The Mae Hong Son Loop.
A 700 Km circular route starting and finishing in Chiang Mai, traveling through the mountains of North Thailand close to the Burmese border.
Guided Motorbike Touring in Northern Thailand.
Motorcycle Tours Thailand run tours in the Mae Hong Son Loop area.
The Roads in this area offer mile after mile of sweeping radius bends, and surely ranks as one of the top "must do" motorbike rides in the world. There is very little local traffic, no speed cameras, no coaches to overtake, no hassles, just an opportunity to ride your bike all day long on simply the best biking roads imaginable.
The jungle trails we use for our off road tours connect up remote mountain villages and farms, sometimes we tour through dense tropical forests, sometimes in open farming country, our guide often able to bring us a closer look into the lives of the indigenous hill tribe villagers.
We spend our days driving through a country side of steep sloped mountains covered in dense forest.
The vistas from the road as it twist and winds its way through the rugged peaks and valleys is nothing short of spectacular.
We use hotels accommodation while in Chiang Mai and holiday resorts while out on the tour.. MCTT tours are on a single rooms basis, no sharing unless requested.
On an on-road tour we may travel up to 160 Kilometers in a day, this may not sound like much but given the nature of the twisty roads the heat, and with lots of stops to soak up the country, it adds up to a full day.
On an off-road day we travel maybe up to 140 Kilometers. 40 Km in the morning and 80Km in the afternoon.
Our route takes us into the Don Intanon national park with its spectacular waterfalls ... We are soon high up in amongst the mountain scenery, where slash and burn agricultural practices create fields rising up to the steepest parts of the mountains.
The Bua thong Sun Flower field on Doi Mae U-Kor
The fields of wild yellow Mexican sunflowers stretch for miles. the original seeds were scattered by villagers generations ago and the flowers just took over the whole area, growing well in the dry soil where other plants can not survive.
They create quite a spectacle and are well worth a visit.
Best seen early in our tour season, in early November
Mae Hong Son.
At the furthermost point of the loop is Thailand’s second northern capital Mae Hong Son. The town is surrounded by several high mountains.
A hot place in the summer but cool in the Thai winter. Morning tempertures can be around 5 degree C so extra layers are required, no worries the day soon heats up to mid 30s C Evening tempertures around 20 degree C
Until a few years ago, the town which is very close to the Burmese border was pretty much isolated, but now, the town is popular with visitors coming to enjoy the mountain air and cooler temperatures the area enjoys in the winter time.
Mae Hong Son Province is bordered by Burma at the north and west and you can feel the Burmese influence in the temples and other buildings.
Hi Yang Long neck
From our base in Mai Hong Son we get an opportunity to visit a Karen Hi yang long neck village, depending on which village we visit this may involve some off road riding or a long tail boat trip up river. From our long tail river boat we often see elephant on the river banks.
The journey last 1/2 an hour and ends at the village where we can wander around and meet the tribes people, buy souvenirs and take some pictures.
Caves.
We will also visit some of the limestone caves in the area. At Tam Lod the river runs through the largest of the caves and extending 600 meters underground, Locals provide a bamboo raft service and guides to explore the caves. we also have an opportunity to canoe through the cave and on another 7 km before being picked up and returned to our accommodation.
Its possible to get local guides to show you through some of the many other cave systems which has some very impressive stalagmite and stalactite formations.
In the evening there is an opportunity to visit the caves to watch some 300,000 swifts enter for their roost and see the thousands of bats leaving for their nights feed. The whole spectacle is repeated in the early morning when the thousands of bats arrive home and the swifts head out for a day on the wing.
Sometimes we do some wild caving and visit caves which are home to some 1700 year old teak coffins.
Hot Springs.
There are a number of impressive hot springs we can visit.
Every night it is possible to experience a traditional Thai massage,
a great way to relax tight shoulders and muscles after a day on the bike.
Elephants
We often visit an elephant camp, our favourite is home to around 77 elephants. Theses majestic big animals no longer work in the jungles extracting timber... they now all have jobs in elephant camps entertaining tourists.
The park has a daily show which include elephant painting, elephant football, and displays showing the type of work theses animals were once used for in the jungle. You can buy bananas and sugar cane to feed the elephants, you can buy paintings by elephants, and enjoy taking photos of them having a splash in the river.
