Northern Thailand
We had a wonderful and very adventurous time mountain biking in Northern Thailand.
We flew to Chiang Mai where we met our guide and drove to Chiang Dao which was the beginning of our cycling tour. We cycled along the golden triangle to Chiang Rai.
The roads were good but most of the time we were not on them. We cycled into the fields on torn dirt roads steep and filled with slippery rocks.
The dirt paths are hilly and we found the down hills to be just as challenging as the uphills.
Most of the paths are not maintained and suffered severe wash outs during the monsoon season that just ended.
Going down hill you cannot make much use of the breaks or you can flip over your mountain bike.
You have to navigate onto the better patches of dirt and keep on praying.
Our guide called it "A technical ride".
The Thai highlands are filled with rice paddies, garlic, peanuts and corn fields. We cycled through mango groves and banana plantations, got muddy and tired and happy.
We are back in New Zealand now with less than two weeks to stay until we come back to Colorado.
