Nan – Lampang
Nan – Lampang, the long way
27th April 2014 402km 24’C – 42’C
I was up and ready to roll early this morning, but was parked in by three of the other guesthouse guests. Eventually the guesthouse owner went and woke one of them up to move his car so I could get out and ride.
The plan for today was to ride some of the excellent mountain roads of Nan province, and make a loop around to Phrae for the night. The roads were magnificent, no traffic and winding up and down for 100’s of kilometres mostly through national parks. I was really enjoying it until the rear tyre let go and gave me a fright and decided to ride a bit easier. Near the top of route 1216 I stopped for photos and was joined by a Thai couple on their 250cc bike, we took some photos together and had a chat before I rode to the peak, at 1400M elevation where it was a very nice 24’C.
Winding back down the mountain, the temperature rose again until it was nearly 40’C, a huge change in a short period of time.
On reaching Phrae, I was a bit disappointed, there wasn’t a lot to see and the accommodation options were limited. I found a hotel on the outside of town, but there was nowhere to eat nearby, so I decided to push on to Den Chai, but when I got there, I found it was even smaller and with no hotels at all, so the plan was changed again, to ride onto Lampang. I was already tired, hungry and hot, but figured to just get it done and rest later.
I was about 40 minutes from reaching Lampang when I noticed that I had stopped sweating. I looked down at the temperature gauge, which showed it was 41.5’C. Not a good sign, I was probably on the edge of heat stroke. I stopped at the next little roadside shack and drank a litre of cold water and poured the rest down my shirt. That seemed to do the trick and I started feeling normal again once moving on the bike and the evaporative cooling was working.
After parking at the Pin Hotel in Lampang, I went for a walk around town. Lampang is a really nice town, on the river Wang. It has a huge walking street where there is lots of food and goods being sold, amongst beautiful old timber buildings. There are very few foreigners, almost everyone is Thai. It is a nice friendly town and has a great vibe.
So you are still there.
Yep, moving today 🙂
I consider anything above 35 too hot…. is the accommodation better than the basic one?
Agreed. I try to ride in the early morning before it gets too hot and finish riding early, but sometimes things don’t go to plan. Even with leaving a 6am, by 9am it can already be in the 30’s!
The accommodation is better, but I got stiffed on that $4 room when I went to pay. Then they said it was not Kip they quoted me in, but baht. Which was complete bullshit, because I had specifically said Kip! They knew it to, but played like they now didn’t understand English. So I ended up paying $10 for the room! Wasn’t happy and let them know it.
Hmmmm not happy about the way they are taking advantage its the same thing here in Ghana so most tourist or foreigners usually have a native with them who helps, wish u had similar would save you a lot.