Once again Google maps played a significant role in the planning of this trip. Zooming in and out of mountainous jungle I searched for the most remote place I could. It turned out that something resembling an army camp was situated on the Thai/Burmese (Myanmar) border.
Tracks quickly deteriorated but became instantly fun. Just a few corners into the ride I wondered why I even bothered to wash the bike the day before!
Image source: Google Maps
Looking at the map:
(A) is the last village- where we parked and unloaded.
(B) was a check point post 21km from (A).
(C) was the border camp, another 12km from (B)
(D) is Thailand's MOST remote monastery. Wat Tao Dam - Black Turtle Temple. 15km from (B)
Without doing the math it's easy to workout a motocross bike can't ride that far on a full tank! Doing the math, that's a total of 96km there and back!!
On this trip, we had 2 bikes. My CRF250R and CRF20L (road legal). We made sure both our tanks were full to the brim and we both carried an extra 5 litres in our backpacks... Should be enough right!
The ride wasn't very technical, made up of bendy, rocky, muddy tracks that criss-crossed shallow rivers and streams multiple times. We road mostly in 5th gear and made good time from (A) to (B). I learned my lesson and told myself many times since then not to ride as fast as you can on a track you have never been on and don't know whats round the next corner...
After passing through the check point at (B) we met a rather relaxed/lonely soldier and were allowed to continue. I felt this was quite lucky as I have been to other places near the border and they turn you away stating restricted areas, fighting or not having any authorization.
We were getting really deep into the jungle and hadn't seen any signs of civilization apart from the track we were riding- it was great and every view looked amazing.
We decided to visit the monastery at (D). This was were the track started getting slower and harder due to some dry river bed crossings with big rocks. I kept checking my downloaded maps (signal was lost about 30km before the village we parked at, out on the main road) and we must have got to within the last 1km of Wat Tao Dam, when a monk came along the path and told us we weren't allowed to enter! His reason was split between, our bikes being too loud causing disturbance to the small group of meditating monks just over the next ridge and the fact that were weren't going for any particular Buddhist reason.
At this point we were into about 3+ hours of riding since we unloaded. I was a little disappointed that we came so close but got turned away- but valid points that we could both accept nonetheless- didn't want to upset anyone.
Back over the rocky streams, we headed to (C). We soon found that (B) to (C) was basically 12km of up hill. The dirt was just right for hooking up on every bend- this was the funnest part of the ride.
A huge 'puddle' was a lot deeper than we first thought. I was riding a couple of bends ahead and made it through after getting very wet and muddy. I think I also gouged out a nice big rut for my friend. He was in a high gear, revs were low and he got his front wheel stuck haha, off he came.
Shortly after we arrived at the Thai border camp- again, just one soldier and his gun hanging out in a little shack with a pair of binoculars and a helipad to the side, over looking the Burmese soldiers up ahead.
We weren't really given any warnings of what to do or what not to do, but were just stared at! A short rest and we rode down from the Thai camp with the Burmese camp up a head. We hadn't realized that we had already crossed into Burma. We asked ourselves the question, continue straight or turn back down the mountain and head back.
Our 'pondering' attracted attention, ours bikes clearly told people where we were and before we knew it, the Burmese soldiers had walked down to meet us.
There weren't wearing uniform and weren't even armed. They appeared very smiley and friendly and invited us up to their camp. One of the younger soldiers, could speak a bit of English which made conversation fun :) We had to leave our bikes lent up against a tree! and walk the rest as it got too steep for bikes.
That feeling of leaving your key-less bike in the middle of the jungle on the Burmese side of the border!
The Burmese camp appeared to be fortified a lot more. Trenches everywhere, sharpened bamboo walls lined the perimeter and there was even a terrifying bamboo pole stretched out over a dug-out hole filled with spikes that you had to walk over to get through the gate- terrifying because it's very difficult to walk over a slick bamboo pole with muddy MX boots lol.
We were given coffee and offered a meal, to which we declined since it looked like they didn't have much of anything there and were really in the middle of nowhere.
A full 7 hours later we made it back to the truck, just 20 mins before sunset. FYI, my spare fuel tank had already been used along the way and I returned with about 1 litre left in the tank. My friend still had his spare fuel and fuel in the tank.
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