Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

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VeloGiro
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Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby VeloGiro » Sun Dec 11, 2016 12:38 am

Hi - My wife Lisa and I have just completed an 8 day supported ride (Grasshopper Adventures) in Northern Thailand on a Bike Friday Tandem - quite an adventure...we had a blast!

If your interested we kept a ride blog...here the link if you would like to find out more about the ride...

Cheers - Johnno

https://kingdomsofthenorth.wordpress.co ... hiang-mai/
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Leaf T
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby Leaf T » Sun Dec 11, 2016 5:41 pm

Bookmarked for a read later on. Apart from the heat(March/April) I thoroughly enjoyed cycling in Thailand. Perfect time of year you picked to be there I imagine.

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cycles gitane
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby cycles gitane » Sun Dec 11, 2016 6:25 pm

Thanks for sharing.

(spoiler alert)........
The front wheel blow out sounds scary, good to see you survived and rode on.

Always good to read a well written blog with scenic pictures.

Cheers

cycles gitane
There is NO room in the shed for the next bike! New shed rqd.

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BruceCTG
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby BruceCTG » Mon Dec 12, 2016 10:25 am

Hi Johnno,

A great read and good on you for doing it on a Bike Friday tandem! I ride a Brompton myself but the BF seems to be a bit more robust I think.

If it's ok with you I'd love to share your article on the Cycle Tours Global social media channels (Twitter, FB, G+)? Also it'd be great if you could write a short review (a couple of sentences) to share with other cycle tourists at http://cycletoursglobal.com/Grasshopper ... ountryside (I think this is the tour you did?).

Cheers
Bruce

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VeloGiro
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby VeloGiro » Tue Dec 13, 2016 11:48 pm

BruceCTG wrote:Hi Johnno,

A great read and good on you for doing it on a Bike Friday tandem! I ride a Brompton myself but the BF seems to be a bit more robust I think.

If it's ok with you I'd love to share your article on the Cycle Tours Global social media channels (Twitter, FB, G+)? Also it'd be great if you could write a short review (a couple of sentences) to share with other cycle tourists at http://cycletoursglobal.com/Grasshopper ... ountryside (I think this is the tour you did?).

Cheers
Bruce
Hi Bruce - No worries happy for you to share the blog...

The tour we did was actually this one...
https://www.grasshopperadventures.com/e ... north.html

How is this for a review?

My wife Lisa and I recently completed this 8 day Grasshopper Adventures tour in Thailand. We had a great time of it! It was wonderful and interesting route that largely avoided major highways. For the main we were riding on quite back-roads through wonderful and iconic northern Thai agricultural and rural landscapes, finishing in bustling Chiang Mai. The Grasshopper Adventure team were fantastic - I would highly recommend the ride. We are planning our next one! Cheers Johnno...
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BruceCTG
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby BruceCTG » Wed Dec 14, 2016 8:52 am

That's a great review! I've now added the tour you did at http://www.cycletoursglobal.com/Grassho ... -the-North so please add your review when you have a moment - I'll advise Grasshopper as well (they're pretty active on the site).

Thanks
Bruce

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Leaf T
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby Leaf T » Wed Dec 14, 2016 9:31 am

Enjoyed reading your journal Johnno. Thanks for posting. I've not cycled in the north but will do one day. Thailand is a great place to tour and a very easy place to travel in general. Laid back friendly locals, fantastic food and plenty of accommodation options.

Oh...and the traffic is not as bad as many might think. Highways when you can't avoid them have a massive shoulder. I felt safer cycling there than many places in Australia. Doesn't seem to have the agro vibe it does here.

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VeloGiro
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby VeloGiro » Thu Dec 15, 2016 4:31 pm

BruceCTG wrote:Hi Johnno,

A great read and good on you for doing it on a Bike Friday tandem! I ride a Brompton myself but the BF seems to be a bit more robust I think.

If it's ok with you I'd love to share your article on the Cycle Tours Global social media channels (Twitter, FB, G+)? Also it'd be great if you could write a short review (a couple of sentences) to share with other cycle tourists at http://cycletoursglobal.com/Grasshopper ... ountryside (I think this is the tour you did?).

Cheers
Bruce
Hi Bruce - I have been experiencing some difficulty in registering the Cycle tours global site - Are there any tricks? When i try to register having entered all the fields I get the red message indicating missing or incorrect entries... but they all look pretty good...Tried yesterday and again today with the same result.

Thanks Johnno
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BruceCTG
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby BruceCTG » Thu Dec 15, 2016 5:10 pm

No tricks Johnno, I'll PM you.

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Leaf T
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby Leaf T » Sat Dec 17, 2016 10:08 am

Local cycling advocates Bicycle Thailand have downloadable maps available for touring in Thailand. A little bit pricey but may be of interest to those happy to tour on their own.

http://bicyclethailand.com/thailand-gps-cycling-routes/

http://bicyclethailand.com/

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VeloGiro
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby VeloGiro » Mon Dec 19, 2016 10:21 am

Leaf T wrote:Local cycling advocates Bicycle Thailand have downloadable maps available for touring in Thailand. A little bit pricey but may be of interest to those happy to tour on their own.

http://bicyclethailand.com/thailand-gps-cycling-routes/

http://bicyclethailand.com/
Thanks for sending this through - as it stands we are planning a tour down south later in 2017 - Catching the sleeper train from Bangkok to Surat Thani and heading north to Hua Hin and train back to Bangkok...~ 500k's over a couple of weeks - This time we have built up enough confidence that we will be independent touring so I'll look at these downloadable maps...

Cheers
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Leaf T
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Re: Touring (luxury style) in Northern Thailand

Postby Leaf T » Wed Dec 28, 2016 1:43 pm

You could also look at CGOAB journal by Peter Jacobsen. He has lots of good info on routes and is an enjoyable read. When I traveled in the south I used Gmaps and street view to plan a route usually sticking close to the coast. At Chumpon I rode over to the west coast and continued south. It was a toss up between that route or continuing south from Chumpon to Surat Thani and then crossing over the west. Surat Thani to Hua Hin is a good route if time limited.

An airzounds horn was a great dog deterrent BTW.

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