Chiang Mai (Northern Thailand) Tourist Guide


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TWO WHEELS UP DOI KHOM RONG

by: Andrew Bond

Riding bicycles up mountains sounds like an absurd idea, but Doi Khom Rong is one those mountains that are best appreciated from a saddle. Of course, you can follow the delightful route up over this modest summit on a motorbike or in a car, but my mountain biking group likes to tackle adventure the hard way.

Rough riders... at the top

Not far from the popular tourist centre of the Mae Sa valley is a lesser known route which I'd spotted on my map. And what a surprise it turned out to be. The road to the summit snaked through a lush, elongated valley before rising up through hilltribe villages and offering some sweeping, uninterrupted vistas which include the peaks as far away as Chiang Dao, fifty kilometers to the north. By the time we finally made it to the top, our exhaustion was overwhelmed by the exhilaration of stumbling upon two lovely waterfalls and some unbeatable scenery, but I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Setting out from Mae Rim, our group of six had followed the Samoeng road through the collection of tourist attractions in the Mae Sa valley. Pedaling at 20kms an hour you have time to size up the abundance of options here such as the bungy jumping, monkey centre, orchid nursery and snake farm. We'd have to come back for these another day - they're entertaining, no doubt, but we had some serious hill climbing to contemplate. There's a sign on the right indicating the way to Tard Mork Waterfall and we soon found ourselves on a pleasant asphalt road which, for more than ten kilometers, wound its way along a peaceful valley. This is exactly the landscape that I admire Northern Thailand for, with mountains rising all around and rainforest in all directions. It was also reasonably flat, which for cyclists is always welcome.

...going down

Perhaps the nicest surprise is the distinct lack of tourists here. This means you can have the place all to yourself and we did just that with a lovely public picnic garden that the road suddenly came upon. When you've been sweating on a bike, places like this are always welcoming so we collapsed on the grass beside the small stream that bisects this sizeable park. As it turned out, we discovered an ideal lunch spot just beyond Sukarntara resort, which enjoys one of Thailand's most privileged locations besides a tumbling waterfall, serves excellent lunches at reasonable prices. Our tight lycra cycle gear looked out of place in this small, exclusive, countryside hideaway but we couldn't resist a drink on their perfectly placed terrace. You can quite literally lean over and wet your hand while you sit and whet your appetite on the menu.

Just beyond the resort we came upon Tard Mork waterfall, one of the area's largest, and though we had to pay 200 baht entry, our tickets, we were informed, were good for the even more impressive Mae Sa waterfall which we planned to pass on our way home. Arriving at places like these makes cycling so rewarding, and after all the sweating up the hills a plunge in cool pools was refreshing indeed. The falls plunge over a 50 foot rock face and are one of the best I can think of in the area. But a little further on up the road we discovered there's a second waterfall, Wunghorn, which is free and equally pretty. Here we stopped again, for there was no one here and we enjoyed goofing in the water at will.

Tard Mork Waterfall

By now Ben, the social cyclist of our group, was looking pretty ragged and joked that he needed a resort to check into and recover. His timing was spot on for we soon came upon a second place to stay in the area, The Hmong Resort, which is a peaceful haven set beside some rice paddies in among the tropical vegetation.

"Hello, where you go," yelled some loitering staff members who seemed intrigued by our presence. We chatted a bit and exchanged some energy bars for fresh lynches. No, they hadn't ever seen bicycles up this far before, and yes they did think we farang were completely nuts!

More ascending and then we passed through another small village. Like many places in Thailand, villagers harvest the fruit in their plots and set up roadside stalls to sell it. This suits a hungry cyclist. We do this all the time on our rides, stopping at a roadside fruit tree and feasting on 'free public fruit'. The owner soon appeared, grinning at her foreign guests, and invited us to help ourselves, even though the ground around us was already littered with ychee skins. It was a good thing we stocked up on natural sugars, as the asphalt road suddenly made a steep ascent up onto the summit, skirting a bowl-shaped valley that reveals its fertility with rows of vegetables and greenhouses. You might think it's difficult to admire the view while pedaling up a 30 incline but the experience of riding along such terrain is exhilarating. With most of this part of the mountain cleared for high altitude agriculture, the views were superb and abundant. Even if you're in a car, there are plenty of suitable stopping places. The distinctive greenhouses down below are evidence of the highly successful Kings Project, which has provided economic upliftment to the Hmong hilltribe folk who inhabit the area. It has encouraged them to substitute poppy (opium) cultivation in favour of cabbages and other ground crops.

It's impossible to pass discreetly through a village dressed in brightly-coloured cycling gear and we attracted a swarm of scruffy kids who screamed "good morning teacher" behind us. Like many of Northern Thailand's hill tribes, this particular community have located their village above 1000m, balanced impossibly on the slopes. Passing through Baan Nong Hoi Mai provides an interesting window into the lifestyle of these rural minorities, as kids play on the road and men and women come and go in their distinctive dark, ornately decorated dress. We were relieved when the road leveled out and followed the contours of the crest to a lookout shelter.

Finally we had made it, climbing 1200m in two hours over a 30 kilometer slog. In a car we probably could've done it in 30 minutes but the views all seemed so much more rewarding this way. Now for the best bit, the descent! Very shortly we found ourselves in the larger village of Nong Hoi, which serves as an agricultural centre and has a tourist information board. Here you can learn more about the Kings Project and witness for yourself the commercial activities that are empowering these rural folk. The road then zigzagged its way down into the village of Pongyang and we turned left onto the Samoeng road and coasted back to the Mae Sa valley. Here there is plenty more to see, such as the lovely botanical gardens, Mae Sa Elephant camp and waterfall, but we had had enough for one day!

Back to Chiang Mai then, and a well-earned shower.