Bikepacking Thailand: The Impact of The Lanna Kingdom (Video)

Co-created by Bec Norman, video by Second Breakfast

In February 2023, Nu, Bec, and I co-created Thailand’s first bikepacking route. Dubbed The Lanna Kingdom, it weaves riders through nearly 400 kilometres of tropical terrain, from dusty dirt roads and vibrant forest trails to banana plantations and elephant grazing grounds. When we began developing the route, our intention was simple: to share the beauty and magic we had experienced in Northern Thailand with the world. We wanted to show that “the land of smiles” is more than just tropical beaches, bustling cities, and full-moon parties. It’s also an undiscovered bikepacking playground full of unique cultures and crafts, eccentricities and ethnicities, language and life.

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I’ll never forget the day the route officially launched. Filled with a mix of anxiety and pride, the three of us huddled around our laptops. This was the moment we’d been building towards for the last four months—the reason we pored over countless maps and braved the monsoon rains to scout the route. I remember thinking: It’s really happening! People are going to come to Thailand to ride this route. And then the nagging self-doubt: What if they hate it? What if no one comes? What if it’s terrible?

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Within hours of its release here on the site, we were flooded with messages, questions, and praise. Riders already in South East Asia changed their plans, beelining to the mountains, while others earmarked it as a “must-ride route” for the future. We were bowled over by the community response and looked forward to welcoming riders in the upcoming season.

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By October, the monsoon rains had cleared, and the winter season was upon us. The season when ripe fruit trees and dirt roads explode in a riot of colour and the Lanna mountains call our names. In the back of our minds, we thought the route might attract 30 or 40 riders in its first season. But by November, when the 100th rider stayed at Ping’s place (a homestay on the route), we quickly realised we had vastly underestimated its popularity. By December, the route had started to take on a life of its own, with scores of riders flooding into Nu’s shop (Triple Cats Cycles) every day in search of dirt, connection, and exploration.

Around the same time, Bec and I decided to make Chiang Mai our permanent home. For us, building The Lanna Kingdom was not only deeply gratifying on a personal level but also showed us how important it was for the route to have an embedded support network on the ground. And although we dreamt up the route, we are only a small part of the broader network that supports riders each season. Without Nu and his endless time and stoke for riders starting the route, Ping and his family sharing their Lahu culture so freely, and the many volunteers at The Royal Project in Mae Ya Noi teaching riders about their often forgotten region, the once-in-a-lifetime experiences so many riders have reported simply wouldn’t be possible. These people are the trail angels of The Lanna Kingdom. They’re the lifeblood of the route and are as much a part of its creation and success as we are.

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As the season progressed and riders kept coming, it was clear The Lanna Kingdom was having a broader impact on the community. As we worked with everyone to make sure things were growing in a positive way, it conjured up a bunch of interesting philosophical questions for us to mull over. These questions would go on to define the way we decided to build future routes, share stories, and honour the cultures we interact with.

Questions like: What is the impact of creating a route in areas where tourists don’t usually go? How might this sudden influx of people affect the community, their culture, and way of life? Is it ethical to just draw a line on a map, create a bikepacking route, and share it with countless people on the internet without truly understanding how it might affect the communities it touches?

We don’t pretend to know the answers to these questions. After all, The Lanna Kingdom is the first route we’ve ever created, and the truth of it is, we got exceptionally lucky with the people and communities we decided to build it with. What we’re not new to, though, is the experience of riding bikepacking routes all over the world.

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We know firsthand how it feels to ride in countries where you don’t feel welcome. In places where a bike route doesn’t positively impact communities. Conversely, we’ve also ridden routes—such as Montanas Vacias by Ernesto Pastor—that feel in service to a community. A route that has purpose and felt like our presence helped small villages, which in turn created an incredible riding experience for us. The sheer amount of work that Ernesto pours into his extra route guides, the time he takes to educate riders on the themes of Montanas Vacias, and his unequivocal ground support for riders throughout the season truly inspired us.

Combined, these two opposite experiences fuelled the questions we had about The Lanna Kingdom. They made us feel like we had a responsibility to respect and integrate the route with the communities through which it passes. Originally, we just drew a line on a map and hoped that people would have fun riding in the jungle here. But now that line has now grown into a bigger mission for us. An opportunity to think about how and why we ride and build routes in other countries. That’s why every new route we build will be co-authored with a Thai rider and released with the expressed intention to positively affect the places it goes through—to honour and respect the land, cultures, and stories of each community.

Further Reading

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