Little Adventures on Two Wheels: Viengpoukha to Chiang Mai THAILAND

Day 1: 52km, climb 821m, Viengphouka - Don Chai
Day 2: 70km, climb 975m, Don Chai - Huai Xai
Day 3: 69km, climb 554m, Huai Xai, Laos - Chiang Saen, Thailand
Day 4: 97km, climb 752m, Chiang Sean - Tha Ton
Day 5: 111km, climb 711m, Tha Ton - Chiang Dao
Day 6: 77km, Chiang Doc - Chiang Mai

We left Vieng Phouka looking forward to a hot shower very much as the temperature had dropped and we had been washing in the cold river for the last few days. Don Chai was a tiny place with a few houses, one temple and a makeshift guesthouse that provided us with a bed and some basic meals (sticky rice and egg).

It was a shortish ride to Huai Xai and was not as hilly as we had feared so we made it there by lunch time. Again (as in Vietnam) it was a bit sad to come down from the mountains. As it was Bea's birthday we treated ourself (lucky Kiki gets treated too) to a hot shower and then went to persue our favourite past time, sauna and massage at the local Lao Red Cross branch. We were looking for some friends to party with but did not find any.

The next morning our bikes were loaded onto a wee boat and in ten minutes we had crossed the river and were in Thailand. It was all a bit sudden, after 5 weeks and about 1400km of cycling and who knows how many kilos of sticky rice. There were all these flash cars on the road, and they were heading straight for us as we had forgotten that you drive on the left in Thailand.

As it was still early we decided not to stay in Chiang Khong, the town on the Thai side of the border, but to cycle on to Chiang Saen instead. We were heading for Chiang Mai in a straight four day route but we had received some advice from another cyclist, to follow the Lao border appraoching from a different direction instead of cycling through the mountains and Chiang Rai.

The first day in Thailand we chose the longer, scenic route which was a nice cycle that followed the Mekong for most of the way. We were shocked by the accommodation we were offered for $5 or more, still being used to Laos, but found a clean guesthouse with our room facing onto an empty swimming pool which gave the place more atmosphere than had it been full. After going for dinner and eating an ice cream we were delighted to be back in Thailand.

The next day to Thaton (as well as the day after) were longer than expected, as we had not really looked at the map properly. It was much busier on the road, but it got better after 30km when we left the highway that was headed for Chiang Rai.

We had met an old german cyclist in the guesthouse the night before who had made us wary of the next day's cycling by telling us how he met some cyclists coming from the other direction who had to give up, taking a bus due to a large steep hill. When we got there, we found a biggish hill but luckily aproaching it from our direction was not too bad at all. Cycling down the other side though felt like being on the black piste of a ski slope. Thaton was a small but pretty town and we found a nice bungalow place to stay next to the river surrounded by greenery.

Cycling to Chiang Doc was not particularly exciting and the traffic was pretty busy, especially with spring onions. We got excited and then saddened by a Tesco Lotus, bought a packet of porridge oats and super powered our way on. In Chiang Dao we stayed in another beautiful green guest house in the shadow of a large mountain. It was full of twitchers, does that mean birdwatchers? Well that is what i mean, but they were of the slightly twitchy crazy variety. It was beautiful waking up in the morning to the sound of the birds and as we were up so early we did not get disturbed by any twitching.

It was a slight relief to get to Chiang Mai as we had been cycling for 6 days in a row and the pizza and red wine we celebrated our arrival on the rooftop of our guesthouse with tasted twice as nice.

sticky rice for one last time (on my birthday)