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.
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