This morning in Fang started out foggy, surprisingly, and we weren’t sure how it would be at Doi Ang Khang, our main destination for today. I don’t know if I have seen a foggy morning since I have been in Thailand. It was nice and cool, maybe 18 Celsius.
We made coffee in our room and, surprisingly, for instant coffee it was not bad. We brought the coffee and sugar from home, and even have a small kettle. Some hotel rooms have them, some don’t.
It wasn’t too far down the main highway to the turnoff to go to Doi Ang Khang, a mountain I’d been to on my last trip. I really enjoyed going up the mountain on my motorcycle, and wasn’t too worried about going up in the car, but coming down I wasn’t so sure. I set up the GoPro on the windshield of the car just after the turnoff, and we headed out again.
The fog had already started to clear, opening up a bit of blue sky. It was going to be another beautiful day. We began climbing the mountain, and soon realized that our car, with its 1.2 L engine, was pretty good on the flat, but not so great on the hills. I think I can, I think I can, and we did! Made it up through a number of hairpin turns on the way up, and many steep sections. I really had to keep my eye on the road, and not let it wander to the amazing scenery all around.
On the way up we noticed a number of spots where people were stopping cars, with “STOP Burnt Brakes” signs indicating the reason they were stopping people. I wasn’t sure how our car would do on the way down.
On the border with Myanmar
We continued on without worries. I remembered the route I had taken before. We reached the top of the mountain without issue, and continued on. Eventually we reached the small village at the end of the road for us. It was a military checkpoint stopping us from heading into Myanmar. We stopped, took pictures, held our hands over the border and, truth be told, we had probably driven in and out of Myanmar already because the border didn’t necessarily match the road snaking across the ridge. We made friends with one of the local dogs, and then drove a short way back and up from the checkpoint to a military base I had been to before.
There was a good view of the area from here, even the checkpoint we’d just been at. We could see a couple of Myanmar military bases from there too. After looking around, Crystal wandered over to the dozen or more stalls set up nearby, where many ladies were hawking clothing. Not sure if it’s traditional or not, but we have never seen many of these items anywhere else. The ladies had some difficulty finding something in Crystal’s size, but eventually she found something that she liked.
Mountaintop time lapse
From there we continued on, and I wanted to find an area I had stopped in before. It was a helipad and cleared area up at the top of the mountain somewhere but I had forgotten where. I didn’t see it on the way in, but found it on an aerial view of Apple Maps. I laughed when we drove right up to it on the way out, but just couldn’t see it driving in!
So, we stopped for about an hour, right at the helipad. I set up my iPhone for a time-lapse, and stopped it in favour of doing one with my GoPro. We discovered, after a bit of searching, that Apple has a bit of a dynamic time-lapse that adjusts any time lapse to 20-40 seconds! What?! So, I wasn’t too long into it and switched to the GoPro, which doesn’t have the same limitation.
We were a bit worried about some of the residents of the cleared area, and we could see evidence of them on the helipad. They’d deposited some large patties for us to avoid. After we’d been there a while, I realized they were either cattle or buffalo, because one of them was eyeing me up from about 50 metres away. The herd numbered about a dozen. Luckily they avoided us, and my camera set up on a tripod on one corner of the helipad.
Butterflies in the village
We abandoned the helipad to our bovine neighbours, and went to a village nearby that I hadn’t been to. I definitely want to come back, as we were informed by another visitor that the Ang Khang Royal Agricultural Station there was worth a longer visit. We didn’t have the time, this time, so we will have to come back again. I guess they have a lot of flowers and, judging by the number of butterflies we saw in the village, I may need to spend an entire day (or two) there.
We walked around the village and spotted a number of interesting things. It was obvious coffee was grown here, as we spotted one man drying a large number of coffee beans on a tarp. We also saw one young woman picking the beans out of the coffee fruit. We grabbed some lunch at a coffee shop and finished with a coffee. Forgot to ask if they use the coffee grown there. It was very good though.
I spent a considerable amount of time taking photos in the village, mainly of some butterflies I’d never seen before, and a variety of interesting flowers. There were even some pack horses with what looked like bags of what I presume were fresh picked coffee beans. It was a busy, interesting little village, and worth a trip back!
We made our way out, and back towards a camping area we’d passed on the way in. It had an overlook, a number of restaurants, and was setup for camping. There were row upon row of tents, and you could rent everything you needed to stay the night. All with an incredible view! It was relatively cool at the top of the mountain, and no doubt it got even cooler at night. We heard that recently some of the highest areas in the mountains of Northern Thailand they even had some frost!
Watch your brakes on Doi Ang Khang
Not staying long, we headed back down the mountain, and recorded video of the interesting trip down. I knew enough to shift into a low gear, and not ride the brakes. Everything proceeded fairly well, even past all the “STOP BURNT BRAKES” checkpoints. Not long past the last one, I began smelling our brakes! It didn’t surprise me, because even in the lowest gear, the car wasn’t slowing down as much as I’d hoped!
After stopping the car in a safe section between hairpin turns, I got out and, yes, our brakes were smoking! Damn! We stopped for about 20 minutes to let them cool down. Fortunately the rest of the drive down the mountain wasn’t nearly as bad. It had its moments, but there were some good sections where I could pick up speed without braking, and slow down going back up a hill.
This is probably the first time I had ever had that problem. Even going down a very long, steep hill in a fully loaded Uhaul when we moved from BC to Alberta, I never had that problem. When I came down this mountain on my motorcycle, first and second gear were fine, and my brakes were good.
So, we made it safe and sound. Once we reached the main road, there was a temple on the corner that had caught my eye, so I pulled over, and checked it out. Crystal stayed in the car, because I am a bit of a bore when it comes to cameras and temples. I can spend hours and hours in them taking pictures. This one didn’t take too long though.
Not too long after we reached the same hotel we’d stayed in in Fang the night before, and they had rooms. I kind of thought we should have rented the room for another night, but oh well. I figured Doi Ang Khang would be a full day trip, and I was right! What I am curious about is if that village has some accommodations though, because it would be worth not having to drive up and down the mountain twice!
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