Thailand
 

For Christmas this year, Robyn, Zoë and I bicycled from Chiang Mai to Bangkok with friends. Well, sort of — Jamie claims dibs on coining the word 'hitch-biking', which reflects the liberal use of pick up trucks to help us shorten distances and avoid hills.

We met the Hamiltons and McQueens in Bangkok and took the train to Chaing Mai. We biked back south towards Ayuthaya (just outside Bangkok) for 10 days. The roads were a bit hilly near Chaing Mai, but mostly they were mercifully flat. I pulled Zoë in a trailer and Brent pulled Brendon and Kayla in a double trailer. The rural roads were excellent, had light traffic and wide shoulders that were great for bicycles. We tried to bike earlier in the day (mostly unsuccessfully) because it got quite hot in the afternoon, though thankfully it was dry.

The Thai people were amazing! They weren't quite sure what we were doing, but they gave us wide berth on the road and hitch-hiking (with all our bikes, bags and trailers!) was easy due to the prevalence of pick up trucks everywhere.

Our favorite towns were Sukhothai and Ayuthaya, both old Thai capitals with plenty of atmosphere, though we enjoyed the places that were out of the way as well.

Some ruins at sukhothai.
kayla and Brendon were great travel partners for Zoë. Here, they explore a restaurant floor in kamphaeng phet.
most of the time we cycled in the country through rice paddies and farms.
zoë woke us up early in ayuthaya, we had a nice walk around some of the ruins there, prior to opening time!
after two weeks of thai food, we were pleased to find an egyptian restaurant in bangkok!

 

The train ride from chiang mai to Bangkok.
another tough leg of hitch-biking.
another temple at sukhothai.
 
The river is definitely the best way to get around bangkok, an atmospheric escape from the crazy traffic!
page created on August 7, 2006January 7, 2008