It's been a couple years since I posted to my adventure series, but yes this is number 43. Last posts were a series of biking around the island of Bali in 2019. That certainly was an adventure, about a week long adventure! Then From January and February of 2020 I motorbiked half the length of Vietnam! That was one of the biggest adventures of my life and deserved it's very own title. But now I'm back with a new adventure, a lot shorter one, biking the Somoeng Loop in Chiang Mai Thailand.
The Somoeng Loop is about 106 kilometers of pure motor bike riding joy. The big mountain to the west of the city of Chiang Mai is called Doi Suthep. Well, the Someong loop basically goes up and around this mountain. I would say 90% of the ride is beautiful windy mountain roads, with all sorts of things to stop and see a long the way.
At the farthest point from Chiang Mai City is the small agricultural based town of Somoeng. There we find a Budhhist temple with pictures depicting the cycles of Karma. Each Photo is a representation of action and consequence. They are explained specifically in Thai which my Thai girlfriend read to me, but see if you can figure it out just by looking at the pictures. As a side note this temple was home to the biggest fattest pig I ever saw in my life! Like wow, that's a big fat pig!
The town of Somoeng had a local market and you know I love my markets! So I had to get a few photos of that. They also specialize in growing strawberries, it's a bit up in the mountains so they have the right climate. They are super sweet and tasty.
There were a couple incredible places that seemed to be created just for selfies and photo ops. The first one was this garden of purple flowers. Actually it was more like a field of purple flowers! People were coming there specifically to be photographed wearing color coordinated outfits to match the flowers! Very interesting and instagramable place!
Then there was this huge golden wheat field, with a nice sign that said "Rice Farmer Service Center" hmmm? Seemed like they had a makeover and forgot to change the sign or something. But wow, we spent some time there taking all sorts of fun photographs. We certainly were not alone, it was a Saturday and a lot of Thai's from the city seemed to be there; women in their finest dresses having their photos taken.
We passed Queen Sirikit Botanical Gardens as we traveled the loop. I said "Look at that! Should we stop there?" My girlfriend said, "Oh that place is huge, you need a full day to go there." So we did the following week. Probably the best Botanical Garden park I have ever been to! Very impressive! Be sure to check it out on my blog.
We also stopped at this huge Buddhisht Temple on the way out of the city. This was certainly one of the most impressive temples I've ever seen. I've said that a couple times now! Chiang Mai is full of amazing temples. I've got a few of those photos mixed in but it was so big and so immaculate I ended up with enough photos for it's own series, Wat Pa Dara Phirom Phra Aram Luang! Make sure to check that out as well.
Overall the highlight of the trip was certainly the ride through the mountains. Anyone with a medium skill and doesn't mind a sore butt at the end of the day should have no problem taking on the 106 kilometers. Get an early start, stop, rest, take photos, and enjoy! Now come along and lets have have a closer look at the Somoeng Loop in Chiang Mai Thailand!
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