↻ Clockwise
Ridden home: Mae Hong Son south and east, finishing on four lanes into Chiang Mai.
RoadsRoute 108
ทางหลวงแผ่นดินหมายเลข 108
Three hundred and fifty kilometres, and it changes into a different road at a roundabout.
350km
1075curves
63hairpins
The route
↺ Counter-clockwise
Ridden out: four lanes to Hot, then 265 km of two-lane mountain road with the whole day ahead of you.
Route 108
7.38curves per kilometre — its hardest two kilometres
What it is
Chiang Mai to Mae Hong Son the long way round: south through Hang Dong and Chom Thong to Hot, then west and north through Mae Sariang, Mae La Noi and Khun Yuam.
The long version
The figures come from the Thai Wikipedia article and are worth carrying: about 350 kilometres in total, in two halves. Chiang Mai to Hot is 88 kilometres of four to six lanes with a median, narrowing to two lanes through the centres of Hang Dong, San Pa Tong, Thung Sieo and Chom Thong. Hot to Mae Hong Son is 265 kilometres of two lanes the entire way, and the kilometre marks restart at zero at the Hot roundabout.
The article describes the mountain half exactly: it runs along steep hills as far as Mae Sariang, then parallels the Yuam river through Mae La Noi, climbs again past Ban Mae La Luang to Khun Yuam, and finally crosses the mountains to drop into Mae Hong Son town. It enters Mae Hong Son province at km 68+500 counting from Hot.
Inference — this is why counter-clockwise is a gentle start and clockwise is a gentle finish. Nothing on Route 108 asks anything sudden; it asks for stamina.
Inference — measured off the OpenStreetMap trace, 312.3 kilometres of Route 108 stitch into one run carrying 694 curves at a 25-degree threshold and 63 hairpins — 3.44 a kilometre. Half the density of Route 1095, over nearly twice the distance. That ratio is the whole difference between the two halves of this circuit.
Runs with
- townHot — Where the road changes character and the kilometres restart.
- townMae Sariang — The town that breaks the long half in two.
- storyClockwise or counter-clockwise — The argument this road settles half of.
- hazardAnnoyances — The small stuff, with antidotes.
- roadRoute 1095 — The other way to Mae Hong Son, and the other kind of road.
Named here by
- legHot to Chiang Mai — The road it is on.
- legKhun Yuam to Mae Sariang — The road it is on.
- legMae Hong Son to Khun Yuam — The road it is on.
- townHot — The road that changes character here.
- townMae Sariang — The road it sits on.
- stopOp Luang — The road it is on.
- storyHow old is this ride — The ancient half, and the one that took until 1998.
- storyClockwise or counter-clockwise — The road that makes counter-clockwise a gentle start.
- artThe kilometre stone — Where the numbers restart at zero.
Where each claim comes from
| Field | Tier | Source | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| default | cited | ทางหลวงแผ่นดินหมายเลข 108 — Wikipedia (th) | |
| text.story | cited | ทางหลวงแผ่นดินหมายเลข 108 — Wikipedia (th) | |
| text_th | inference | written in Thai by this project from the cited Thai article |
Sources
- ทางหลวงแผ่นดินหมายเลข 108 — Wikipedia (th)
- Curve and distance measurements off the OSM polyline — This project
- OpenStreetMap — OpenStreetMap contributors
cited Cited — a named source, linked · harvested Harvested — fetched from an open dataset, with its licence · tradition Tradition — general knowledge of the tradition, hedged · inference Inference — this project's own reasoning from the above · field Field — someone stood there