route 1095

a few days ago a friend and i woke up early one morning rode over to the scooter rental shop and picked him up a hot pink yamaha. we wanted to ride from chiang mai out to this hippie village called pai. i already had my day glow green honda wave and all that was holding us back was finding him a suitable bike.

we rode off at about 9 in the morning without much expectation, other than we would see some beautiful scenery and would encounter a horde of grungy backpackers in pai. as we turned from highway 107 to route 1095 we sensed the change, from heavily traveled city roads, we turned onto a country road with small villages dotting the hillsides.


we passed rice laden patty's, small chalet-like resorts sitting up on mountain sides, small villages with larger populations of dogs than humans, and many road-side coffee shops. who knew thailand was so addicted to coffee; well, maybe they aren't, but the bazillion tourists are for sure. guilty as charged.


about 30 minutes after making the turn onto route 1095 we would encounter what makes this such a famed journey. up and down we wound our way through 120 kilometers of squiggly lines. it took nearly 3 hours to cover that distance. but it was well worth the nearly crawling pace we were sometimes reduced to. as i road i could not escape the sense that it was an extreme blessing to ride through such immaculate terrain, knowing that among the mountains dwelt elephants, monkeys and birds beyond my imaginations. the forests ranged from low land tropical rain forest, with banana trees out the wazzu, to pine forest in the upper reaches of the mountain passes. there is little that smells better than pine trees.



in all we road 762 curves over 125 kilometers. working that out with a calculator we figured that there was a curve roughly every 500 ft. sitting in pai i doubted this claim of 762, but on the ride back i realized that it had to be true. a shirt for sale in pai summed it up best with a picture; imagine a squiggly line drawn in the area the size of a sheet of paper with the lines intersecting and crossing a hundred times. in other words, to drive 5 kilometers as the crow flies you had to drive 30 of curves up and over mountains, where it seemed you were doubling back on yourself constantly.

pai, itself, was less than spectacular. it certainly wasn't the horde i had expected, but their aftermath was widely visible. it seems there is little else besides restaurants and guesthouses to serve the needs of tourists. there were at least 100 of each in this town of 1000-2000 thais. we only stayed one night, as there was little to do other than eat, drink and sleep near the river. i've always been amazed how little communities like this can have great western restaurants of every sort, while big asian cities can struggle to produce even an adequate pizza. it's weird how supply and demand works. but for all its excess of touristic kitsch, it was a relaxing little hamlet--at least that is the way i will remember it.

on second thought pai did have something that shocked me, an incredible sense of self awareness. it had that 'keep austin weird' or 'i heart ny' style self identity. there were t-shirt shops everywhere selling trendy little t's with distinctly local designs. i bought two. apparently all the good t-shirt designers live in pai, because everywhere else the shirts are horribly tacky.


during the ride back i realized another aspiration for my life, to travel by motorbike across some great distance. this was a great little trip, but it was only 2 days. i now want to do a month or two my bike following some classic route. the silk route is too long, but perhaps the ancient trade route linking delhi to afghanistan, or maybe an easier and safer tour of europe on two wheels would do. anyway, i've got the bug to travel by bike.

finally, in totally unrelated news, i've picked up a copy of charlie wilson's war, the book the movie is based on, and have thoroughly enjoyed it. the story is very little like what i expected. and its 'true.'