The Plan

In short, Thailand. Otherwise known as The Land of Smiles due to the welcoming nature and friendliness of its people, Thailand brings the best of many worlds together: great weather, low-cost beachside resorts, a variety of great food, and everything from alcohol-fuelled beach parties in Pattaya and Phuket, and rain-forest-style retorts in the south, through to mountains, national parks stretching for miles, and great roads in the north.

Reaching middle age, and having ridden bikes since a teenager – with a short pause whilst I got married, had kids, and general other adult-type responsibilities like mortgages, I got back into biking in 2014. Since then, I’ve ridden all across the UK (the NC500 was awesome, although I can’t say the same for the midges), the sout-west coast of Ireland, the Swiss Alps, and large parts of France, the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium. But nothing further.

And this changes now. Because I’m taking myself off to Chiang Mai for a small-group tour (4-5 bikes) on an 8-day trip around Northern Thailand, on an event run by Let’s Ride, a long-established motorcycle training and tour company based in the city.

Starting at Chiang Mai, which is right where the little blue icons are in the middle, the rout heads clockwise for about 950 miles (just over 1000km) with a maximum altitude of about 1440m around Phu Chi Fah.

Stick with me over the coming weeks as I prepare for this trip, and then watch my journey

Here’s the route, provided by Lets Ride the World who are running the tour, Specifically, it’s this route – the 8 day Highlands Odyssey.