Mopeds along the Thai / Laos border near Chiang Rai

Summary

The Lonely Planet categorises the drive from Chiang Kong to Phayao as Thailand’s most stunning route, and I’d have to agree.  This dramatic road hugs the steep mountainsides along the Thai-Laos border passing waterfalls, sensational vistas both into Thailand and Laos, and various national parks.  I’m sure you could easily do it as a tour, but its way more fun to hire some mopeds and zip along at your own pace, especially considering the hundreds of great turns and the surprisingly high quality of the roads

Top tips:

• The mopeds – you can hire them from just about anywhere when in Thailand.  We rented ours from ST Motorcycle & Car Rental in Chiang Mai and would really recommend (bikes were great, and, when I realised I’d lost the petrol cap somewhere, they were super chilled).  You fill up on petrol anywhere along the way, typically just via people on the street with coke bottles full of petrol, and its really cheap considering how small the bikes are
• The route – the highlights were basically the various mountain viewpoints all along the 1093 from Phu Pha Tang down to the Phu Sang National Park where the waterfall is.  This will take you only around 1.5 hours of driving, but you’ll want roughly 45mins to walk up to the viewpoint of Phu Chi Fah, time for lunch (there are lots of great places with views all along the route), and say 30mins so see the waterfalls
• The route from Chiang Rai – its not ideal, because you have to drive over to the border ridge area and then back again, but very doable in a day.  In fact, the views of the hills along route 4029 are worth the trip alone.  I’d recommend a bit of a circular route: make your way via the AH3 to join the 1155; then take the 4029 until you hit the 1093 where you can take the standard mountain ridge-hugging route.  Once you finished with the waterfall, just use google maps to direct you back to Chiang Rai in what should be a much more direct route that passes through some nice villages
• The roads – we were blown away by how good they were considering how remote the route is, and, considering February is the dry season, its about as good as it gets
• Chiang Rai – is all about the surrounding area, rather than the town itself.  So it’s more of a base to be able to head off on nearby adventures.  That being said, its got some nice temples and the night market is definitely worth checking out.  We stayed at the Mora Boutique Hotel, and would recommend