure out protocol, they let us through.
We took the very fast truck roads from Wieng Haeng to Muang Noi and back to Pai. We made amazing time here and even though it got dark as we entered Pai, we had been hitting 5th and 6th gear on the dirt.
Day 2 (exploring South of Pai, attempt to connect with Pai river)
We woke up at the always nice Countryside Resort for 600/bungalow/night.
On our second day, our goal was to head due South from Pai to try to find a connection all the way down to the Pai river in the vast wilderness area South of Pai. There's nothing on the map here and we had gotten pretty close to the river coming up from the South a few months ago and were hoping to connect the trails.
We started on well mapped truck roads that ended in a village at this river. This was hilltribe people but most people spoke very clear Thai.
A village kid showed us a singletrack to continue South but unfortunately his suggestion that it continued towards the river did not hold up. As we went further down the track, a few hill people told us that it definitely did not go through and you had to walk to the river. Nevertheless, we continued as far as possible before turning back just 3 kilometers and in sight of the river valley.
Backtracking the singletrack back to the last village, we spent the rest of the day exploring fast truck roads and saw these little monuments that we had seen in the area before (this is a Lisu tribe area).
We rode into a Lisu village with really nice wood houses and ornamental landscaping – clearly making good money off all the local agriculture we were riding through. We sat down with the village headman and drank tea for a while. He introduced us to a nice Lisu girl and we made conversation for a while about before heading back. Despite his offering of food and more tea, we decided we wanted more riding – although we said we may come back for the Lisu New Year next month.
Back into Pai before dark today and Maxime had a slow leak in his front tire.
Another night at the Countryside Resort.
Day 3 (Pai to Chiang Mai, off-tarmac)
We had got two really long days of riding in and were ready to head home. We hit well-used truck roads with bits of single-track all the way back to Mae Rim with a final blast down the Ban Mae Nai to Huay Tung Thao single track. Made great time and were back by early afternoon.
Our trusty mechanics – Thon and Bird Kwai – washing the bikes down.
Epilogue – Next Trip: Exploring deeper into Shan territory through our new unmonitored crossing
It was good but unlike any Kao Soi I've seen. All the ingredients were seperate and there was no meat. It did have the taste of Kao Soi and a really nice flavor when mixed with the red spicy sauce.
As we ate, more and more people arrived and eventually a representative of the Shan Army showed up to ask who we were – very politely. A teacher from the local school asked if we wanted to visit the school and we obliged, just catching the afternoon flag lowering ceremony.
Above picture shows us heading down out of the mountains on downhill singletrack that dropped us near Wieng Haeng. Taking an alternate route back, we really surprised a few Shan Army checkpoints who couldn't figure out how we were coming from the Myanmar side. After a few minutes of them trying to figure out protocol, they let us through.
We took the very fast truck roads from Wieng Haeng to Muang Noi and back to Pai. We made amazing time here and even though it got dark as we entered Pai, we had been hitting 5th and 6th gear on the dirt.
Day 2 (exploring South of Pai, attempt to connect with Pai river)
We woke up at the always nice Countryside Resort for 600/bungalow/night.
On our second day, our goal was to head due South from Pai to try to find a connection all the way down to the Pai river in the vast wilderness area South of Pai. There's nothing on the map here and we had gotten pretty close to the river coming up from the South a few months ago and were hoping to connect the trails.
We started on well mapped truck roads that ended in a village at this river. This was hilltribe people but most people spoke very clear Thai.
A village kid showed us a singletrack to continue South but unfortunately his suggestion that it continued towards the river did not hold up. As we went further down the track, a few hill people told us that it definitely did not go through and you had to walk to the river. Nevertheless, we continued as far as possible before turning back just 3 kilometers and in sight of the river valley.
Backtracking the singletrack back to the last village, we spent the rest of the day exploring fast truck roads and saw these little monuments that we had seen in the area before (this is a Lisu tribe area).
We rode into a Lisu village with really nice wood houses and ornamental landscaping – clearly making good money off all the local agriculture we were riding through. We sat down with the village headman and drank tea for a while. He introduced us to a nice Lisu girl and we made conversation for a while about before heading back. Despite his offering of food and more tea, we decided we wanted more riding – although we said we may come back for the Lisu New Year next month.
Back into Pai before dark today and Maxime had a slow leak in his front tire.
Another night at the Countryside Resort.
Day 3 (Pai to Chiang Mai, off-tarmac)
We had got two really long days of riding in and were ready to head home. We hit well-used truck roads with bits of single-track all the way back to Mae Rim with a final blast down the Ban Mae Nai to Huay Tung Thao single track. Made great time and were back by early afternoon.
Our trusty mechanics – Thon and Bird Kwai – washing the bikes down.
Epilogue – Next Trip: Exploring deeper into Shan territory through our new unmonitored crossing
