This day was about as full and interesting as it gets. I decided to stay in Nan one more night to explore more of the province to the north, and I am so glad I did. What a beautiful part of Thailand! If you get carsick easily, the road from Nan to Bo Kluea may not be the road for you!
I loved this road for the scenery, the corners and, at this time of year, the lack of traffic. The road had countless curves, with lots of climbing and downhills. The Toyota Yaris handled it really well. My only complaint about it is how poorly it does in curvy downhill sections for engine braking and the brakes heating up. I think most cars have that issue though, and it’s not like it’s a rally car, so upgrading isn’t necessarily worth it!
I took routes 1169 and 1081 from Nan to Bo Kluea, a village tucked away in the mountains in a picturesque setting. Route 1081 is also referred to as Road No. 3 because of a famous curve that looks like a 3. I hadn’t realized I was on this route when I came up to it. Everyone was parked and taking photos. I didn’t stop initially but realized once I passed them exactly where I was, so I raced through the curves, found a turnaround over the hill, and came back through them. I parked, and took the obligatory photos.
After that, I raced through them again. Cool pictures, but experiencing it is way more fun. That’s something I always have to remember when I am travelling. Put the camera down and experience things instead of just documenting them. I’m not being paid for this, right? I like taking photos but sometimes it gets in the way of just being there. Not everything is about f*cking Instagram. I kind of hate Instagram anyway, if you must know. Haha. I certainly don’t feel like I need to be in all (any, really) of my photos. Anyway, not sure where that was going…
So, I continued on! I stopped at a lonely highway rest stop, and flew my drone. I simply flew it straight up, did a video pan around the area, then took a bunch of photos of the countryside. There are a lot of rice paddies filling the valley bottoms, and it’s really cool to see them from the air. I think I like my drone more for taking photos than shooting video!
I made it to Bo Kluea, my goal for the day. It’s one of many quaint villages along this route, but there more to see and do here. There is a bamboo boardwalk that was okay. It’s not the same as it was a few years ago, but it is a nice setting, walking along the rice paddies. There’s a small hotel there that I think would be nice to stay in.
I moved a bit further down the road to the Bo Kluea rock salt wells, and bought a bag of salt. Looks like they pull brine out of a well and boil off the water, then bag it up. There are quite a few places there doing this, and down one little alley there’s a place you can good a foot salt scrub. Didn’t have time for that. The smell of wood smoke permeated the air here, but not in a bad way. Reminded me of camping.
I watched as the young ladies at the salt scrub spa went down to the edge of the river to get buckets of water. It was then that I noticed the school of fish in the water, and what looks like stone woks in the river. They do their washing there? I saw one woman scrubbing bamboo mats right beside the river.
It was kind of nice just wandering through the village. I crossed the bamboo bridge, and wandered back. Kind of a lazy afternoon. I decided it was time to head out, but took some picture of the temple. I have to, right? And then I noticed the butterflies in the flowers beside the river. I grabbed my long lens and attempted to capture some decent photos of the butterflies.
Finally, I really had to go. I had to finish the loop through Pua and back to Nan. I did not want to be in this road after dark. The first half of the route back involved A LOT of climbing. Some of the mountains here are surprisingly large! They were a bit socked in with cloud, which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. It stopped me from pulling off to the side too many times to take photos. It’s another picturesque part of the route.
I stopped a couple times, once at the top of the route, I think. It was cloudy, and I feel like I was in the edge of a very steep drop. Too bad the cloud didn’t break up a bit to see, but I liked the photo I got. I made another stop where you can see a Chompoo Phuka tree, which the area is famous for. They bloom in February and March I believe, and are a bit rare. I was too late for blooming this time, but maybe next year.
The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful, but I made it back before dark. Pua looks like an interesting place, and it might be worth staying there next time so I can explore the area further. I definitely want to come back!
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