I had heard stories of an old tin mine in the district of Thong Pha Phum, Thailand. I asked around within the motocross world over here but no one knew where it was. Google didn't shed any light on the location either. I search every square inch of Google maps of the rough location I thought it was but was kind of guessing.
We set out on the road heading towards Burma/Myanmar. I had a couple of friends over who were visiting Thailand and we decided to try and find it.
Our first stop was wrong, Google maps had lied! It also lied the second time (or was it more poor planning). On our third attempt we arrived in a small village where the local people were able to give some useful directions and information.
We parked up, unloaded and rode out of the rural village along a dirt road. A small turn off down an over grown track next to the big tree- as were were told, we felt were were getting close.
A few kilometers of riding and we found the entrance.
Things were about to get exciting. I was riding my Honda CRF250R and my friends were riding rental bikes from Bangkok!
The tunnel was large enough for mining vehicles so we didn't have any problems on our bikes. Once we got in, we realized that the main tunnel split many times. Some tunnels turned left, others right, some went up while others went down. It turned out that there were multiple entrances and exits and from what we could work out, about 5 different levels that spiraled around through the mountain.
The longest tunnel was about 3km, but with the addition of all the others, the total distance of tunnels was much further.
In the photo above you will see a square white light beam- I had a hand touch mounted on my helmet to ensure I had light in what ever direction I looked.
The 2 rental bikes were standard road legal bikes and had lights. My motocross bike isn't road legal and as many of you know, doesn't have lights!
With some pre-planning I temporarily installed a 36watt LED light bar (flood beam) which was hooked up to a 12V lithium ion 6800mah battery (good for about 2 hours of light).
The LED light was incredibly bright and really lit up the tunnels. I would really recommend doing something like this if any of you do any night riding- or mining!
I took out the handlebar-crossbar from my Renthal bar and made a steel replacement that could hold the LED bar brackets. It was just a simple angle grinder job and some drilled holes. A small pouch was attached to the back of the new bar to hold the battery. Neither the LED bar or battery moved. The full set up was tested at the track beforehand on 30ft jumps and it was rock solid. I would imagine this kind of enduro riding was much kinder.
Here are a few more photos from the ride to and from the mine.
The rental bikes had a few accidents along the way- which caused a couple of problems when we returned them! One of which was a lost licence plate, as you can see in the pic below.
Finally we set up camp and had a very wet night, because it rained and the tent leaked lol!
I hope you enjoyed the read and the photos. If ride in Thailand, let me know.
Please don't forget to FOLLOW to stay updated on my next adventure post.
Bikes, rocks and cave. That a beautiful journey!
Those big rocks are becoming an enemy of mine lol
That cave seems similar of the one in here my place..
Cool, Have you been inside? where is it?
Wooo man you are brave! What an adventurer you are haha. It's must be a unique experience going through the place.
Thanks for your sharing!
Thank you, I'm pleased you liked it. There were a few worrying moments when we couldn't decide which way was the way out lol.
I will be posting more.
Nutters, but this pretty cool :)
It felt pretty crazy going in.
Dear god the outside of that mine looks like it should be home to the guy that drives around the white van offering free candy.
Thought the same thing too. There were loads of scary corners and alleys inside lol
Come around a corner and bam!! Herbert the pervert. Hey there paper boyyyyy
Yeah gotta have your wits about you on those mountain tracks.
My old boss got into motocross its definitely a blast. Got to make more time to go out with him. I stick to open fields for now haha
Nothing wrong with open fields and long tracks :)
Must have been a crazy ride. I can understand this feeling I'm a rider too.
Cool, What bike do you ride?
Royal Enfield, classis,desert storm 500cc.it's a best.
Nice. a true classic
Awesome pictures man
Thank you, glad you liked them. I am trying to work out how to load videos here- have some great clips riding through there.
nice post
@thinkit
Posting is very good, I like your hard work to get the location. Have a nice day.
Thank you. It was worth the trip getting there.
Hi @thinkit, great post ! i like your motorcross travel report , you guys must had a lot of fun, i used to live in Sangklaburi located 72km from Thong Pha Phum, this region is most jungle and national parks. Follow and resteemed
Sangklaburi isnt far but it wasnt on the same road- it was the other side of that huge lake. thanks for following and resteeming. you're my first resteem lol
haha wait for more post like this !
Anything that involves motocross bikes has to be awesome.
absolutely, always an adrenaline rush.
I had a KTM LC4 640, now that thing was a rush. :)
Electric start haha. A dream. Think the new 2018 Honda CRF has electric start now
Oh no, this thing was a high compression left hand kicker, pita to get cranking but once you got it going it was a firebreather. :) best bike I ever owned, reliable as hell, flog it all day and never have an issue. Would literally spit fire out the exhaust, cut battle and open airbox with high lift cams. It was a beast.
Haha sounds crazy. must be awkward starting on the left!
I used to lean it against a tree and climb up on the left side, right foot on kicker and left foot against the starter, then jump and kick it with my right foot, until my left leg got strong enough to do it anyway. Interesting when you are stuck halfway up a hillclimb :)
Nice! I miss riding dirtbikes!
never too late haha
That looks exciting! I have a wild imagination, so my mind thinks about the mysterious albino cave trolls that might inhabit places like that! Imagination aside, I have experienced a leaky tent on a rainy night. No fun whatsoever.
LOL when we were all the way in, we turned off the lights - walked forwards- span round and couldn't find the bikes, it was that dark and yeah we imagined them too.
That looks like a real adventure. So awesome dude. :D
Thanks a lot, it was a great day - want to go back there.
You should :D
Wowww, this looks like such a good time.. love motorcross, some sweet bikes man..
Thanks. a place I will definitely go back to.
Wow man looks awesome..but remember there is a roof over your head.=P
LOL, your right, luckily most of the ceilings where really high for the mining machinery.
Adrenaline sport - probably it's great, I did not try. When I look at a beautiful sport, I myself am afraid.
Should try everything at least once lol
That is all kinds of awesome, in fact its like a bucket list item!
A bottomless bucket haha so many things to do
Very cool.
Thank you.
This is soooo dope. When I was younger we went urban exploring under a city through a tunnel system with flares that were running out and we couldn't figure out how to escape. We ended up having to climb on our knees for a few blocks in a spider infested tunnel to get to a man hole cover. It felt like I was being chased the entire time. Now if I had a dirtbike, I would have probably been going full speed scared for my life. The photos of when you are inside are awesome. This would have made for a creepy video.
That's sounds pretty cool, but I hate spiders lol.
I have a video- just need to work out how to load it.
I admire your efforts for serching it. :)
Thank you for your awesome pics.
Never give up, if its there, then you just gotta find it.
This is WILD! Wish I was cool enough to do this
The tin mine is still waiting for you haha
Great photo's look exciting. Nice idea's with the light bar you are very smart to make it work.
Took a few attempts with some failed designs, but the final one works for the trip.
Great travel post and pictures. Keep Steeming! Looking forward to your next post, meanwhile feel free to check my blogs!
I don't know what else to say, expect F@$K YEAH!
Haha, i think i said the same thing a hundred times riding through those tunnels. Blew my mind.
You hit the jackpot with this one!
lol I was looking out for gold, but in a tin mine there wasn't any.
This is Joe btw, looks like real experience articles get the attention. Great post.
Cool you made it. Gotta get writing lol Im following you
awesome pics,I'm from thailand but never go to tong pha phum,very interesting
This is super rad! As an adventurer/rider myself I can almost feel the adrenaline rushing through me just by looking at the pics. Definitely following for more. How fast would you say you managed to make it to before sketching yourself out?
Thanks, there's many more posts about my adventure riding- please take a look.
There were a few tunnels that we didn't go down or up- so that means a definite return visit. On the long dry straights inside I could get get up to almost full speed- the sound of the exhaust/engine was insane. For the wet flooded part and corners I rode with more caution lol.
Hey nice post. Followed in return. :D
Thank you. glad you liked it
This is exciting. Great post, thanks for sharing
Thank you, good to know you liked it
wow this reminds me of the scene in the fast and furious movie. This is really exciting like alice in the wonderland, you don't know what's up ahead until you reach its end.
Exactly. but there were lots of bats up ahead haha
hahaha, well i guess that is the part of the experience..
Dayum all my years in Thailand an I've never seen something or herd something like this. Thanks for the share this is definitely something to do before my time is up, peace brother! :)
Thanks- I just posted a video too in another post- riding through the tunnels down there. It was amazing.. here's the link
https://steemit.com/motocross/@thinkit/motocross-new-video-in-an-old-abandoned-mine-3km-deep-part-2
Wow. That sounds like so much fun. I would love to do that! Love this post dude.
Thank you. It was a blast riding around down there.
It must hv been a crazy ride... Would like to join u someday as m into riding... :)
Thanks. We have to keep discovering these amazing places. Just followed you.
Congratulations @thinkit
You took 58 place in my Top 100 of posts
Haha no way- that's great. Thanks for telling me :)