Our Biking Adventure...

[so I have figured out how to get pictures on the page. However, putting them where I want appears impossible] I had often thought about trying to ride to some of the local scenic spots, but hadn't really collected the motivation until my friend from Montreal pushed the idea. There is a waterfall about 25km from here that we decided on as our destination. With a good set of directions and some bikes (mountain) with gears rented from a local shop, three of us set off at around 7:30 yesterday morning.

It was great to get out of Mae Sot. The Rural area around us is beautiful. Lots of rice paddies and little bamboo huts. We rode across the valley for about 17 km (10 miles?) until we came to the one "hill" that was on our route. The highway split, with presumably the new road going straight up it at a ridiculous grade and the old road going, as we were told, around it. I had hoped that by 'around it' they meant that the highway went up the mountain and came back down while our smaller road took a longer route while maintaining the same elevation. Sadly, our choice ended up being a 3km climb up the super-steep grade or 6 km on a lesser but still very steep grade. This is where the real challenge of the day, the mid-90s temps with similarly high humidity really took it's toll.

But we arrived, barely, at the top of the climb. Thankfully, the climb took us to a sort of plateau where we found a few more miles of flat road until we reached out destination. I was afraid that we were going to have to descend the other side, meaning that another similar climb would wait for us on the return.

The waterfall wasn't too spectacular, but I was just happy to get out, see the countryside, and ride a bike for a bit. I'll try to upload some pictures. We stayed for about an hour, lounging in the shade. The higher altitude definitely provided some relief from the heat. There was a "pool" that Caroline got in, but I opted to stay out of, worried not so much about infectious disease but about the looming 15 mile ride home in wet shorts.

The ride home though was uneventful. The descent was a lot of fun. Mountain bikes will only go so fast on downhills, but by laying on the top-tube I could probably get up into the mid 30's. It was fun to listen to the whine of the knobby tires as they spun probably faster than they were meant to on the hot concrete. The roads here are really great. Smooth pavement with a nice wide shoulder. There were thunderstorms building up all around us, but we managed to avoid the rain, until about 30 minutes after arrival at our final destination, the pool at the fancy Mae Sot hotel. That was okay though -- we just sat in the pool while it rained for a little while and then cleared up.

At the end of the day I really wanted a cheeseburger and to experience the over-indulgent sense of fullness that is so common in the US. At the last moment I switched to a ham/bacon sandwich. As I should have expected, following the trend here, it was one piece of ham, two strips of bacon, and lots of veggies. Thankfully the onion rings I had ordered with it saw me to my goal. I came home and went almost directly to bed. Today I don't feel too bad. My legs are fine, I just feel a bit dehydrated and sunburned. It was a good way to spend the day though.