Naga Stairs to Nowhere

November 29, 2025

Pong to Chiang Kham

We had the most beautiful back porch complete with a sink but in the morning it was so cold (47 degrees F.) that when I tried being out there all I could think of was one of the main reasons we had come to SE Asia for the winter - warmth! Back into the brand new beautiful bungalow. This is what we have learned when we are way out in the middle of nowhere in Thailand; bungalows can be the nicest, newest and cheapest in Thailand. What a treat after riding hard all day. Or, after riding easy in a pick up truck for the first hour of the day and THEN riding hard the rest of the day. No matter how you get to one of these bungalows it's a treat.

We stopped at a crematory because I like crematories but also because no one is ever at them and there are toilets. In this case when we stopped I had to strip off my warm shirt. It's an ultra warm shirt, a Columbia Sportswear shirt, with reflective silver stuff on the inside which is super warm. Thin but warm. I call it my Silverman Outfit. I have to wear a T-shirt under it because the silver stuff in the Silverman Outfit is metallic feeling and metallic silver stuff against my raw body is just too weird feeling. And usually I will have a thin shirt on top of Silverman so that means three layers! I was really hot by the time we pulled into the crematory and I couldn't wait to strip down. After I changed I took all of my vitamins while looking at the crematory, contemplating life.

Back on the road we rode through lush Thailand - a smallish green valley, blue hills in the distance and big old trees and farms near to the road. We were riding rollers but they weren't bad. We stopped for some noodle soup. You can pretty much gauge how good the soup will be by how nice the woman who made it is. This certainly was true this time. The three-kinds-of-pork noodle soup and a nice lady. Fantastic food is always better when an excited Thai cook is serving you her speciality. She is full of pride and when we are full we tell her repeatedly how much we loved her soup. This never gets old for us. It is a special experience for us and especially for her because she just doesn't get to serve foreigners on bikes very often, or maybe never before.

A temple by the side of the road with a very unusual Chedi.

The sign says, "Accident Ahead" but it's a permanent sign!

We rode pretty hard and fast because the guest house we were heading for was 35 miles. We knew we would get there well before sunset but we like to get to places as early as possible because we never know what is what or what might be. There are sometimes surprises.

The new way of harvesting rice means that the machine chops off just the tops where the rice is. That leaves a lot of the stalks which, if they burn them, there is way more to burn nowadays. Forever in the past the rice was cut off by hand near the ground leaving very little stubble to burn. This is one reason there is way more smoke every winter in Thailand.

We were on highway 1091 and in the town of Chun we turned onto 1021. A 90 degree turn and the road designation dropped 70! Then there was a sudden desire to have iced coffee and a bit of a rest in a cute coffeehouse. That's a tall order in the middle of nowhere, or the middle of Chun, as it was. But as it turned out I dreamed it so hard that when I looked at the map I thought I saw something just up ahead that might fit that dream. By this time I was dreaming of a cute coffeehouse so hard that it got Andrea onto the same wavelength. We saw all the wood of the coffeehouse and it looked like the real dream. It was called Doi and Mind Coffee! Sometimes names are so odd but this was maybe supposed to be 'Doi and Me.' Doi is a brand of Thai coffee. We got huge plastic glasses of iced lattes with a big layer of what was like whipped cream on top. They were seriously the best of our trip. I pulled up Google Translator and typed in, "We have been on a bicycle trip for a month in northern Thailand and we have coffee somewhere everyday. Yours is the best we have had." When the woman read it she nearly started crying she was so moved by my comment. But it was the truth and we wanted her to know how we felt.

The sink out back at the cute coffeehouse.

Back on the road and many miles further, I stopped abruptly looking longingly at an intriguing naga stairs ascending a steep forested hill. I love stuff like that. There surely was a temple on top that needed a foreigner to climb up to appreciate it. Andrea didn't even stop and as she whizzed past me she said, "No." I was sad and later asked her what exactly that "No" meant. She said that we were only a couple of miles from the guest house we were heading for and I could go back to the naga stairway if I wanted once we were settled. That was a plan I could live with.

Naga stairs up a hill. I cannot report on what was up there. Maybe someday.

After another two miles we turned down a small country road to find our guest house. We kept checking Google Maps as to the exact spot but there was no guest house there. Back and forth we rode looking but there were just a few houses and no guest house. We stopped a guy in a truck and showed him our phones. He knew nothing of that guest house. It was a mystery. There were reviews for the guest house, how could it not exist! We rode back out to the main road and asked at a coffee shop and she didn't know where that guest house might be. She had never heard of it but she called the phone number for us and it just rang and rang.

We saw there was another guest house in seven more kilometers but we thought we should eat something first because it was unlikely we'd find any more restaurants anywhere. We rode back a bit (closer to that intriguing naga stairs) and asked a woman selling food we didn't want to eat if there was a restaurant where there was food we wanted to eat. Thais are fine with that sort of question because they always want to help and please foreigners.

Fortunately there was a good restaurant just a short distance back down another completely rural little road in which we never would have dreamed there would be a great restaurant on. But that's what we found. It was open air, clean, an enormous menu and another really nice woman chef/owner. We had delicious high quality food there and as we ate a well dressed man who we had seen at a table under a tree on our way in, walked past us to the bathroom. On his way back he had something translated on his phone. He held it up to me and I read, "Thank you for traveling in Thailand." It was my turn to be flabbergasted. It was so nice of him to acknowledge us. We were honored.

We set off the just under five miles to the next possible guest house. It was maybe 3PM, lots of time yet. When we pulled up to that guest house there was a massive and loud party with a live band happening right next door to it. We know how those things go - deafening until 3AM and then everyone is drunk and they get into their cars and motorbikes and race off loudly. We didn't even turn in to look at that guest house.

Well they have this tree all trimmed up nice!

We rode on towards Chiang Kham, well out of our way now but we had no choice. It was another five miles but there were lots of guest houses in Chiang Kham. We had been there three years ago and that's why we were not planning on returning. It wasn't because we didn't like Chiang Kham at all, we just like to see new territory and towns. We chose a hotel in downtown Chiang Kham and when we found it it seemed as though it wasn't a hotel anymore and possibly had grown up into being an apartment.

We rode to another guest house with bungalows on the edge of Chiang Kham. They were full. Then, using Google maps, we realized that every guest house and hotel in Chiang Kham was full except for a couple that were nearly $100. We don't ever spend that much. Andrea called a large, very fancy looking hotel we had passed on the way into town that we never dreamed we would ever have to consider. It had looked expensive and not our style at all. But, they had a room and it wasn't completely out of range in price so we took off again, another four miles as the sun was setting. We were racing the sun and I was thinking Silverman Outfit again but we were not going to stop to put lights on either. It was our last chance of having a bed to sleep in, what if they sold the last room before we got there.

We made it and the staff were very nice and welcoming of our tired and disheveled selves. That hotel was luxury to us, possibly the nicest, most modern, hotel room we have ever stayed in. It was $30 but also included a buffet breakfast. We were happy and relieved to simply have a room.

What an unexpected ordeal! I never got to climb the naga stairs to see what was on top of that hill. But I think about all the wonderful interactions we had with Thais all day. It was another great day riding bikes in Thailand. One never knows how the day will pan out when riding bikes in a foreign country. But one thing I now know about Thailand, there is now a huge middle class and Thais love to have weekends off to explore their own country. They fill all the hotels everywhere on weekends. And good for them. They have made it and they seem super happy.

lovebruce

Today's ride: 45 miles (72 km)
Total: 303 miles (488 km)

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Steve Miller/GrampiesGiven how the day panned out, it's a good thing you have a tough and assertive riding partner.
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1 month ago

Scott AndersonScary day, all in all. I was relieved to come to the end and find all was well. A shame about that naga staircase though.
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1 month ago

Charlotte FloryWhat an adventure!
That may have been the stairway to heaven, and clearly it’s not your time to climb those yet. Also, I was taught that “no” is a full sentence 🤣 what great fun the two of you have navigating the challenges. I’ll bet it’s more fun in retrospect. But the belief that it will always turn out, that’s a magical pov to have as we move through life. For now.

Take care!
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1 month ago

Bruce LellmanTo Charlotte FloryNavigating the challenges is possibly one of the most important lessons these bike trips have taught me. But I've always believed that everything will work out everyday over here. There are just so many people who want to help if we are in a jam. I'm also perfectly ok with throwing my sleeping bag on the bamboo slats of a field hut if we can't find any other place to spend the night.
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1 month ago