Video by Arparatchanee In-iem · AA Scooter Rental Chiang Mai
Before You Ride: Bike Size and Documents
Check the tires before you leave. Squeeze the brakes. Look at the chain, if it’s got one. Two minutes, tops. If you’re renting for this specific route, 125cc automatic is the real minimum — anything smaller and you’ll be crawling in first gear up Mon Cham. To actually enjoy the climb, go 155cc: more muscle on the hills, and noticeably better suspension and cornering on the way down. And if you’re riding on a foreign license, it’s the International Driving Permit that actually covers you here, not just the license itself.
Starting Out: Chiang Mai to Mae Rim
Saturday I skipped breakfast and was moving a bit after seven. Old city still half asleep. Monks on the alms round near the moat, one noodle cart just getting its steam going. The Samoeng Loop is the mountain circuit northwest of the city — roughly 100km if you do the whole thing in one go: out through Mae Rim and Mae Sa, up over Mon Cham, down into Samoeng village, back through Hang Dong. Leave by seven and you clear Mon Cham before the tour vans show up. That was the whole point of the early start.
I’ve lived here three years and ridden bits of this loop plenty of times — Mae Sa on its own, Samoeng on its own — but never the full hundred kilometers in one go until Saturday.
Traffic thins out fast once you’re past the university, and it’s rice fields from there. Gas at Mae Rim, about 15km out — last easy fuel stop before the climb starts. Fill up even if the tank looks fine. Next station’s not until well past Samoeng on the way back.
Mae Sa Waterfall
You hear Mae Sa Waterfall before you see it. Ten tiers. Entrance around 100 baht. The air drops a good five degrees right at the base pool. Most people give it half an hour to an hour. A family on the lower rocks ran the full selfie-stick routine while their kid flatly refused to smile for any of it — funnier than it had any right to be.
Elephant Camps and the Botanic Garden
A couple of elephant camps sit just past the waterfall turnoff, signs out front pitching rides. If elephants are part of the plan, an observation-only sanctuary — no riding, no shows — beats anything with a ride on offer, and it pays to check reviews for that specifically before handing over money. I didn’t stop at either camp. One of them trumpeted as I rode past, loud enough to hear over the engine.
A bit further on, there’s a botanic garden with a canopy walkway through the treetops — entrance last I checked around 100 baht for foreign visitors. Ridden past it twice now without stopping. Some other day.
Pong Yang: Where the Climb Begins
Halfway to Samoeng, Pong Yang is where the real elevation gain starts. Long curves. A run of coffee shops, all sharing the same ridge view. Stop here, before the climb, not after. A dog worked the tables for scraps, had a whole system going. Cloud had rolled in low while I sat there. The kind that usually burns off by mid-morning in dry season — less predictable in the rains. Check the forecast before committing to the full loop on a grey-looking day.
Mon Cham Viewpoint
1,300 to 1,400 meters up, and this is where the ride stops being a country drive and starts being a mountain road. Noticeably cooler. Curves stretching out long enough that third gear covers most of it. A viewpoint near the top. Terraced fields running down the ridge, both directions. A small café, if you want coffee at altitude. Two tour vans pulled in not long after I got there — right on the schedule the early start was built around.
The Descent: Switchbacks and Blind Corners
Steeper and tighter than the climb. This is where the brakes you checked that morning matter. Second gear down. Let the engine do the braking — don’t ride the front brake. There’s a corner past the first switchback that holds shade and damp longer than the rest of the road, even in a dry week. Not one to test your front brake into. I came round it slow, on the engine brake. Met a pickup taking more than its share of the lane, coming the other way. Missed it by a good margin. Speed, not luck. Same warning for every blind corner on this side of the mountain.
Samoeng Village and Lunch
Samoeng village is small. A market. A strip of shopfronts. Nothing built for tourists. That’s the whole appeal. Khao soi at one of the roadside places runs about 50 baht — the version with crispy noodles piled on top, not mixed through. The woman at the stall I stopped at said the Hang Dong road back was quieter than the way I’d come. A locals’ route, not the main road out. She was right.
Hang Dong: Chiang Mai’s Wood-Carving Town
Flatter and easier than the outbound leg — a reasonable way to end a long day. Hang Dong is Chiang Mai’s wood-carving town. A long run of workshops. Half-finished elephants and furniture pieces, lined up out front. Stop if you want to watch the carving in progress, or buy direct instead of through a shop in town. Traffic builds up gradually from there, one songthaew at a time, until it’s just ordinary Chiang Mai traffic again.
How Long Does the Samoeng Loop Take?
Back through Tha Phae Gate a little after five — about ten hours out, with stops, for a 100km loop that a fast, no-stops rider could do in under five. That’s really the choice this route gives you: rush it and it’s still a solid half-day ride with real mountain roads; take it slow with the waterfall, Mon Cham, lunch in Samoeng, and the Hang Dong workshops, and it fills a full day easily.
Is the Samoeng Loop Worth Riding?
Parked the bike back at my place still warm, brakes doing exactly what they’d done at seven that morning, on a mountain an hour and a half away. Do the full loop at least once if you’re renting here more than a couple of days. Most people only ever do the pieces of it — same as I had, for three years. The full hundred kilometers is a different day than any of the parts on their own.