Thailand - Information and Rides (Road and Mountain)
(Warning - last updated 2003, but mostly based on information from 1995)
Introduction
Maps
Road Bike Ride
Mountain Bike Rides
Weather
Final Advice
This page is devoted to cycling in the Pattaya/Rayong area of Thailand. For an
excellent general description of cycling in Thailand, check out Grace Newhaven's Thailand Page.
Biking Southeast Asia with Mr. Pumpy
also has some great general advice and photos.
I lived in Ban Chang, Rayong province in 1995 and worked in the nearby Maptaphut
industrial complex. Rayong province is about a 2-3 hour drive southeast of
Bangkok. The two largest cities in the area are Pattaya to the north and Rayong to
the east, although they are only a fraction of the size of Bangkok.
The overview map on the left shows the part of Thailand that I lived in and discuss
cycling in.
The thumbnail below shows in detail where I did most of my cycling. Click on the image for
a larger, more readable picture.
Before going into the details, it should be mentioned that unlike the U.S., traffic in
Thailand uses the left side of the road instead of the right.
Road Bike Ride
The route highlighted in green shows the loop I used to do on my road bike (about 40
miles). I did this loop in a clockwise direction early on Sunday mornings (my one
day off from work) to beat the heat.
Leaving my apartment, I'd head west through the small village of Pala Beach. This
is the section where kids would use their best English, where I'd be met with cries of
"Hello!" and "Yoo! ... Yoo!". The road then went north,
paralleling the edge of some government property to the west, home of a small public
airport and a military airfield. To the east was an entrance to a modern housing
complex, where many of the other expatriates lived.
Then it was a left turn onto Highway 3. Highway 3 is the main highway (usually
called the Sukhumvit). Although it has two lanes in each direction, the traffic
generally isn't too bad, and the shoulders are pretty wide. Generally speaking,
drivers are used to dealing with slow moving vehicles on the road, although most of the
slow movers are mopeds with two or more people on them. Occasionally you have to
watch for wrong-way traffic using the shoulder, but at that hour in the morning it is no
big deal.
After going pretty much far north as I could on the Sukhumvit before hitting the
outskirts of Pattaya, I'd turn right (I forget exactly where) down one of the side
streets. This stretch was one where I regretted having 700x23 tires, since it was
very bumpy with lots of potholes - but the worst was over in less than a mile.
Lake view with temples
Then there's an area with a lake, and lots of temples, and then some hills, and more
temples on top. This was a great spot to take a break and buy some fruit and water
from the street vendors. Then there's another road that takes you to "Buddha
Mountain" - a huge buddha carved into the side of a mountain. They were using
explosives to blast the mountainside while I was there, and when it was finished a couple
of years ago, it actually made it onto a thirty second spot on one of the national news
stations! From Buddha Mountain, it's all downhill until getting back to Highway 331.
All of the roads in this area have little to no traffic.
Buddha Mountain (before completion)
Approach to Buddha Mountain
Distant temple view
By late morning, traffic has started to pick up a little bit going south on 331, and
then east on 332, although it's still not a problem. The shoulders aren't as wide as
on the Sukhumvit, but they're adequate. At the end of 332, I'd turn left onto the
"wrong" side of eastbound Highway 3 (only for a short distance), since I needed
to make a right turn back to Pala Beach and Ban Chang.
The purple shows the areas I went on my mountain bike. Although the off-road
terrain was mostly flat and not very technical, there were a lot more interesting things
to see when venturing off the pavement. The dirt roads were generally of good enough
quality for touring bikes also; although some of the muddier parts during the rainy season
are passable on mountain bikes, but touring bikes would have more difficulty.
I'm checking out the local wildlife
The purple circled area to the bottom and the right was where I went for night rides
after work once or twice a week. I had a combination road/off-road loop, with some
minor variations, that would give me an hour's ride. Most of the dirt roads in this
area went through farms.
There's usually a dirt road paralleling the train tracks - this works out quite well to
get under the Sukhumvit (Highway 3) to the other purple circled area, to the top and the
left of the map. This area made for good exploring - there were many hidden small
villages accessible only from these roads. Many times I would be the first westerner
that some of the residents had ever seen. Also, there were dirt roads that linked to
the area with the temples that I described above in the road rides section.
Kevin and Paula meet the local
wildlife.
One time I rode with a couple friends on a "coastal" route going
east. We were trying to make it to Rayong Resort (east of Rayong city) and back in
one day. It was a little too far - we had to turn back (it would have been nice to
ride to ride there, stay overnight, and then ride back, but most of us were too busy
working and didn't have the time). Still it was a good ride. We followed the
train tracks through the Maptaphut Industrial Complex (certainly not the best part of the
ride), and then followed some little traveled roads along the coast. There was even
one rickety rope bridge that we had to walk our bikes across! Also, I still can't
forget riding through one part near Rayong city - we called it "the land time
forgot" - a community with narrow concrete alleyways (wide enough for two bikes side
by side) with dwellings on both sides - real weird! Then once we left the city, I
can't believe we didn't get lost riding through some dirt roads we had never traveled
before. What an adventure!
The major bummer about riding offroad in Thailand is the dogs. There's an
overpopulation problem, and many of them are either wild or not very well fed. Often
times there are very territorial, and you will have to confront them if you want to ride
along a section of dirt road. There are different techniques for dealing with them
which have worked with varying success. Sometimes riding by them real slow, not
giving them the opportunity to chase was effective. Other times squirting water at
them or firmly yelling "No" got them to back off. Last, but not least, was
to just plain outrun them!
One of these techniques worked for most of the dogs, but there was one stubborn pack of
five or six dogs that none of these techniques worked on (there wasn't enough of a
straightaway to get enough speed to pass them and hope they didn't catch up).
Luckily, there was an alternate route to where I was going. The risk of getting
bitten wasn't worth it.
This applies only to Central Thailand - this varies a bit for the northern and southern
parts of the country...
Highway 36 would seem like a great road for cycling: only one lane in each
direction, wide shoulders, rural scenery, etc. If I could only give one piece of
advice for riding in Thailand, it would be to STAY OFF HIGHWAY 36!! It's too
dangerous, even when driving!!! Highway 36 is the main road between Pattaya and
Rayong, since it's more direct than the Sukhumvit, and it carries a lot of fast-moving
traffic, including the big trucks. The road is not a divided highway - drivers often
have to swerve into the shoulder at the last minute to avoid oncoming traffic using the
imaginary third lane (riding on the center stripe, that is) as a passing lane.
Sometimes, although not as frequent, the shoulder is used to pass slow moving vehicles on
the left. There's been many accidents - head-on collisions, as well as mopeds in the
shoulder getting hit by drivers trying to avoid a head-on collision.
[Apparently the road is now quite different, as it is now a multi-lane divided
highway.]
The overly aggressive behavior described above was unique to Highway 36, though.
On the other roads (including the main Sukhumvit), motor vehicles were generally
accustomed to sharing the road with slow moving vehicles (usually mopeds), so I didn't
have any problems.
The locals were also very friendly, no matter where I rode. Sign language and
gestures worked quite well for communicating simple things. Just be respectful -
don't photograph them without their permission, and don't use bottled water for dumping on
top of your head to cool you off!
The area around Ban Chang and Maptaphut had grown very rapidly since my departure.
Highway 3 east of Rayong toward Chantaburi was in the process of being widened from
a two lane rural road to a six lane major highway. Growth has cooled off quite
considerably during the recent Asian economic crisis, but I'm not sure how much things had
grown since I left in early 1996.
