Road to Samoeng

This morning I went for a bike ride at daybreak. I traveled about 23 kilometers in the direction of the mountainous district of Samoeng. I went through a village called Ban Pong, which is much smaller than Mom and Papa's Ban Pong. The next village seemed to be a Mon village called Non Pong.

In the early morning I wished I had a jacket.

I climbed enough in elevation to reach the low lying clouds you see in this stop. I passed several nice resorts to check out later and plenty of coffee shops.

I'm really grateful to Jerry Ziegler for the loan of his bike. After Cheryl's death, Jerry went back to the USA, at least for a while and maybe for a long while. Jason was also a stakeholder in the bike and made sure it was all ready for me. It's a Honda Click 125cc Scooter/Moped or as they just call them here, a bike. It's automatic and small so it makes it easy to weave through traffic when going with the flow of the other bikes. It took me up the steepest hills, but in this regard, it felt a little like the RV. Sabai, Sabai, let the other bikes pass you by.

I don't know what this white Wat is called, but it is sure striking against the jungle.

This is the highest pass I went today. The whole loop around Doi Suthep would take about three to four hours the way I was poking along. That's the best way to do it, just poke along I mean. Just take your time, stopping frequently to enjoy the scenery.

There's an elephant sanctuary down there somewhere, but I didn't see any elephants today.

Just a little roadside temple, I guess. I'm not sure what it's purpose is. There were seats for a lot of people in a covered structure behind me. If it were Christian you would call a roadside chapel.

This view is from just behind the building above, looking down into this wide valley filled with rice fields.

Next time I'll get the GoPro mounted on the bike or better my helmet. There were lots of other interesting things, but I had to drive the bike some of the time or I would still be out there.