We could have easily hung out in cute wee Pai much longer. However, our time off the bikes had come to an end, it was time to swap horsepower for human power once again. We still had the last half of the tough Lanna Kingdom route, to complete back to Chiang Mai before we could add this notch to our belt.
28/02/24 – Pai – Royal Project – 31km (1,387m elev)
Day 7 – PUSHING!!!
The Royal Project is an initiative set up by the Thai Government to help support the Northern hill tribes, whilst preserving the natural landscape of this region. The project began in 1969, when King Bhumibol Adulyadej visited an opium-growing hill tribe village in Doi Pui. This region is the “Golden Triangle” after all (along with Myanmar and Laos), where a significant portion of the world’s heroin comes from.
The King could have taken a punitive approach to these tribes. Instead, he figured that a better way to stop this illegal activity was to encourage the farmers into other crops which turned out to be more profitable and were suitable for the region, such as tea, peaches and oranges. Using traditional farming techniques, these crops also ended up having a lesser impact on the environment and water supplies. 50 years later, this project is evident as we cycle the backroads of Northern Thailand, past rows of orange trees, local women working together pruning and harvesting, and the regeneration of the jungle.
The goal today was to get up to the Royal Project’s local ranger station some 30 or so km away (as staying here comes highly recommended on the bikepacking.com route summary) – barely any distance looking at google maps. Add in some topo lines however … and we understood why this was going to be an all day exercise under the blistering heat.
The write up of this route warned us to carry dinner with us, so we stopped at the only roadside stall along the way to grab a packed dinner of fried rice and pad thai. The nav had us quickly turning off the road down an hidden lil track along a lovely stream. Evidence of burning season was all around us, with charred tree trunks, smoldering piles of leaves and the acrid smell of smoke, we must have missed the burning by a day or two. There was even a bit of single track, which turned us on a bit … this is what we built our bikes for baby!
Got to the base of our main climb of the day where there was a waterfall with a swimming hole next to the road. Wanting to cool down a bit before this climb, we took a swim in the clear, cool water.
Okay, so, onto this climb. What masochist’s fantasy was that?? At least I had no panniers, but Tom was battling it out in the hurt zone. It was slow going, with dusty inclines of 20+% (and even a section of 34% with impossibly low traction that even had Tom walking) and the end of the day fast approaching. It ended up taking us nearly 2 hours to do 8km – probably a new record for us! As stunningly beautiful as those 2 hours were, with views over the mountains and lush forest, I was getting concerned we would be navigating this wilderness in the dark.
It was such a relief when we rounded a corner and saw the ranger station, still some elevation above us but a beacon we could now measure our progress against. Thighs burning, we made it just before sunset and took a moment to take it all in.
The rangers are stationed here at this time of year in part to keep an eye on the fires during burning season. They could not have been more welcoming to us, and even gave us a room in their barracks with a small bed. Seems they prefer to sleep in hammocks out on the balcony anyway. We tucked into our dinner and chatted to Ranger Dave, who told us more about the region and the Royal Project. He is very passionate about his work – although he was very open about its challenges too. The men then offered us some whisky as we sat around in the glow of their bonfire, before we all retired to bed.
29/02/24 – Ranger Dave’s eyes – Pa Pae – 38km (1,050m elev)
Day 8 – Tigers & more climbing
Woke up to boiled eggs and watermelon for breakfast courtesy of Ranger Dave. I may have developed a bit of a crush …
This kindness meant a lot particularly as the Thai Government often don’t allocate the ranger stations enough supplies and so the rangers often have to top it up out of their own pocket. Ranger Dave refused payment, and then topped off the morning by informing us as we were leaving that he had been monitoring the direction of the fires and we should have a fairly smoke-free day – woohoo! One final story about how three village people had recently been killed by a tiger in this area (?!!), and he set us off with a friendly wave.
Day started with a climb – of course. To a summit of 1,592 metres, which again, rewarded us with spectacular views.
The major climb of the day had us counting down every metre of the 8.5km to the top – these roads that look more like walls in front of us aren’t getting any easier! But, what goes up, must come down and jeepers did we have an almighty descent, ever mindful and alert for the odd pothole on the road.
We ended our day in Pa Pae – found a nice homestay (Tatanoy Homestay) which was probably a bit expensive for what it was, but included a wonderful breakfast cooked by the owner’s son 🙂 who had an adorable huskie that I’ll take over a tiger any day.
01/03/24 – Pa Pae – Chiang Mai – 74km (361m elev)
Day 9 – Invite to the Thai national team
Well, for a moment on our final day of riding this loop we were part of the women’s national cycling team, with their support vehicle giving us baked banana treats and all! We tried our best to hold the wheel but, sadly, our heavy bikes were no match and we were quickly dropped.
Sometimes, things we see remind us that we are in this weird and wonderful part of the world where places are created solely for the ‘gram. Classic example – a fake beach in the middle of the countryside – many many miles from the coastline. The water of this lake/beach was an electric shade of blue, with photo-worthy setups on the sand (think cutesy deck chairs and ornate life rings despite the NO SWIMMING signs) and a DJ booth absolutely pumping the tunes. Slightly dystopian in that – it was completely empty. As Shrek said when him and donkey arrived to Duloc … “it’s quiet, too quiet …”.
Home stretch to Chang Mai! Feeling very familiar as these were in fact the same roads we rode out on two weeks ago. We had treated ourselves to a nice hotel in Chiang Mai, so as the city came into view, thoughts turned to jumping in the swimming pool and chilling with a Chang.
In the words of the bikepacking.com trail notes, “Congratulations! You successfully made it through The Lanna Kingdom.”
Final Thoughts
Written by Tom
As it’s promoted by bikepacking.com, it probably comes as no surprise that The Lanna Kingdom is definitely a ‘bikepacking’ style route. As evidenced by the Austrians we met in part one – long-term cycle tourists beware! It isn’t for the faint of heart, or recommended for the heavily loaded. In fact, I’d be surprised if even an unloaded gravel bike could make it up some of those hills given the mental inclines involved.
One reward for persevering up Thailand’s ridiculous gradients though is actually being able to feel remote – in a country where sometimes that otherwise feels impossible.
The mix of terrain and surface types covered; the small villages and hill tribes along the way; the epic views; the amazing township of Pai (one of our favourite spots in Thailand – and somewhere we returned to on another trip), plus the memories this adventure created – all add up to an unforgettable experience we’d thoroughly recommend any adventurous rider. Even if Rach still describes it as ‘Type II‘ fun…
Doing this loop in the hot, dry, burning season probably wasn’t ideal timing (it just fit with our itinerary), but neither would the rainy season be – given the amount of dust that’d turn to Thai-flavoured peanut butter mud. I’d say late October through early January to probably be the sweet spot.
All-in-all an excellent route, even if it helped prepare us mentally – knowing there weren’t many tougher climbs to come, anywhere else in the world we ended up…
