Category: Chiang Mai Province

My big mountain biking experience seemed to go pretty well. I’ve done a lot of road biking, but mountain biking seemed to be a whole different experience.

I had a variety of routes to choose from, and the easiest would have been to be dropped on on top of a 5200 foot mountain (where all the routes started) so I could just glide to the bottom. Instead, I took a route that included some rollercoaster climbs uphill as well. The problem is, riding uphill on a mountain bike is much tougher than riding up hill on a paved road. First, we had to dress up like gladiators to ensure our safety. The bikes themselves contained massive shock absorbers. The paths we took were very rough with large rocks and deep ruts, and although the bikes were design to handle these huge obstacles, they were prone to wheelie when riding over any sizable debris uphill. I’m sure if I have the experience I could have handled it better. That being said, I survived just fine.

We rode the bikes about 3000+ feet down very steep hills in beautiful terrain through farms and coffee plantations. One of which we stopped by for some fresh home grown coffee.

The tour company was actually run by a couple of expat Americans, who seemed to be on to a good thing with lots of solid business.

Well, it turned out to be ten people instead of six — but we all had a great time on our trek. In all, we hiked about 35kms over three days up and down beautiful mountains running along the Myanmar (Burma) border. We camped in isolated huts on top of some of the mountains with no power or plumbing and saw nobody but hill tribe people the entire time. We never saw or even heard a car or any roads until the end of our third day. Although it was technically a jungle, it was quite dry this time of year. It was nothing like the jungles I hiked through when I was in Fiji or Hawaii (which required a machete).

The elephant ride we took for part of the journey on our second day was very interesting, historically speaking. Thailand has a long tradition of using elephants for hauling heavy goods around and for fighting in wars (where they have been used to ram down the doors of forts, among other things). Although the ride was a bit rough in the seats provided on the elephants back, the ride was much more comfortable when you sat on the elephants neck. Occasionally they would stop at streams to fill up their trunks and shower themselves down in the heat. Of course, this is a whole different experience when you are sitting on top of them.

The traditional Thai food was fabulous throughout the trip and the local guide and the people who came along, from Germany, Canada, and the U.K., were enthusiastic and fun to spend time with. The Canadians (from the Yukon) brought along a pet squirrel they picked up in a local market which proved to be fascinating to the village kids.

For the last leg of our journey, where we cruised down a river on bamboo rafts, we had a lot of fun trying to sabotage each other’s boats — causing most of the rafts to fall apart on the way down stream. As it turned out, they dismantle them to ship them back upstream where they rebuild them, anyway, so we didn’t have to feel guilty on the ride back home to Chiang Mai.

I decided to extend my stay here a few days so I can go on a mountain biking trip over more mountains tomorrow.

I’ve been hanging out in the northern city of Chiang Mai over the past few days. It’s the second largest city in Thailand, but it’s still got a very small town feel to it. Chiang Mai seems most noted for its large number of Buddhist temples and Buddhist monks running around. It’s also considered a good base for exploring the northern reaches of Thailand, near the Myanmar (Burma) and Laos borders.

Tomorrow I’m setting off on a three day jungle adventure with a half dozen other people from my guesthouse. It will include a bit of hiking, a bit of swimming, some bamboo rafting, and, of course, elephant riding (as one does in Thailand). We’ll be sleeping in traditional huts in hill tribe villages (with those people with the elongated necks from wearing too many necklaces) up in the mountains.