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Mountain Bicycle to Ranong and Myanmar (Burma) and get your Visa stamp:
Every 3 months us “Pharang” in Samui make a pilgramage to the closest border: Myanmar. Rather than merely getting a Visa stamp in our passports we decided to make this journey a little more interesting by using our favorite vehicle ... the mountain bike. First we bike from our homes in Samui to the ferry, then ride about 80 km to downtown Surat Thani where we stay overnight. We caught a great tail wind north on highway 41 so were able to cover 140 km in about 4 hours; not bad for a loaded mountain bicycle. We stayed in a sweet motel in Paknam Lang Suan and got up the next day thinking this would be the short leg. Normal Visa runners head west on 4006 near Lang Suan. This road is relatively flat and well paved. Not so 4139 which heads west out of Thung Tako. At Kho Thalu rather than staying on 4139 by turning left our Thai hosts encourage us to go straight ahead; a road which isn’t even on our handy Lonely Planet Road Atlas. Within 2 km the rough cement road turns dirt. We climb (partly walking) 405 meters in about 2 km. The coast side of the ridge suddenly turns into a massive rain forest with no agriculture; truly unseen Thailand. We kept thinking we would hit the coast highway but we had one more ridge to cross.
If you are tired of those crazy mini-Van Visa Runs try this one! We won't get your Visa in one day but you will come back more fit and you'll see on our mountain bikes a part of Thailand the Vans totally miss.
Our bicycles are state-of-the-art Cannondale Mountain Bikes and all equipment is provided.
