Ban Nam Khong

Firstly, I would like to apologise to all our "fans" for my slackness. I will attempt to catch up on all my days in the next couple of days. Courtney of course, has done all of hers and is "patiently" waiting for me. Ha, patient.

This morning we were both still suffering the effects of heat stroke. Courtney less so, but without question, we were both very far from our best. Making sure that we were ready for the cycle trip as best we could be, we woke up early and got our bags packed, before heading downstairs to check out and havs some breakfast at the hotel.

The breakfast was pretty average, and inspite of my best efforts, my stomach had no where near recovered from its convulsions on the bus ride to Chiang Mai. The thought of food was bad enough, but the actual ingestion of food, which was required ahead of our bike ride, was horrendous. My stomach was very unhappy with me, and it would take a morning of concerted concentration to make sure that what I had eaten did not come back on me.

As anyone reading this may recognise, a personal condition like this, is of course an ideal condition to go on a two day cycle tour. If nothing else, I was travelling with a multiude of sugary and isotonic drinks, about 5L worth. If nothing else, that would get me through the day, hopefully.

Eventually, the cycle company came to pick us up in a pick-up, to ferry us to the start point of the trip, at a hotel not far away. There we met our travelling companions for the trip: Waana (our guide), Phoebe (from Sacramento, CA), and Pieter and Hanneloude (from Belgium). After the obligatory setup of our bikes, we set off for the countryside through the backstreets of Chiang Mai. The use of the backstreets was ideal, as it gave us an opportunity to see a bit more of the real Chiang Mai, and also meant that we could avoid the morning rush hour, which was more than a bit crazy.

After about an hour and a half of cycling, we made it out of the city, and into the countryside, following irrigation canals and single track roads north, towards the hills. Along the way, we stopped to watch a rice field being harvested. The combine harvesters were on tracks rather than wheels. which is a must when a rice field can spent most of the season a foot underwater. By this point I was about 3L into my liquid reserves with Courtney checking on me constantly to make sure I was ok.

Carrying on, we passed many more rice fields as we snaked along the top of dykes and irrigation canals towards the hills north of Chiang Mai. Our next stop was for some ice cream and cake at a local corner shop. While there we also had some banana cake. My stomach didn't like the fact that I had eaten food, but I needed the energy so forced it down. At the moment, eating any food is a chore, and brings no enjoyment whatsoever. It's a horrible world.

As we reached the end of the flat plains, and started to meet the roling hills of Chiang Mai, we started to pass more cattle, many of them staked to the ground by their owners. There was plenty of grass by the road side, and farmers wanted to make sure that they could fatten their cows with it, while makeing sure that daft beasts weren't going to step out in front of a car.

When we hit the hills, my legs were completely dead. I had only a bottle of Pepsi to keep me going, and a wee bit of water to help cool me down. I may have looked incredibly daft as I poured what water I did have over my chest and back, but it was the only thing that could keep me cool, and keep me from overheatingm tha abosolute last thing that I wanted.

Needless to say, when we arrived at our overnight accommodations, I was the last to arrive, and I was not looking my best. Fortunately, we were able to check-in, and I was able to have a quick snooze, when Courtney socialised down by the pool. I would join her in an hour or so, after my period of recovery.

Later on, when everyone else was repairing to their chalets, I stayed down by the pool to continue to try and cool my body down. All the Thai staff looked at me like I had grown another set of eyes. To them it was properly cold, and here was me down at the pool, doing my best to cool down further. Cold is all about where you are from in the world I suppose.

Next we had some dinner, family style, with plates and plates of different things piled in the middle of the table, for everyone to serve themselves. As we ate, the topics of conversation varied quite a bit, and somehow, we got onto the topic of the flora and fauna of New Zealand, especially the oversized animals that exist there, or did, before humans arrived. The Thai staff were amazed by the size of wetas, and questioned whether they were eaten at home. They were similarly amazed at the idea of a moa, and an eagle that ate moas.

It was a fun night, but because of strenuous ride there, we all called it a night before 2100. A tough day for those not feeling the best, and yet a fun day without question.Read more