Decided to take a nice trip up to Wiang Haeng before the rains start with a vengeance, the 1322 to Wiang Haeng is a great riding road and the looping 1178 back completes a great two days riding of around 550 km as you can see from Auke's map.
Decided to take a small detour to the Chiang Dao Cave, the road leading to it has some nice stretches.
Dodging several thunder storms on the 1322 i stopped at the viewpoint at N19.51765 E98.75677 which has undergone a facelift boasting a small coffee shop and fruit sellers, got chatting with this beautiful Lisu girl who spoke perfect English while i gorged myself on free coffee and plum's
The recent rains bringing colour to the mountain ranges.
Along the 1322 all the villages are Lisu and i have seen these memorial displays many times, i presume the clothing inside is from the sick or departed loved ones.
Once in Wiang Haeng i headed for the Cowboy Resort and although i have it waypointed N19.57202 E98.62816 i rode straight past.
The familiar Cowboy theme bar has now vanished and is now replaced with this typical shop unit selling motorcycles and hardware. They still have rooms available at 400 baht a night but you have to travel across town to the fishing lake to find a good restaurant.
The next morning feeling a little fragile having consumed a few too many beers at the local karaoke i headed to the 7 Eleven N19.55908 E98.63571 and shared my breakfast with a couple of soi dog's before heading towards the 1178.
The 1178 is pretty much unchanged at the beginning you still have a section of around 8km which is graded but rocky but easily doable on the V Strom.
Once past this section it becomes more graded but still a few short rough section's
The Chinese history is very strong in this area, countless memorials along the route
The section heading to Arun Thai has had a nice new surface along much of the way and the dreaded pot holes are now a thing of the past, although why the short section heading to the 1322 has never been paved is a mystery.
My plan was to camp at Doi Ang Khan, but the black clouds that had been following me had other plans and decided to dump down on me, so with my tail between my legs i decided to make the ride home and complete my journey and save a camping trip for another day.
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