11/1 Bike Hike through the Chiang Mai countryside

It’s our big bike hike day today. 48 Km through the countryside around Chiang Mai with Click and Travel Cycling Tours. Nine has already chastised us for booking this on our own, but as we come down to meet our guide and leave for the day, she’s already grilling David (not his real Thai name), our guide, about what he does, the tour and any other opportunities for her to use him. She’s quite the businesswoman! What a pistol!

There are only 4 of us on the tour today, which will be nice and personal – just the way we like it. We hop in the truck with David and head over to the Empress hotel on the other side of town. There we pick up our cycling partners – a couple from Belgium – and try out our bikes in the parking lot of the hotel. We get a safety briefing and then we’re off! Out through the parking lot and into the Saturday morning Chiang Mai traffic. It’s actually pretty gridlocked today – there must be something going on at the schools to make this much traffic. We have to weave through stopped cars to slowly make our way out of the city. Once past the city traffic, we glide through the outskirts of town and begin our trip cycling through little villages and through back roads with rice fields and traditional houses on either side of us.

Our first stop is a really quirky Chinese temple – complete with a happy Buddha and a huge dragon that you can walk through. It’s kind of like a Disney World representation of a Chinese temple! We enter through the Dragon’s mouth and move through this fun house type tunnel with sloping cantilevered floors and wonderful murals on the walls explaining the Buddha’s progression from mere mortal, to royalty, to revered Buddha. It’s actually pretty cool- if not cheesy! We exit from the Tiger’s mouth and don our helmets (required!) for the next phase of our bike ride.

Through the country, along little lanes and busier roads, we wander aimlessly (not really, David has it all mapped out, but heaven only knows how he’s learned all these twists and turns!) watching the beautiful countryside and lovely local life pass by. We end up this phase of biking in the huge Leper’s Colony founded by a Christian Missionary named McKean when he came to Thailand in the early 1900’s. He initially wanted to convert everyone to Christianity, but after living with the locals for a while determined it was impossible to shake their Buddhist faith, so he turned to other good works, which led to the founding of the McKean Rehabilitation Center. It’s a lovely tract of land, landscaped beautifully with little cottages placed like doll houses along the 2 lanes that run through the village. We biked through most of the center – it was peaceful and scenic and surely a wonderful place to convalesce from a terrible disease. While under control now, there are still enough cases that the center seemed pretty full to us.

Next up – the rice fields! Oh dear! It was so picturesque – but it was also so muddy. Geez. We got completely dirty and it was awfully hard to keep the bikes up in certain sections. But it was worth it. Here we are, 4 farangs cycling through these beautiful rice fields with nothing and no one around. Just out of this world!

The trip went on, past more bucolic villages, temples and celebrations (we passed a funeral ceremony where the casket was incredibly decorated with a flowers, robes and a huge, ornate castle on the top of it. We also passed a crematorium where the caskets are taken after the funeral ceremonies. So interesting! And the water buffaloes or cows (who knows which) that were milling around the crematorium were just as interesting!

Lunch was at a great little restaurant in the Ban Tawai village wood craft market. The market is just huge with store after store of incredible woodworks. After a very filling lunch of pad thai and pork omelete (oh and peanut cookies!!), we got to wander around for about and hour. We were in awe of the crafts, the prices, everything there. We need a container ship! After 20 minutes, the rains came – it poured monsoon style. Our last half of the bike ride will be very interesting if this keeps up!

We dove into a little coffee café where Ed had a cappuccino and I had an iced mocha latte. All for 50 baht – or less than $2. Sinful! We later joined our cylce mates, donned our ponchos (provided for us by David) and headed back out to the rice fields. This time the road through the fields was more gravel than mud (yay!) and we made it through with little issues. We passed ruins of Wiang Kum Kam and a ceremony celebrating the end of Buddhist Lent – a procession with dancers and congregants bringing presents (including dollar trees! Or I should say Baht trees!) to the temple and the Monk who has been fasting during the lent.

We stop at a ltitle store on the back roads for refreshments – water and sodas. The proprietor treated us to a Thai snack – these little bitter berries that are sour and bitter and are dipped in salt then eaten after taking swigs of Rice wine or rum. We of course passed on the alcohol, but tried the berries. Yuk! Way to sour for me, but Ed enjoyed them. We all enjoyed the whole episode, trying normal Thai treats….things off the beaten path.

Once again we head out into the little winding lanes, through villages, small towns and just farmland. Finally we are heading back in to the city, way too soon! The only regret – as with yesterday – is that it all went by so fast that we didn’t have time to take a lot of photos. We were too busy riding and soaking in the beauty to stop and take photos!

Back at the hotel, we part with the Belgians and David drives us back to the Tulip. What a great day!

Tonight we’re laying low. We stay at the guesthouse, eating another great meal, and drinking all my wine. It’s a low key night and a good way to rest after our first big exercise day in a long time!