Ride of a lifetime

[griffin]

In December 2011 my buddy Han and i took a ride from Malaysia - Thailand- Myanmar - Laos and back.
It really was a ride of a lifetime and i'm posting up some teasers here (58 pics worth)
and the full write up is here

http://www.ninja650tourer.blogspot.com/2011/12/my-friend-han-www.html



Our 2 rides on day 1

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Malaysian highway

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Crossed into Thailand,

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Day 1 was to cover some miles~ 860km worth.

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Our hotel for the night.Not too bad.

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Riding in Thailand the next morning.

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Strange wildlife along the way

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Our rides at the Bridge over the River Kwai.


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Actual photos from this place during WW2

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The next morning it was ever north.

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To Sukhothai.Ancient capital of Thailand

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Nice huh

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[griffin]

After roaming the historical sites the next day it was north again

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Caption please

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The views ....

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Along the way we stopped at this temple. Thailand has many temples but this is unique in the whole kingdom.

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Nice..

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From there we made our way to the Myanmar border.

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Views of the Shan state

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Some of the tribes' people

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The following day we headed east.
Here we stopped at the Golden triangle.

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Standing in Thailand, Myanmar on your left and Laos on your right.

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Getting ready to cross the Mighty Mekong

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Fun

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[griffin]

Views from our barge

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Nice roads on the other side

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Some parts we nicely surfaced though. And curves for almost 400+km, just curves

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And the roads just kept going up.

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After spending the night in luang Namtha we headed here teh next day. Right up to the China border.
We're a long way from home .......

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Continuing our ride, Lao villages ..

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A stop at another village.

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Its cold. The locals have to get firewood from the forest. That too deadwood. No Charcoal here.Forget gas or electric heaters

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The higher we went the colder it got. here we're riding through clouds. 10 C . fun

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Luang Prabang early the next day

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sights of the town

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Continuing our ride we met this guys in the middle of no-where. Packing some heat huh

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The highway in northern Laos is along the tops of the mountains.
We used our engine heat to warm our hands

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But the views.. Awesome

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[griffin]

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looking at the Karst hill from our hotel the next morning

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Laos is a beautiful country, but the roads suck so badly.

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Black Stupa in Vientiene.

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The following day we rode to Ayuthaya.

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Its also an ancient city , with this pic below as the icon of Ayuthaya.

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the next night was spent by the sea.

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our route.

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This really was for me a ride of a lifetime
Cheers.

[Mystic Red]

Thank you griffin for the ride along! Nothing better than a good ride report and one from another country blows it off the charts for me.

[griffin]

@mystic Red - thank you. S.E.Asia is a vibrant and colourful place. You should get down here, rent a bike and be prepared for a real sensory overload

[eojmo]

Looks like you had a terrific time.From your pictures the route you took looks light on traffic,unless you traveled very early in the morning and managed to avoid it.The traffic in Malasia and Thialand always seemed heavy when I was up that way.I guess you must know all the quiter backroads. Did you hire the bikes or ship your own over?

[griffin]

Once you are out of the towns and cities the traffic is generally light. The roads shown are the major highways, Malaysia, Thailand and Laos. Yes Major highways . Also known as the only road- esp in Laos. Our bikes , we rode from our homes in Malaysia all though the route and back .No shipping .Also we dont know the roads and cant read the signboards that are not printed in English ;hence the importance of our GPSs .

[demenshea]

Excellent photographs of a culture I am very interested in visiting. It's at the top of my bucket list.

Looks like most of your roads were quite good. The shots of the temples are gorgeous. From what is the white temple constructed? That overloaded truck is crazy!!

I agree with MR, nothing better than seeing another country!! Thanks!

[griffin]

Malaysia and Thailand the roads range from excellent to mainly good. Laos the roads are mainly - TERRIBLE , ok there are some good stretches but the bad parts are really bad . the best dike is a DP. FJR is worst second only to a Goldwing but i had no choice- only one bike

But the views and people make up for it

The white temple is a rather new temple with a unique architecture.
I guess concrete will be the main buliding material.
Try googling -white temple, chiang Rai.