MTB Day Trips from Bangkok

With Bangkok sitting in a delta surrounded by low lying farmland, good mountain biking tracks are not surprisingly few and far between within a day trip from the capitol. There are several well known trails, including Khao Mai Keaw in Chonburi, Khao Kheow also in Chonburi, Wat Suwankhiri in Chachoengsao, Khao Ito in Prachinburi and Khao Bin in Ratchaburi being the best known and best examples of mountain biking that can be reached in a couple of hours, this means that keen mountain bikers living in the city can be in the hills by mid morning and back home by sunset.

Having explored all of these trails I thought I would do some research into some new trails and having looked on Google earth I noticed a small cluster of mountains in Chonburi, past Khao Kheow heading towards Chantaburi. I tried to do some research but with little information available other than a few blogs in Thai language a friend and I decided it was worth the trip to check it out.

The mountains are just 2 hours from Bangkok and the same distance as Khao Mai Keow (142km) and easy enough to find. The area is pretty sparse, with only a few factories in the immediate vicinity. That said there are some decent local restaurants all over as you would expect, and lots of places to park the car. We decided to start the ride from the base of the hill near some factories which was perhaps a mistake as it was a 5km slog up the mountain, once in the hills we immediately found a trail leading off into the woods. The tree growth is not primary forest so unlike many other forested hills and mountains it is not badly overgrown with dense plants and trees, which made the riding much more enjoyable.

We followed a trail which in the past had seemed to used by 4x4s for a few km, gradually ascending the hill. Whilst the riding was enjoyable the further up the hill we went, the more fallen trees there were blocking the trail and the narrower the trail got so for some sections we had to push / carry the bikes.

Eventually the trail led onto a more defined trail that followed a ridge on top of the hill. We followed the trail to the East coming across several small farms, despite having some knowledge in Thai I could not recognize anything being said so they could have been Cambodians living in the area and they clearly had never or rarely seen a Westerner from the expressions on their faces!

We eventually reached a farm whose owner would not allow us to continue so we turned back and again followed the ridge, this time to the West and towards one of the highest points on the hill. There were great views of the surrounding area, and the trails were fantastic. The ride down was fast on a smooth but windy trail which eventually led to a road which crossed the mountain and near where we first started.

Feeling energetic we decided to continue to the West following the spine of the hill and found another trail leading away from the road. At first the trail was well maintained as we went past several houses and farms but eventually as we arrived at the top of another hill the trail deteriorated and eventually became single track. The single track trail snaked it’s way through the jungle with some more fast sections, but soon enough it seemed to just disspaear so we backtracked and found another trail leading down the side of the mountain and back to the main road via some farm trails.

Once we joined the road again we were approaching 25km and thus pretty exhausted so we followed the road back over the middle of the mountain and back to the car. We had some local food on the side of the road much to the amusement of the locals before heading back to Bangkok. The mountain (the name of which still remains a mystery) has potential to join the list of great rides from Bangkok and with further investigation a more defined loop will be possible. We will return soon!