Route 1148 — Nan to Chiang Kham via Thailand's LegendRoad.
Distance
210 km
Duration
1 day
Climb
3,200 m
Route 1148 — Nan to Chiang Kham via Thailand's Legend Road.
Riders who have spent decades in Northern Thailand rank Route 1148 as the best motorcycle road in the country, and international touring press has placed it among the top ten on Earth. The celebrated section runs roughly 90km between Tha Wang Pha and Chiang Kham — ridge after forested ridge of perfectly surfaced second- and third-gear corners with barely a village in between. This itinerary starts in temple-rich Nan, adds a coffee stop in Pua, and lands you in the teak-temple town of Chiang Kham. Fill the tank at Tha Wang Pha: there is no fuel in the mountains.
Quick facts
SurfacePaved
Distance210 km
Days1
Total climb3,200 m
Fuel stops1 along route
DifficultyChallenging
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The route.
NanStart · Start in Nan — duck into Wat Phumin to see the famous whispering-lovers mural before you leave. Head north on Route 101 up the Nan River valley.
PuaRestaurant · Coffee stop in Pua, the riders' base beneath Doi Phu Kha. Stilt cafes look across emerald rice paddies to the mountains you're about to cross.
Tha Wang PhaFuel Stop · Market town at the junction where Route 1148 branches west into the mountains. Fill the tank — there is no fuel for roughly 90km of uninhabited forest switchbacks.
Song Khwae — Heart of the 1148Scenic Point · The core of the legend: an unbroken sequence of cambered mountain corners over successive forested ridges. Concentrate — the rhythm is hypnotic and the drops are real.
Chiang KhamEnd · End in Chiang Kham, a Tai Lue trading town near the Laos border that preserves some of the north's last great teak temples — Wat Nantaram is the masterpiece.
More routes in Thailand
Doi Lang — Fang Frontier Sky RoadTH 50 · 160 kmKaeng Krachan Rainforest Loop — Phetchaburi to Cha-amTH 76 · 200 kmThong Pha Phum to E-Thong — Pilok Frontier Mining VillageTH 71 · 320 kmBetong Sea of Mist — Deep South Frontier RunTH 95 · 340 kmDoi Phu Kha & Bo Kluea Salt Village Loop — NanTH 55 · 290 kmDoi Tung — Chiang Rai to the Northern Border via the Royal MountainTH 57 · 130 km
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