Mopeds along the Thai / Laos border near Chiang Rai

Nature
The wow factor for nature - does it show nature at its best? Doesn't need to be the wildebeest migration or diving with hundreds of hammerheads. Rather make you pause as you realise just how awesome the natural world can be
8
Culture
How much does this experience showcase some of the better and finer things that us humans can offer? Sure, it can be ancient ruins and renaissance churches, but it can also be festivals or soaking up some of the great modern cities of the world
6
Fun factor/activity
Very simple - was it fun? This is usually linked in with doing some kind of activity - i mean, walking along some cliffs is nice, but paragliding from them, now that is fun. Its a vastly underrated factor in a truly great experience
8
Avoid the crowds
Big tour groups and being surrounded by loud fellow tourists can sap the life out of even the greatest of travel experiences. This score is to reflect just how much you can avoid this. But. . . The score also takes into account if the crowds actually add to the experience, such as with a party town or a bustling local market
9
World famous
How world famous is the experience?
3
unique
How hard is it to have a similar experience in other places round the world?
6
Overall TE Score
The overall travel experiences score:  fun factor + avoid the crowds + (best of nature or culture) + (best of world famous or unique). Then convert into a score out of 100
77 *What the scores mean and where do they come from
RANKING
How this travel experience ranks compared to all the other experiences on this site, based on the travel experience (te) score
71st/457
Top 20%
continent
Asia
country
Thailand
Length of time
1 day or less
Typical daily price
This gives you a rough idea of the daily price based on 2 people travelling where they can split costs like accommodation. It excludes travel there and back, and factors in inflation the numbers in brackets show the price range for the full time of the experience (so not necessarily daily). It is a range to reflect different budget vs higher end
$50 (typically $40 - $70)
Time of year visited
February
Primary Tags
Click on any of the tags to see all travel experiences with the same tag
Driving Hilltop towns Mountains
All Tags
Mopeds Waterfalls
Wow Factor
Two scores: first is the wow factor which ranges from ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️, and a separate category for the truly "gash". The second is the more analytical travel experience score, which considers 6 varied criteria to give an overall score out of 100.
⭐⭐⭐

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.

 

Viewpoint of Phu Chi Fah - Thailand side looking into Laos. Mopeds along the Thai / Laos border near Chiang Rai

 

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.

 

Google suggests 2.5 hours – that is wrong.  We did it non speeding in 1.5 hours.

 

 

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

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.

 

Temple Chiang Rai, Thailand

 

Highlights

IMG_5909-aspect-ratio-900-675

#1 The views into Laos from the viewpoint of Phu Chi Fah. Sensational

IMG_5916-aspect-ratio-900-675

#2 Zipping around on the mopeds through the hundreds of small turns that follow the ridges along the border

IMG_5914-aspect-ratio-675-900

#3 Stopping to see some of the wildlife along the way

IMG_5912-aspect-ratio-675-900

#4 The waterfalls at Phu Sang National Park. Not the most impressive on their own, but the park surrounding them is nice

Experiences Nearby

Wow Factor Score Two scores: first is the wow factor which ranges from ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ to ⭐️, and a separate category for the truly "gash". The second is the more analytical travel experience score, which considers 6 varied criteria to give an overall score out of 100. LowHigh
  • Elite, unmissable
  • World-class, downsides
  • Meets the Wow Factor
  • Worth it
  • Meh
  • Gash

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Score Detail

The scores above are the real point of this site.

Over 20+ years and 100+ countries, I’ve tried to rank the world’s best travel experiences - from genuinely mind-blowing ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to the properly gash.

Every one of the 500+ places on this site has both a Wow Factor rating and a more analytical Travel Experience (TE) score based on the things that actually make travel memorable.

If you're curious about the thinking behind it, head to the About page.

Otherwise, explore the map above or on the Home page and see which places truly deliver maximum wow.

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