Today’s ride was back to Sukhothai but via a different route. I left sharply at 8am after having a simple breakfast with the owners of the guesthouse. A really nice couple who made you feel very welcome. Leaving Chiang Khong in the morning I had not counted on the temperature being at 16 degrees. It felt lovely walking around the hotel but on a bike at 80km/h plus, it certainly feels chilly. I took off down the road I had travelled up, now heading South along route 1020. The view over to the mountain ranges was amazing. With chilled air, the clouds were settled part way up the range showing the peak cresting above the cloud line, and the Sun just bridging over the mountain line. Definitely worth a photo stop here. I pondered whether to put on some inner shells to keep me warm but was sure it would warm up within the next half hour or so.
As I moved on along the road it was mainly dual carriageway, flowing and fast with not much traffic. Gentle bends so I could easily maintain a pace of around 100 or so. The clouds had now moved lower so now I was riding through mild mist. The Sun was completely blocked out and the temperature dropped to 15 degrees. Definitely feeling the chill now, I decided to carry on. About 50 kms later I arrived at Thoeng. Here I hung left South East on route 1021 back towards Nan. At this point I had to stop. I was feeling too cold. I’d already put the heated grips on about 20 kms earlier and had not stopped thinking I would pass the mist. But it seemed never ending and here I decided that was it. So I stopped and took out a waterproof and windproof inner jacket I was carrying in my pannier. I put this on under my mesh jacket and set off. The temperature was barely above 20 degrees and now with this jacket I felt a lot better.
The road proceeded towards Chiang Kham and riding through there I could not help but think to myself that I had ridden through there on the way North yesterday. Nonetheless it was a small matter and I followed the GPS which took me through a few left and right turn junctions before putting me onto route 1179 and then onto route 1091 that led me back in Nan. This was another lovely road with good road surface and long flowing bends. Again nothing too aggressive or hard for either myself or the bike and I took the time to enjoy the road and take in a few photo stops.
Arriving into Nan, the temperature now had risen to 22 degrees and so I decided to look for a petrol station, take in some fuel, removed the inner jacket and have a coffee break. I rode through Nan and then following the GPS turn left onto 1026 where there was a PTT and I took a stop for 15 minutes. Setting off following the road with an immediate right turn, I had a kilometer before turning into route 1162. I had decided the night before that if I got to this spot before noon I would continue on the planned route as I wanted to be back in Sukhothai before 5pm. If I had arrived here later than noon I would have carried on straight and taken an alternative route knocking about 100km off my route. But I was making good time so took this route, and am so glad I did.
The next section of riding was very interesting and for that please look forward to the next blog.
Motorcycle Chronicles by Jamil Siddique 