Shan Wedding in Loi Tai Leng, Shan State, Myanmar

[KTMphil]

Shan Wedding in Loi Tai Leng, Shan State, Myanmar

Just got back from a Shan State Army officer's wedding in Loi Tai Leng, Shan State, Myanmar, scenery up there is breathtaking.

As there's a new command in charge of the Thai checkpoints, that has decided no foreigners are allowed across north from Thailand into Shan State, Myanmar, we had to find an alternative route to the Thai - Shan border, avoiding all but the last Thai military checkpoints.

FULL REPORT TO COME TOMORROW - JUST GOT BACK

 

[KTMphil]

We had been invited to a friends wedding who is 2nd in command at the Loi Tai Leng, Shan State ('Myanmar") , Tai Yai, rebel army camp. Initially, we were told that we could get permits for entry passed the Thai military checkpoints for this event. A day before leaving, after submitting passports & bike documents to the Thai military for approval, we were told that the would not be issued due to a new officer being in charge of the checkpoints & no foreigners would be allowed into the Shan State Army camp.

It was looking like we couldn't go but then we got a call from the Shan army camp & they gave us a route with village names that would by-pass all but the last Thai military checkpoints. I gave the village names to Auke to see if he could make sense of the village names & make a route, within an hour he had a route emailed back to me to the Loi Tai Leng, Shan State army camp. So Som & I decided to give it a try accepting that we may be turned back.

Below is the route west of Pai from R 1095 (Mae Hong Son loop road) north to Loi Tai Leng, Shan State army camp, that avoids most of the Thai military checkpoints. There was one checkpoint on the dirt road north but it was unmanned.




Map copyright © www.RideAsia.net - Permission needed to copy

 

[KTMphil]

Early start as we didn't know the state of the dirt roads above

Breakfast at the Pankled Coffee shop on R 1095 (Mae Hong Son loop road)

Fuel station in Pang Mapha / Soppong, bumped into a bunch of guys on tour on Tony's Big Bike's rental bikes

R 1095 is still in bad shape for sports bike, many potholes and quick repairs. It has some of the best views in Thailand.

 

[KTMphil]

To avoid the checkpoints north towards Loi Tai Leng, Shan State, from R 1095, take a right turn onto R 4015 as in the map above, then after 1KM take a right turn onto the dirt road.

Map copyright © www.RideAsia.net - Permission needed to copy


The dirt road was quite easy, very steep sections, but would be no problem for a pick-up.

Having never been on this road before, some great new scenery

The southern sections were very dry and easy

As we got further north it was swampy in places

Places that didn't get the sun stayed greasy. Here a small settlement on the track north

Another small settlement further north

 

[KTMphil]

As we got further north, it got more and more rutted

4KM from the Thai/ Shan State "Myanmar" border we could see the final Thai military checkpoint look-out

The last 4Km to the border are very steep and rutted, if wet it would be tough getting up here

Great views just before the border

We got to the final border Thai military checkpoint and the soldier in charge said there was no way we would be allowed in without a permit (which we didn't have), so things didn' look good.

...





Som tried talking with the soldiers explaining we had been invited to a wedding, even showing the printed invitation cards - they didn't care

 

[KTMphil]

I managed to get hold of the Shan State army officer that was to be married, he said he would come down to the checkpoint and see if he could fix things

We waited up in the Thai army checkpoint for him to arrive

..




As you can imagine - great views from an army checkpoint

Housing at the Thai military checkpoint

Thai soldiers, with a look-out in the back ground





There we several donkeys at the Thai checkpoint, they told us they use them to haul water up from the stream 2Km below

The Shan officer to be married came to the Thai, military checkpoint and after about 30 minutes managed to pursuade the Thai officer in charge to call his boss and ask for permission. We were given the ok for one night in Loi Tai Leng, but we were told this was the last time, pretty lucky.

The dirt road up to the Loi Tai Leng village was nasty as they had been some rain the day before. Here the Shan border checkpoint.

 

[KTMphil]

Now in Shan State , "Myanmar", as you can see the road still bad

Finally there in the Shan army camp

The Loi Tai Leng, Shan State, school in the right of the photo

School

Loi Tai Leng army base and pick-ups arriving with people attending the wedding ceremony

We were assigned on of the soldier houses to sleep in. we rigged up a hammock as a mosquito net, they said there were no mosquito's there but we weren't sure

Toilet was pretty high up, might be a challenge in the middle of the night after some Laos Khow.

Cooking for 100 people at the wedding

Shan State rebel army officer that was to be married the next day

We were given these tasty roasted beans to eat, never had them before

 

[KTMphil]

At 0500am the next morning there apparently was a "shaming" ceremony. where pupils from the school are paraded through the main street and shamed for smoking etc.... We could here the chants in the distance but didn't get up to see it.

The wedding ceremony started about 0615am the next morning

Som said it was completely different from a Thai ceremony. It lasted about 3 hours, with monks and Army officers doing presentations. We felt very honored to be invited.



Views from Loi Tai Leng army village

Women at the wedding in traditional Shan dress (even Som on the right)

...





The happy couple



The NGO "Partners", has contributed a lot here, to the right of the photo below, you can see the dorms. they have built for the school children.

Views out across Shan State, as you can see not a village in sight

After the ceremony was finished we headed back south into Thailand & took the more eastern road south that goes passed 4 Thai military checkpoints. The clay had dried out from the rain 2 days before which was a blessing

 

[KTMphil]

This was the route we took south which hooks up onto R 1226 ( & from Pai the backway back to Chiang Mai discussed later)




Map copyright © http://www.RideAsia.net - Permission needed to copy



To clarify, the western road is the dirt trail we took north to Loi Tai Leng, Shan State & the eastern road is the road we took south which has all the checkpoints



Map copyright © http://www.RideAsia.net - Permission needed to copy


This route south into Thailand is MUCH harder than the route that we came up on. It's steeper and much more rutted.

The checkpoints are all now very serious with the new Thai commander, they all seemed quite shocked to see us coming south as they had not seen us go north ( we went up on a different road)




More steepness & ruts

Onto the north end of R 1226 - beautiful scenery

More checkpoints (glad we didn't try to come up this way)




R 1226

 

[KTMphil]

1,000's of Shan people live in Thailand in the area around R 1226, here a Shan Wat (temple) on the way south on R 1226

R 1226 has some dirt sections , most of the tarmac sections are good except for a few that have rain erosion

Lunch in Pai at Pai Country

Our Malaysian friends might be interested to know that Muslim food is available right opposite Pai Country restaurant in Pai

We then decided to take the backway back to Chiang Mai via Wat Chan & Samoeng



Below is a map from Pai to Wat Chan



Map copyright © www.RideAsia.net - Permission needed to copy



Below is a map from Wat Chan to Chiang Mai



Map copyright © www.RideAsia.net - Permission needed to copy

 

[KTMphil]

The road from Pai - Wat Chan - Samoeng - Chiang Mai, has roughly 50-60km of unmade dirt/ unmade sections, most are very easy

There were some damp rutted areas, all could have been passed in a pick-up

About 42km west of Samoeng, construction is underway to seal more of the road

There is also some very cute brick tiled road on the way east to Samoeng on this route

Got home in the dark about 7.30pm, was a thoroughly enjoying couple of days.

 

[Lone Rider]

Great report and even greater pictures - at this time of the year everything is clear and no dust around to "black out" the sky. Happy that the road up to Shan State on the west side did not pose any serious problems. I haven't been there myself but got the tracks from James and "Dirty" and knowing their preferences for being really "off the beaten track" I wasn't sure if you guys could get through.

 

[KTMphil]

Auke - the western route we took north, as you indicated there was one checkpoint just east of the turn off from R 4015. This was not manned at this time which was good for us, i've marked where the checkpoint is in larger print below.



Map copyright © www.RideAsia.net - Permission needed to copy

Great report and even greater pictures - at this time of the year everything is clear and no dust around to "black out" the sky. Happy that the road up to Shan State on the west side did not pose any serious problems. I haven't been there myself but got the tracks from James and "Dirty" and knowing their preferences for being really "off the beaten track" I wasn't sure if you guys could get through.

 

[MastaMax]

Great trip Phil, seems like you took the road we planned to take last time (all dirt).
Congratulations to Som for riding that long and in the mud, it certainly wasn't easy

 

[Pounce]

I'm turning as green as the countryside.
That was a very cool trip to do.
Thanks Phil

 

[mikehohman]

Sorry to miss this one, looks you had some challenging trail to ride... and great culture. Nice!!

 

[bill]

Great report Phil and you're most fortunate to see that area while it remains unique.
Impressed with Som's effort through the muddy ruts.

Will keep an eye on the forum for any news of a change in entry restrictions.
Hmm, new Commander.... tea money ?

 

[Lone Rider]

Will keep an eye on the forum for any news of a change in entry restrictions.
Hmm, new Commander.... tea money ?

Not sure if tea money will help - to me it looks like that the new commander was appointed when the new government came in and considering that big brother (now residing in Dubai) was quite close to the Government in Myanmar, a change in policy could have taken place viz-a-viz Shan State. Where the previous government wanted to open the area for tourism - the Thai Tourism Authority was promoting this area - this opening up policy now may have been reversed. Hope that my views are wrong but it looks like the opposite as I was told that a nurse who went there quite often to help with medical issues was also not allowed to go there anymore by the Thai men in green.

 

[yempaul]

Wow Phil

Great scenery up there. Thanks for the report.

 

[KTMphil]

Some more detail on the area west of Wiang Heang west towards Loi Tai Leng, Shan State.

I've marked where the 4 checkpoints are that you will run into on the easterly road (R 1226) north to Loi Tai Leng area. Also on the left side of the map are the trails that can link Wiang Heang to R 1226/ Loi Tai Leng.

Max & Alex USA did this trail during torrential rain and got through (Wiang Heang to R 1226 dirt trail)





Map copyright © www.RideAsia.net - Permission needed to copy

 

[Steve Canyon]

Great stuff....

Some great looking views.....

 

[KTMphil]

This was Max & Alex USA on the trail west of Wiang Heang in the middle of rainy season !!

 

[KTMphil]

Some photo's from the big camera

A beautiful Shan girl at the army base

The Shan wedding ceremony








Traditional house

LTL Village

 

[KTMphil]

School

Cat

Pig

 

[johnnysneds]

Awesome Phil, really enjoyed your report..

 

[KTMphil]

LTL village





Donkeys for hauling produce & water in LTL village






Looking north into Shan State, "Myanmar" - they tell us this is as far north as the dirt trails go, basically to a military look-out post approx. 3 km north of LTL army base

 

[Captain_Slash]

A good report and pictures there Phil, I must try that dirt road out on the KLX somewhen

 

[KTMphil]

It's interesting looking at google earth around the Loi Tai Leng Thai/ Shan border area as there are many other small settlements in Shan State. If you look to the left side of the photo you can see where several villages are in Shan State.




Below photo is zoomed in on one of the Shan villages, GPS co-ords are at the bottom of the picture

 

[KTMphil]

If you look around in Google earth, there's a bunch of villages north east of Loi Tai Leng, Shan State, all with trails going to them --- if only they would let us trail ride there, a whole new world of virgin trails.

 

[Lone Rider]

If you look around in Google earth, there's a bunch of villages north east of Loi Tai Leng, Shan State, all with trails going to them --- if only they would let us trail ride there, a whole new world of virgin trails.]

Not sure if you should do that even if it were allowed. While the Myanmar army may be quite far away, there are other Shan break-a-way factions and these may be less friendly and/or more trigger happy than the Shan people you have met.

 

[Stokes70]

Awesome pictures, awesome trip Phil. Looks amazing,
And well done to Som for completing the trip aswell!

 

[KTMphil]

A few more photo's from the Loi Tai Leng, Shan State wedding



Traditional Shan elderly ladies

Keeping the ladies out of the sun

School and dorms.

Chok Dee





Road in the army base

Many of the soldier's houses had these things that look like make-shift antenna's, maybe Delboy has an idea what they are?

 

[Stokes70]

Looks like they have been using radioactive fertilizer on the surrounding flora!! wow what shades of green they have in Burma!!! :

 

[KTMphil]

Looks like they have been using radioactive fertilizer on the surrounding flora!! wow what shades of green they have in Burma!!! :

Mr. Stokes if you moved on from that F4.5 "starter" lens to a F2.8 professional lens I could teach you to capture color like in these pichers.

 

[aschoch]

Brilliant story, Phil and a great trip - wish I was there...