We arrived back in Thailand via a cheap Air Asia flight on Saturday evening. Chiang Mai is a lovely city, once you get out of the tourist/backpacker area in the old city. The flower festival was this weekend so a nice guest house was hard to find. We stayed in the tourist area first but now have settled in to a lovely guesthouse near the university. We will stay here for three nights, then hit the road for Chiang Rai and then on to the Laos border.
http://www.bankongrao.com/banruanjai.html (Current guesthouse 400 bht/night and a bit nicer than we need - we prefer fan and no A/C to make it cheaper :))
Riding around town today I noticed my odometer reads 505 miles (total for whole trip)!!
Will try to add more pictures but this web site is very bad and takes ages to upload one single picture!
February 10 @ 6pm
We got up early today and had a yummy and filling Jay breakfast, then some more food to go. We rode our unloaded down bikes out of Chiang Mai and climbed the neighboring mountain - Doi Suthep. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doi_Suthep 1,676 m later we made it. It was a very challenging ride but we took lots of breaks and ate some local fruits, and of course our lunch we packed from breakfast.
We were passed by loads of these huge tourist buses on the way up, one after another. They were very big and flashy. I took a picture of one - made me think of Grampers and what he would have to say about them. (Joe said he'd approve since they didn't seem to have slideouts). :)
We looked at some craft markets run by local ethnic groups (Hmong hill tribe was one). As you would expect, it was mostly all the same stuff (carbon copies) being sold at each stall - women's clothes, jewelry, purses, wood carvings. We weren't really interested in buying any of it - unlike other experiences I've had in other places, there was no sales pressure at all. We just walked through, pushing the bikes and the lovely women smiled at us. Maybe the bikes gave us away - we are not shoppers.
The ride down the mountain was fun but felt like it took forever! Joe thouroughly enjoyed it. I didn't realize how far we came till then - It seemed like even more mountain on the way down than it did on the way up for some reason. We stopped in a lovely area with lots of flowers planted and cared for stunningly. I wish I got better pictures of it.
Now it's laundry and rest time!
February 13 @1858
We've been enjoying Chiang Mai for several days now. Yesterday, we took an all day Thai cooking class. We learned how to make several dishes and had a lot of fun. We were the only Americans, except for one other guy who was originally from CA, but lives in Germany now. Others were Dutch, Chinese, Spanish. We were pleased to find out how simple Thai cooking can be with the right ingridients. I do not think we will be able to get all the ingridients at home but have the knowledge to make most of the dishes at least. The class was held at an organic vegetable farm about 15 km outside of Chiang Mai. We stopped at the local market on the way to learn about different rices and vegetables that are staples in Thailand. There were many schools to choose from, but we picked this one based on the great reviews. http://www.asiascenic.com/ At 1200 bht/person this was a huge splurge, as we have not spent money like this on any individual tour/item since the trip began. However we have been wanting to do a cooking class since we landed in Thailand so it was an easy decision.
I would really love to take a "Jay" cooking class (Thai vegetarian food) - it is very different from typical Thai food and uses all sorts of crazy fake meat and mushrooms to make amazing vegetarian food. It's mostly what we have been eating and loving in Thailand. Best of all it costs about $1-$3 for both of us to eat a meal. Unfortunately since it's not at all a touristy thing here, the sweet women who cook this food and serve us speak no english. I want to find a translator and ask them if I can learn how/what they cook! I've been searching the internet for help, Youtube videos, cookbooks, but have not found anything yet. Will keep looking and searching for a sweet Jay woman who speaks english!
“Jay” food was introduced to Thailand by Buddhist Chinese Immigrants. A typical Jay dish is a plate of rice with two vegetable/curry toppings of your choice. As a Buddhist restaurant their aim is not to earn much profit but rather to offer veg food for a cheap price so that ordinary non vegetarian Thai people will come and eat - hence the super cheap prices.
At this point, I've stopped taking pictures of the Jay food we eat because it's not become a daily (or twice daily) occurance (except for when we are in small towns with no Jay restaurants). It is still very tasty every time I eat it, and wake up wanting more! They are typically open 6 or 7 am until 2pm. Breakfast is definitely the best time to go since it is super fresh and you get the best selection - it's also still hot at this time.
We had planned to leave Chiang Mai tomorrow am, but have decided to stick in town in order to do a short meditation retreat nearby. Our neighbor at the guesthouse told us about it. He highly reommended it. Most of the retreats are 10-30 days, but this one is modified for tourists/beginners so should fit our attention span just right - 2 days. They only offer them on Tuesdays. MonkChat.net
All of the other bike tourers we've met have been very nice and fun to talk to - mostly Dutch and German (no other Americans!). They all are on the road for much longer than us - everywhere from 7 months to 7 years! Our current neighbors are an adorable young couple from Belgium on a yearlong bike tour of Europe and Asia. They are very friendly and it's nice to be in good company. It's nice to compare stories and experiences as talking to backpackers is just not the same. While traveling, you see the world much more differently than them.
February 18 @ 9pm
Sorry we have not been writing as much as I would like. This is our last night in Chiang Mai, we are headed north towards Chiang Dao tomorrow in route to Chiang Rai and the Lao border.
We have finally booked out return flight to U.S. and will be departing from BKK (:() on March 10.
We have been at our meditation retreat for the past two days. It was a lovely and relaxing time. We learned more about Buddhism as a way of life and met many great people. http://monkchat.net
We've enjoyed our downtime in Chiang Mai so much, but happy to be getting back on bike tomorrow. Will try to post some more pics soon.
Happy Chinese New Years!!!!!! (curious to see how this holiday will affect our travels for the next days)
February 19 @ 6pm
We arrived in Chiang Dao this afternoon after a lovely 44 mile ride from Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, Joe woke up feeling sick (nausea + bodyaches), but he insisted we continue with our plan for the day. He was a trooper the whole way. We took our time and took many breaks. I was lucky to find TWO Jay/veg restaurants on our way that were open, on Chinese New Year. Joe didn't eat all day, but I am making him drink a lot and we got some meds to help. He is currently sleeping and we're both hoping he feels fine tomorrow and we can continue on to Fang/Thaton. From Thaton, we will catch a river boat (3-4 hour ride) to Chiang Rai.
I decided today that I definitely prefer northern Thailand to middle/southern. The views in this area was so pretty - rolling hills leading into green mountains. The road was of course perfect for biking and had great wide shoulders for us to use. I really enjoyed the ride today - it was one of the best rides we've had since arriving. I just felt bad for Joe! He did agree it was a great day of riding even though he felt like crap. He definitely handles being sick 100% better than me.
Since I am without my dinner partner this evening, I am now enjoying a dinner of potato chips, oreos, and sprite while listening to recent Howard on youtube. Quite the treat!!
20 February at 18:00
Joe woke up still feeling sick but improving. But since he's not really into eating/drinking we couldn't do our scheduled ride today. Instead we checked out of Chiang Dao hotel and caught a songthow (pick up truck taxi thing) to Fang for 200 bht total. Bikes on top. The drive was beautiful. Next we biked the last 15 miles to Thaton and checked into cute riverside guesthouse. I got some dinner at a cafe and Joe is resting. Tomorrow, plan is to take boat to Chiang Rai..
Joe already feels much better after some cipro, coconut ice cream, and a banana. :)
22 February at 8am
We survived the boat trip down the Mae Kok river yesterday. We shared our steel long tailed boat with three French backpackers and an older couple from Holland. The driver of the boat was very good, but being that it's the dry season the river was quite shallow in some places. We'd be cruising and then suddenly hit and scrape the riverfloor. It was quite alarming, as we were sitting on the bottom of the boat so the impact and sound felt a lot worse than it actually was. The French dudes and I were frightened. Shockingly Joe wasn't really scared. He had faith in the driver. Once we got closer to our destination, the river was much deeper so it was smooth sailing. Sometimes there were rapids and we got wet! Luckily I had sealed up our passports and my phone. Check out the pictures of the boats and the solid packing of the bikes in front. Joe is about 90% better, yay! Once again, thank you ciprofloxacin.
Once we arrived in Chiang Rai, we found a lovely guesthouse (200 baht/night) in a super peaceful and quiet neighborhood. We checked in and went in search of food. All the Jay places were closed by then, so we ate snacks from street vendors and went to the night bazaar. We had a beer and watched a pop music show complete with some ladyboys as singers in prom gowns. Very bizarre!
We will stay in Chiang Rai for about three nights before heading to Laos border.
24 February at nine am
Yesterday we rode about nine miles southwest of Chiang Rai to see the local tourist hot spot, Wat Rong Khun aka the White Temple. I did expect this but it was crawling with people and we didn't stay long as a result. It's unlike any of the temples in Thailand. Here's why (and photos):
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Rong_Khun
We looked everywhere for George Bush as promised, but never did see him.
On the way home, we bought some delicious pineapple and when I got on my bike to peddle away, the gear slipped. I tried in other gears and same thing repeatedly. It was unnerving and I didn't want to say it out loud. Since bringing my bike on a long distance tour was a semi bad idea because it has an internal belt driven hub. This means it is highly specialized in who could fix it if it breaks and if it breaks you usually just need a new hub. This is not an easy thing to do. Joe doesn't even know that much about internal gear hubs, and if he can't fix it, finding a bike mechanic in Chiang Rai who can is very, very unlikely. Knowing this, I reluctantly told Joe about my bike failing and he was quiet which was a bad sign!
An hour later we stopped at the first bike shop we found, and the first thing the bike mechanic pointed out to us was that you should not bring a bike like mine to Thailand. He is not able to fix it and of course pointed to all the other bikes with regular hubs and chains and said that is what he can fix. We asked him about ordering a new hub from Shimano, but he was really not that helpful and more importantly really not interested in helping us. Defeated, we went to the next bike shop where again the bike mechanic pointed out that this type of bike is not fixed in Thailand and he claims he could not even order the hub because it is not an Asian part. Even though it is made in Malaysia! Even though the man claimed he could not fix it, he was very interested in putting my bike on a stand and ripping the hub apart as a fun experiment. Luckily Joe stayed with him and took over to find out what the actual problem with it is. Hours later, I discovered that the hub itself is not actually broken and it is actually just the sprocket for the gear. Joe called the sprocket company, Gates, last night as soon as it was 9 a.m. in Denver and supposedly they are shipping us a new sprocket. We have no idea how many days it will take to arrive to us here in Chiang Rai. But we are praying it comes in time for us to continue on and finish our trip as we planned.
Thanks to Joe for his mechanical aptitude! (his words, not mine)
25 February at eight pm
Still in Chiang Rai! Waiting for tracking information for this sprocket. It's supposedly coming from Taiwan (Gates factory) and so we just wait before we make a new plan.
26 February at 10am
We received an email from Ken at Gates Taiwan that my new sprocket was being sent out this morning. We are waitng to get tracking info to see when exactly this damn thing will arrive in Chaing Rai.
If we are lucky, it will arrive tomorrow or the next day and we can continue on with our scheduled plan of riding through Laos (Luang Prabang to Vientiane). From there, we will cross the border back to Thailand and hop on an overnight train (in a sleeper car!) and get back to Bangkok just in time for our flight home on March 10. (if the part does not come in the next two days, we will have to stay in Thailand and cycle south as far as we can get and then get a train to Bangkok for our flight - a fine back up plan, but so disappointing not to see Laos!)
In the meantime, we are trying to be patient and enjoy the downtime in Chiang Rai. It's actually a great town to be stuck in (for us) because we're in a great guest house that is just 200 bht/night (Ban Lotus) and we there are about 8 Jay restaurants in walking distance from us.
I'm just nervous that my legs are getting out of shape! From resting in Chiang Mai, then Joe getting sick, we haven't been doing any long distance biking. Lao is notorious for being hilly/mountainous. Every day that passes is another day of unneeded rest for our legs!
We are very anxious to get back on the bikes and explore Lao on bicycles (our 3rd planned country for this trip). Praying this part gets here asap and we get moving this weekend!
27 February at 0900
We finally got our UPS tracking info and it sadly indicated my sprocket would not arrive until Tuesday. We thoroughly discussed our options and finally made the decision to extend our trip about a week so we can do Laos as was our original plan. Luckily our flights were not much to change (about $75 each). We now will arrive at Pit on March 19 in the late evening.
28 February 3pm
We moved guesthouses yesterday in order to try something new (currently at Mekong Villa -across from Overbrook Hospital) while we wait for UPS to deliever my sprocket. According to tracking, part was not supposed to arrive until Tuesday, but as I type, Joe has ridden off to the bike shop it was sent to 18 minutes ago! We received an email from the bike shop owner and Joe high-tailed it to the shop to get the sprocket and get it on the bike!
We are so happy, this means we can get back on the bike tomorrow and get off to Lao at last!
Unfortunately, this means we did not have to change our flight, we could have made it to our original one, but it would have been cutting it very close and we would have not been able to stop at all, just rush through Lao, so in the end it works out in our favor I believe.
Just hoping the sprocket fits and does not break again. Will update when we officially get on the road to the border town of Chiang Khong (66 miles away).
