RIDE DAY: Mae Katchan to Chiang Rai

1/4/09
Day: 103.66 km
Cumulative: 526.5 km
Avg speed: 18.4 km/hr
Max speed: 57.0 km/hr
Ride Time: 5h 37m
Highs: Teak teak teak! Lovely creeks rolling down out of the hills and along the road, mellow mellow people, lots and lots of waves and thumbs up from passing cars, trucks, lories and motor bikes, early morning fog (felt as cool as Berkeley in August!), last 20 km totally flat and the head wind let up
Lows: Holiday traffic!, narrow smooth shoulder next to a wider rough shoulder in many places and the temptation to ride on the rough shoulder to get a little space from traffic, head wind for much of the day


It was another up and down day. Not too crazy, but my legs were tired from yesterday, so the small hills still felt steep. Saw another young fella cycling South who offered pleasantries but didn't stop...he's probably in the same mode I'm in, trying to get somewhere at a certain time. I was a little jealous to see how little he was carrying---I labored on.

More teak and interesting roadside stands. A woman offered me some bitter fruit on which she had me put salt. I ate it and it went down like cough syrup when I was a kid! I'm open to try anything (well, many things) I guess, so I tried. She gave me two whole fruits (about the size of a walnut and looking sorta like an underripe pear), I put them in my bags and discarded later. She gestured to tell me they are good for my throat. I guess I'm not that open!

I didn't think I'd make it all the way to Chiang Rai, but when I saw the accomodations at the place I was going to stop at about 85km and how flat the road had become, I pushed on. For some reason, even though I was really really exhausted earlier in the day, I summoned some strange force from within and pushed it up to 25 kph for a good portion of the last 20km into Chiang Rai.

I stopped at another neat little "park like setting," a public park alongside the creek for a snack, to journal a bit and to nap. A biting ant woke me up and I moved to a picnic table. Seeing some seedpods on my shirt from some local plants (most likely invasive...the pods reminded me of forget-me-nots), I got a sense of how very little I know about anything about this place. What kinds of invasive plant issues do they face here? How healthy are these forests I'm riding through? I saw one very long tailed bird in flight and wondered how many other AMAZING species I'm missing out on? (I did get to see a weaver's nest at Mai Pan Rai on Ko Phangan and felt David Attenborough coursing through me!).

Good day. Feeling pressure to put on miles. Considering a lay over in Chiang Rai (it's in a lovely location!) and then a truck to the border to make sure I get there in time, but I'll see how I feel tomorrow.

I splurged and paid 350B (~$12) for a luxury hotel room with hot water, AC, HBO, CNN, Al Jazeera (in English), in room fridge and free internet. It's nice to get some news...I wish there was a small break in the news from Israel to report on other issues back home. Nice to hear English!