*MOTO TRIP* *DAY RIDE* (scooter): Mon Chaem, Mae Rim.

Mon Cham (often spelled as Jam) is a scenic day trip from Chiang Mai city center. You can always stay there if you prefer, but i usually just make it a day trip. 


Located on Mong Nong Hoi village, Mon Cham is part of the Royal Project, growing herbs, fruits and vegetables. Due to it's cooler temperatures, a great deal of products are grown which are not often available elsewhere. Strawberries are particularly sought after from this area (you can also do your own strawberry picking). The flowers are really quite stunning and attract a great deal of butterflies, some of which are very unusual looking.

Viewpoint, Restaurant & Camping

The main destination at Mon Cham is the mountain viewpoint which has a Royal Project restaurant, serving fresh dishes made from local ingredients.  You can also camp just down from the restaurant area, which I'm sure must be quite beautiful, especially early mornings and sunset/dusk periods, but i haven't experienced that, so cannot comment (if i recall the prices are between the 700 - 2000 baht range)

Restaurant Opening Hours:

9:00 - 19:00 (August - September)

9:00 - 21:00 (October - February)

The photos are from March period (when it is less scenic than other periods, yet still a lovely trip). March in Chiang Mai region has burning/pollution issues, which often restrict views. It is also the hot season, so quite parched. The good thing about this period though is that there are less tourists around. Peak periods during the cool season (Nov - Feb) attracts visitors to the viewpoint, sometimes excessively. If you visit during the peak cool season period, i recommend you go on a weekday rather than at the weekend.

 

*MOTO EVENT* - REAL CUSTOM BIKER SHOW 2013

Hosted at the 700 Year Stadium the event, the Real Custom Biker Show was a really enjoyable event.
Don't have much to say about this really, so I will leave you with photos instead! (Sorry, there are quite a few photos of me with the bikes, rather than the bikes. At the time I didn't even consider blogging, so they were just meant for personal use. In future I will attend events with writing about them in mind!)

 

 

*MOTO TALE* Hilltribe School - Mae Na Chon

 









Here is a tale to pull the heart strings and give you a little faith in humanity.

My friend (an off-road tour company owner and animalistic drummer!) Alan, came across a hill tribe school when searching for new tour trails. This school was in dire need of some assistance as it was poorly funded. The main care for the upkeep was coming from the Royal Thai Border Patrol Police and the Army, with teaching carried out by volunteers. The children and their families were quite poor in the region, and there was very little in the way of facilities, including running water. 
 
So Alan, being the soft-hearted gentle giant that he is, after speaking with the staff and border police, decided that he would make an appeal to help the school out. Over the course of a few years, with the help of the local community and volunteers at the school, lots of fantastic improvements took place.

By the time I went along for the first time, some of these changes had already taken place and work was ongoing. On this particular day (14th August 2013) it was more about a celebration day for the children. Essential items were taken up in 4x4 trucks and a few riders who had donated came along for the ride. A bit of fun was organised for the children, which included a giant bag of toys for them to enjoy (which was part of the Chiang Mai ToyRide, an annual fundraiser for children in need.)

Me, not knowing what services to offer for that day, fell back upon face-painting, which I had done on a few occasions in the past with a bit of success. So, armed and ready, I waited for the children to come over and have their faces painted upon.

None came.
They were super shy! 

One of the volunteer teachers rounded up a couple of the children (haha, poor things!) and veered them in my direction. I had already printed out a collection of face paint designs I had gathered from the net (spiderman, butterfly face, etc), so i showed the paper to the first wary victim sitting in front of me. His eyes lit up as he pointed to Spiderman. So..Spiderman he became. This got the other boys a little excited and a low hum of whispers started circulating among them. The next brave victim took the seat and became Batman. The hum of whispers then started getting louder and the buzz of energy was starting to draw in curious faces. By the time I had finished the third face and looked up, i could no longer see the same surroundings I had before. I was now right in the center of a mob of children all battling to get a view of the facepainting going on. Haha! Great!

HOWEVER, I then realised that I had a sea of eager faces all wanted to be painted on, but only one of me. I needed to step up the pace, drastically!

I really don't think i have ever painted that many faces in such a short duration in my entire life. I just didn't want to let any of the children down. By the end of it I was hot and sweaty but I felt absolutely wonderful. I looked around and saw children playing the roles of their painted faces, whereas before they were being shy and reserved. Success!

But getting back to the important stuff. Over the course of a couple of years hundreds of thousands of baht was raised. This money transformed not only the school, but paid for necessary items such as warm winter blankets and health care, such as eye testing and spectacles.

I had the joy of returning again a year later to help paint the outside of the school building. Was a fun day even though I was initially teased by friends for wearing a disposable pink rain jacket (joke was on them when I had no paint splashes to worry about though!). It seemed that some of the children remembered me from before, but most were too shy to speak. They just would stand and watch a little then run away with nervous giggles when spoken to. One boy in particular though was very brave and practiced his English on me. I was very impressed!  








It was a very heartwarming experience and wonderful to have had the chance to go along.
Hope it gave you a nice warm feeling too :D

 

To end, I should give a quick plug for Alan's tour company which offers amazing tour packages. If you check his website you will see what I mean. He offers fully supported and fully inclusive, motorbike tours for off-road, on-road & enduro: Thai Bike Tours

*NOTE* A couple of these photos are from others who attended the event and not my property

*MOTO TRIP* (Scooter): CM > Phu Chi Fa > Chiang Khong> Mae Sai > Chiang Rai > CM.

Setting off early on scooters, on the 118 to Chiang Rai, we took a right turn at Mae Khachan onto route 120 towards Phayao. We then took a left onto the main highway Route 1, and a few kms later a right turn onto the 1021 to Wiang Kiang. We continued on past Wiang Kiang on the 1155 which takes you to Phu Chi Fa.

On this particular trip my riding partner and I met with a couple of riding friends, one was riding a Lifan and the other a Honda Phantom. In all honesty I would much prefer to be on my brick-suspension Fino than a Honda Phantom..but maybe that's just me.

*Additionally* The rider of the Phantom confessed to me later that when he saw me on my Fino he was thinking it was going to be a slow ride. But it turned out that I left him for dust. Haha. "Don't Judge a Book by its Cover", comes to mind. Or in this case "Don't Judge a Rider by Their Bike". ;)

Phu Chi Fa was worth the ride. There is a steep climb up the famous viewpoint and then you are met with a wonderful scenic vision. You feel like you are right in the clouds, which you are really!

After Phu Chi Fa we all headed onto the 1020 to Chiang Khong. By the time we got there it was dark, but thankfully had pre-booked a room at (Arghh..i have to fill this in later, sorry, because i forget the name). As an aside, you can actually take a boat from Chiang Khong over to Huay Xai, Laos. 
 
That evening we all headed out to the river area for a bite to eat, and we found ourselves slap bang into a Loy Krathong Festival. There were fireworks and Krathongs (the floating items) and lanterns being lit and launched..everywhere!
So much so that a stray small firework cracker landed slap bang in my hair.... ! Seriously, I wonder at my luck sometimes. It was just a short while back that I had my accident and this was my first big ride since the accident, and now a firework is setting me on fire! Let me tell you one thing about this, that I'm glad i do not use hairspray! I knocked the firework out from my hair and patted it down, hoping I wouldn't find a bald spot..haha.

Anyway, dinner was lovely. The company was nice. It was an enjoyable evening. Headed back for a rest (and, as is normal in cheaper places, the walls were very thin, making it a little on the noisy side). The next morning we parted company with the other two riders, who were going off another way, and headed towards Mae Sai to do a visa border crossing.

Nearing Mae Sai my partners tire had a puncture. Thankfully he is pretty much "Mr. Fixit", and is never without tools, so as it was a slow puncture, he intermittently pumped up the tires until we got to a mechanic in Mae Sai. Turned out that just a small metal shard caused that drama. Anyway, crossed over the border, came back through into Thailand and headed for shelter when the heavens suddenly opened and torrential tropical rains came down. Never mind, the bikes were good to go and when the rain stopped, so were we.

Rode on the pretty boring stretch of the main highway route 1, until we got to Chiang Rai and stopped for the night. At Chiang Rai we stayed at the rather comical Red Rose motel. I say comical, because the Red Rose is a themed motel, and you can choose rooms such as "boxing ring room" (yes, your bed is a boxing ring..) and "Star Wars room".

We choose the Star Wars themed room. Now before you start thinking this place is family-friendly, it isn't really. These motels are geared towards "short time" stays, which basically means they are sex-motels. You can pay by the hour or by the night. Was certainly fun to stay there though. The room had a lot of chrome and space-ship style lighting and even a mirrored ceiling..haha.

In Chiang Rai we ate at a recommended Italian Restaurant, but i will need to find the name out of this later as well (sorry!). Was ok. Not the best ive ever eaten, but im a bit of a food snob sometimes.

After a good nights sleep we headed off back on Route 1 to Chiang Mai. Just a busy main highway, so nothing much to say about that really.

All in all a good trip and have been meaning to revisit Phu Chi Fa for some time now.

Happy Trails!