July was still a fantastic riding month here, with the rain showers being very isolated.

Paul from Cobra international, mailed me and ask if the boys could come for a return tour.
Cobra international is a Thailand company making carbon fibre parts for Ducati and M.V. Augustu. It seemed the mad Swede Hassa and Paul the G.M. would return and Peter a Audi Q.C inspector from Germany on a business trip to Cobra, would ride the G.T for the first time.
The Rider's
Hassa the Mad Swede and Cobra's P.R. man

Paul the Boss,


Peter Audi Q.C

Happy Feet The trail boss

The trip: 3 days
The route: ChiangMai-WiengHeang-Thaton-Doi Laeng-Doi Pha Hom Phok-Chiang Dao-Pai-Chiang Mai
The Bikes: Suzuki DRZ400 SM's
Day1:300km, The guys flew into ChiangMai on a 8am flight, we where on the bikes rolling by 9am, first stop, the X-centre for breakfast and catch up with the Ambassador Bungy for some bike talk.
After the X-Centre girl's fead us up, it was backroads past the prem centre up to Mae Taeng, then onto Chiang Dao aiming for hwy 1322.
The 1322 is well documented on Gt-Rider as a twisty climbing mountain road, leading to Wieng Haeng, it is a superb SuperMotard road, and magical Lisu hilltribes
From Wieng Haeng we then travel the 16km of dirt over to Kae Noi.
this is a remote area skirting the Burmese border.

on a previous ride alone through here, it was december 5 to be exact.
i had stopped to take a leak on a high mountain peak, while the water works where flowing i heard what i though was a axe man cutting timber in the distant, i would guess 2km away, but i soon realised the noise was moving, curiosity getting the best of me i stayed to investigate, i was not until the noise from the axe man's blows started over lapping that i became aware it was actually a gun fight.
i was high on the mountain ridge and they where low in the gully i hung there until the shots where around 200m away, as the crow fly's that scid-dattled out of there, i was unaware if it was simply a army exercise or a true battle, it wasnt until i read the Bangkok post stating the army had captured a meth amphetamine gang running drugs from Burma that the reality of the situation revealed itself.

From Kae Noi we made our way along the 1178, then cut across a small backroad to the 107, a beautiful picturesque area as the small farms fill the valley with forest mountains and limestone cliffs either side . i believe this road will be shown on the new Gt-rider map.
this night we stayed in Thaton, i really like Thaton as a stop over much better accomodation than Fang, and stunning scenery around the temples, mountains and cool breaze always blowing down the Kok river from Burma 1km away, if you are content with a good meal and cheap massages for your nights entertainment this is the place for you.
Thaton





this is a shiet photo, but whats interesting about it is the boat is actually in Burma heading upstream, i guess they run supplies from Thailand to the villages in Burma up the Kok River

Day 2 Thaton-Doi Laem-Doi Pho Hom Phok- Chiang Dao- Pai
The areas through Doi Laem and Pha Hom Pok are simply mind blowing as many GT-riders can confirm. Remote, High Altitude, strewn with Burmese and Thai armies, Hill Tribe, wild life, it really has the lot.
It was today that we would blow away any skepticism that Peter, a keen off-road rider had, about why we are riding supermotard instead of offroad.

We made our way up the 1314 through the wide twisty turns onto Doi Laem, this end of the road is vastly unused for a large section before you meet the junction to Mae Ai.

I have 2 things on my mind as we reached the small unmarked turnoff leading to D.P.H.P.
Doi Pha Hom Pok was immersed in rain cloud, and stands as the second highest peak in Thailand at 2200m, it will be very cold if we get wet,
the other thig on my mind, Bangkok Post had reported a lot of Burmese troop had been deployed to this area because of tension between Thailand over land rights. Would the Thai authorities let us onto the small tarmac track that Leads us over D.P.H.P?
I believe this tarmac track will be shown on the new G.T. rider map as well


Well as the Thai people say "Mo-Popbem" it was all systems go, The army let us in without a flinch and somehow we managed to keep evading the rain that is falling all over the area.

This area opens up the imagination and just begs you to ask question's, in a recent trip with the Muppets myself and Honda honky visited the Laos border crossing at Ban Huak while B&T pushed on in the failing light.
We met a border ranger here, that was once posted on D.P.H.P. and informed the Thai soldiers use to see Black bears every night they went spotlighting in the area, he also mentioned that tigers taking cattle there was a regular occurrence, and although they could never catch the tigers on spotlight he would hear there roar of the tiger and see the foot prints.
Luke getting the Dirt with his bi-lingo tongue

This gaping wash away in the road is the reason D.P.H.P is such a tremendous area, no 4 wheeled vehicle can pass this section midway along the 50km enthralling track, this leaves it untouched, accept for army, hilltribe and the odd GT-Rider brave enough to ride the narrow piece of road remaining


riding down the mountain now as we had passed the highest peak, we could look down into a hill tribe village, not so far of the course of the track, about 1km ahead but it was in Burmese territory, the idea of a imaginary line restricting where you walk seemed so ridiculous so we climbed our way through the long grass for a closer look.
I think Peter was a little weary of walking into Myanmar and left his helmet on for a quick escape

We where greeted warmly by the head of the village, who informed us they where from the Lisu tribe, we asked if it was ok we look around the village and take some pictures.

Notice the young Monks playing amongst the children, i have not seen a Lisu tribe with monks in Thailand before.
p.s. the specks of orange contrasting in the village and surroundings was amazing to see


All the way along this road you will find Thai and Burmese army camps facing each other off, sometimes less than 100m apart.
This is a border crossing into Myanmar for local tribes, controlled by Shan State army soldiers. as myself and the muppet's found out the car width road only goes for a short distance then its a single track trail to the nearest city which takes the S.S.A about seven day's on a moped

some Burmese children walked over the border to talk with us at the check point

As we left the checkpoint Peter picked up a rear flat, this threw my times out for to many more pic stops on the way to our Pai destination,as our days distance was really loaded up, but gave the boys plenty of snaps of me repairing the punctured tyre

We put our heads down and made up the 60min we lost on repairs, Peter had ridden a distance before he noticed the flat, so a nice soft tyre made for a easy change, however the small bicycle pump i carry wasnt able to blow anymore than 60p.s.i. into the wheel this wasn't enough to pop the bead on the out of shape carcass so it was a slow ride to a shop with a compressor. lesson learnt.

so by the time we hit the 1095 to Pai, Huey gave us in 1 hour all the rain we had missed in 2 days, definately no cameras out in this weather but the strangest thing was we all enjoyed the change in conditions immensely and it probably enhanced the trip.
catching with Peter from Pai Enduro Team, Paul had purchase a Hammock from Peter's shop 6 months before and swears its the best thing since slice bread



Day 3. The next day was a 2hr trip back to Chiang Mai as the boys where due to fly out mid afternoon to Bangkok, a quick visit to Thoms Elephant Camp in Pai to try and get some promo shots, if anybody is ever in Pai try swimming with the elephants with Thom's elephant's it is one of the best experiences i have had.
We had a little trouble trying to get the photo's and thom wanted us to wait for her other elephant's out swimming to come back so we could get a shot of the Chiang lifting the Suzi, but im afraid we where out of time.


As i mentioned i have given all these G.P.S tracks to David Fl and as far as i remember these roads are printed on his new G.T. rider map