An off-road ride to a stunning hidden temple in the Thai forest jungle.
Previously I attempted to do this route and could not find it! It resulted in a rather long, funny and frustrating ride. Trip report: Ten Hours of Riding
Table of Contents
Off-Road Route to Wat Luang Khun Win: 43 km
You can also download a .klm map from HERE
From Chiang Mai, head to Samoeng village. (Best to fuel up at a gas station in Samoeng village. There is a 24-hour self-service pump if the petrol station is closed) Then from Samoeng village, head to the main bridge. Cross over and head along the track to this junction.
Head straight up the track and turn left.
After this point, the route is fairly obvious. Keep going straight forward through the dirt tracks and village
Video of Route Condition
Here is a video of the terrain condition. (During Hot Season, when the route is fairly dry and dusty).
Eventually, you will notice a distinct left turn, indicating the temple road. There should also be a sign for Wat Luang Mae Win (but facing the opposite side of the road).
After a short ride down, you will arrive at the entrance of Wat Luang Khun Win
Wat Luang Khun Win
Wat Luang Khun Win is a historic temple believed to date back to the Lanna Kingdom era. The temple is intricately carved from Teak wood. *Note* – The temple is occupied by female monks. It is a quiet meditation retreat and although visitors are permitted, rules about dressing respectfully and being quiet should be followed.
Video of Wat Khun Win Temple Grounds
Once you leave the temple and head back on the track towards Mae Win, you will notice some of the track has been paved with concrete.
There is ongoing work to fully pave the route to the Wat Luang Khun Win from the south side, so keep in mind that there may be some excavation work.
Bulldust.
No issues though and all good (aside from a nice big bruise coming up above my knee, that is).
The other issue is a lot of gravel on a very smooth concrete surface. So when going downhill I found I was sliding at times on the gravel, which was a little scary. Falling in dirt is one thing, falling on concrete, another. I didnt fancy a fall on it. Thankfully was fine.
On the Mae Win side you will come out at the Karen Eco Lodge and from there is is solid road.
—- Back to Chiang Mai (long way around)..
Hungry and a little tired from the heat and concentration, the next destination was a place to eat. The weird thing is that every place around there appeared to be closed! Not sure what was going on really. Not sure if this is normal or just off-season etc.
Decided to follow the Mae Wang map above, and head to one of the resorts. Yet seemed most of all these places were either shut or just coffee shops. Even headed up to the OTOP, but turned out to be just a coffee shop.
So instead decided to head off on the 4053 and just see what pops up on the way (which pretty much turned out to be nothing).
On the 4053 I had a real heart stopping moment. A pickup truck in front of me nearly collided with a large HGV coming down the other side (these roads are very narrow and twisty).
The pickup truck decided to reverse back and the front of my bike began to get swallowed up/crushed by the pickup. I was preparing myself to jump off my bike and leg it. Visions of my bike crumbling (or worse me) permeated my mind.
Thankfully the HGV vehicle saw this happen and shouted out to the pickup driver, who stopped reversing. The reason the pickup driver couldn’t see me is that his whole back window was replaced by a piece of solid wood!
My riding companion by this time had ridden into the gully along side the truck and was kicking the drivers door in fury. In shock I gently eased the front of my bike from under the back of the pickup and reversed back.
The pickup and the HGV vehicle navigated past each other and the pickup driver pulled over to talk. I was shaking like a leaf and couldn’t work out if there was any damage to the bike as i couldn’t think straight. Got my riding companion to test out the bike and the verdict was all is ok (just some scratches on the front wheel guard where it bent down).
The driver was already on the phone to the insurance company but i told him it is ok. Instead we had a chat about his window and he apologised. He held out his hand for me to shake, and I did. I think that in this case I just didn’t want any drama. Hopefully he learned something from this…but likely not. I have my own lessons i learned and just glad all was ok. So will leave it at that.
Unfortunately no GoPro on at this point. Which is a touch annoying. I joked that if I am going to die I at least want it caught on camera. Morbid..but actually true…
After a short sit down to calm my frazzled nerves I got back on the bike and headed back along the 4053 to Chiang Mai, and to hopefully seek out some food. (I am annoyed at myself as I did plan on buying some bakery products “just in case” and forgot. If you take the same route as me, best if you pack a snack or two, as seems food places are lacking. I did actually spot a couple of places that might have served food, but were so grubby looking and fly infested that I decided to hold out for a better option).
Some time later we eventually reached Samoeng, and the only proper food place was closed up for the day. The sun was beginning to set so the decision was just to high tail it back to Chiang Mai and eat at a favorite restaurant there. By this point eating and then getting home in the dark when feeling weary just seemed like a bad idea. Better to just get back to Chiang Mai and relax with some good food.
Was a weary ride back and not so much “high tail” in the end, but did end up at a great restaurant and the food tasted doubly good due to raging hunger.
All in all a fantastic trip, with a few lessons learned allong the way.
A brilliant off-road ride for many at this time too, due to the dirt being so dry and solid (if, like me you prefer this to the sludge and wet. Maybe in time I will learn to appreciate mud more, but at this stage im happy for dry and dusty).
Hope you enjoyed this trip report.
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(March 2018)
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Great report, has me excited to give it a go. Love the arrows to enable one to follow correct route. Got a feeling I’ll still get lost though. 🙂 555. Cheers Zed.
Thanks! I think you will really enjoy this track, especially as you are a more experienced off-road rider than me. I am sure you will tackle it easily and there are more tracks around the area too, but I am not confident enough yet to explore them.
Thank you for the report. As I am not living in Thailand I should like to do this trip but my next visit in october is during wzt season and limited to go to motoGP in Buriram. Maybe next year the road will be already paved?
Hi Bennie. I believe it will be a VERY long time before this route is paved…and even then, I believe it will just the small section from the temple to Mae Win that will be getting paved and the temple to Samoeng route will remain a dirt road.
I dont imagine there will be a huge amount of progress by October, given how slow the progress is going at this time.
Certainly most of the track will remain dirt for the foreseeable future..so no worries!
P.s. Much easier to find the entrance to this route via the Mae Win side, but I did like going from the Samoeng side.