Mountain Biking in Thailand
The mountainous trails of northern Thailand are just perfect for epic mountain bike adventures, as Steve Thomas discovers.
The sun was just about to drop away for the day. Despite being absolutely smashed after a long day on the trail, there was no way we were going to miss our chance of getting that illusive ‘silhouette riding into the sunset’ shot. Swinging away from a stretch of blacktop, we hit the trail once more; a long and winding dirt road, meandering through picture perfect farmlands. The paddocks were peppered with cone like hay stacks and pointy hat topped locals finishing their day’s chores.
They gazed on with strange grins at the two ‘farang’ (foreigners) as we pedalled and splashed our way through their workshops. There wasn’t a single ‘get offa my land gesture’, something commonplace in more developed parts of the world. This was northern Thailand, extreme northern Thailand. We were just south of the Burmese border in Chiang Rai province, and like us, the sun was fading fast. We pulled over in a makeshift bamboo shack to watch it slowly disappear behind a layered silhouette of mountains—a truly magical way to end a superb day of riding. I was pretty new to this part of the world and more or less following blindly in the shadow of my ride buddy Alex; luckily for me he’s been riding and guiding on these trails for over ten years now and knows every inch of dirt (www.northerntrails.com). Showing up in Chiang Mai for the first time was a little daunting; I knew the area had some repute for outdoors adventure but figured most of it would be hill tribe treks; and as any biker will tell you, trekking trails generally don’t equal good mountain biking.
As the plane circled the city I gazed in awe at the bite sized mass of green mountains below me. Spaghetti like masses of dusty trails scribbled their way across the landscape beneath. That ‘I know I made the right decision’ feeling grinned its way across my face— now all I had to do was find out how to get to them!
Awesome trails are everywhere but very few appear on maps. So if you are tight on time, enlisting the services of a guide and some transport is well worthwhile. I’d started by exploring the trails around Doi Suthep, the mountain straight out of town where local companies run downhill trips. There are plenty of trails there but they are not an easy introduction to the local riding (unless you hop a songtan taxi bus to the top of the 14km climb). From here Alex and I went on a road trip north towards Chiang Rai (the countries northernmost city and province) and then finally followed the border east along the Mekong River to the Golden Triangle. Doing it this way enabled us to cherry pick the best off-road sections and avoid some evil road climbing. It also made things doable in a week, halving the time of an un-supported tour.
This region is well known for its amazing mountain scenery and its abundance of cultural gems. It seems there’s a Buddha or a temple around every corner and the more remote reaches of the region are home to many hill tribes, all colourfully clad and living life much as they did a century ago. Add in a great climate, excellent food and great facilities, and it is positively a fantastic place for true ‘old style’ mountain bike adventures; where the emphasis is on the journey. In fact I was so taken by the region that I decided to come and live here!
