After an entire summer of biking through Czech Republic, Austria, Holland, and France, what better way to wrap up my travels than with one more bike trip! Plush hotel rooms, consistent van support, and recognizable food would all be replaced by 50 person dorm rooms, unreliable vans, and questionable food options. Welcome to the Backroads’ Staff ride through Thailand! Imagine 165 Backroaders biking through small towns in Northern Thailand with red dirt as the road and green trees as the destination.
After spending a lovely 18 hours stranded in a transportation strike in Rome, I barely made my connection in Paris only to spend the next 75 hours traveling to Bahrain and finally arriving in Bangkok. Welcome to the small knit community of Bangkok where you and 13 million of your closest friends share fog filled air as you dodge crazy tuk tuks and taxis from one Wat to the next. Grab a coconut and a straw...this is going to be quite a ride.
Meat on sticks. Chewy black gelatin balls in tea. Fruit stands. Roti prata. Coconut juice. The food may not look like anything I am used to grabbing back home, but damn is it tasty! Just remember...while the food stalls may be friendly on the wallet...they may do quite the damage to your stomach! Realizing that even I can’t walk around a city of 13 million people, I haggled over the price and finally jumped in the back of a tuk tuk (motor bike taxi pronounced two-k two-k). For the next two hours I hung on for dear life as we dodged between cars, edged out other tuk tuks, and ran over anyone who dared step in our path. We passed tiny motor bikes puffing out black smoke as its 5 passengers crammed on one seat. We drove by ancient temples and ruins hidden between McDonalds and internet cafes. And just when you think you can’t go any farther and are destined to spend the rest of your life in Bangkok traffic...just follow us as we go in the opposite lane and drive against the oncoming cars. Better (interpreted as scarier) than any amusement park ride I have experienced!
Deciding to be one with the locals, I opted for local transportation from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, the starting point of the staff ride. In order to make the 17 hour bus ride more enjoyable, I planned a stop in the ancient town of Sukhumvit, where I rented a tiny one speed bicycle to ride through the ancient ruins. But the best part of this town (besides eating some local bugs...which I actually PAID for), was getting out of the tuk tuk at eleven at night in front of a dark alley full of bushes at my “hostel.” The tuk tuk driver pointed towards the dark bushes. “Guest House No. 4! Guest House No. 4!” Having no other options, I took a chance and went in the dark dirt alley and finally saw a small lantern illuminating the door that read “Guest House No. 4.” Welcome to a hard “bed” on the floor with a mosquito net draped over the top and a rock hard pillow the size of small cow. The shower was outside. The toilet was the traditional “squat over the hole in the floor” type. No hot water. No potable water. No place like home!
The next day was a jolt back to “reality” as I landed in Chiang Mai and stayed at the Holiday Inn. With an indoor shower, a sit down toilet, and a menu that didn’t include bugs, I couldn’t tell if I was still in Thailand or back in a midwest US motel! The next morning, 170 eager (and mostly hungover) Backroaders met in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn with four huge tour buses to take us to the start of our adventure! After a short drive into the green hills, we unloaded and found 170 mountain bikes of various sizes and working condition. We were instructed to bring our bike tools and be prepared to “fix anything” on our rented Thai bikes. We loaded up on snacks, sunscreen, patch kits, and toilet paper (trust me on this one), and saddled up for a week long adventure in the northern mountains of Thailand.
What a surreal feeling to hop on my Thai mountain bike and pedal off towards lush green mountains and quiet little towns. In most towns, the buildings didn’t even have a front wall, but instead stood open as a welcome to all that passed by. The children played in the street in well worn clothes and stopped to stare at these strange pale foreigners who sped through their playground. Some would shout “Hello!” to us, while others backed away and stared in amazement. We perused the local fares that sold everything from cheap plastic toys, to unidentifiable animal parts for lunch, to sacred prayer beads. I saw statues of Buddhas taller than buildings and bell shaped temples more golden than the sun.
I stopped at every scheduled refill station as the only safe water had to be transported in rusty white Toyota vans. It was a close call between my Thai bike and the old Toyota as to which one would break down first. Pedals fell off. Tubes busted. Derailleurs broke. And they weighed about twice as much as the titanium bikes we had been accustomed to riding all summer! Throw in some steep grade hills and the hot Thai sun and you have yourself quite a workout after your spicy Thai lunch! The week was full of great local food, awesome scenery, and stories that would take pages to fill.
After spending any amount of time around a large group of Backroads folks, it is always a good idea to rest and recover. And I couldn’t have done it any better than by stranding myself on a tiny island off the southern tip of Thailand. Being true to our Boulder roots, Gabby, a fellow Backroads leader, and I landed on the island of Koa Pha Ngan at the spa and wellness center known around the world as “The Sanctuary.” This “resort” center offers some of the most delicious fresh food, fruit, and baked goods I have ever tasted in my life. Thus, it only makes sense that I would choose this location for a 5 day fast. After all the meat and dumplings of Czech Republic, the cheese of Holland, the bread of France, the wine of Italy, and the bugs of Thailand, I felt a good fast would reset my body after a hard season of work and travel. However I quickly learned that despite the distractions of yoga classes, body wraps, Thai massages, and steam baths....all you really want to do when you are fasting...is EAT!
When we weren’t looking at recipes in the english magazines, Gabby and I shared a small (8 by 8) cabin with our very own outdoor toilet (aka hole in the ground). With the two of us, two suitcases, and enough mosquitos to kill an army, there was still room for one more friendly creature. After checking under our pillows for ants, tucking in our mosquito net, and swatting away the centipedes, Gabby and I laid down every night to stare at the largest white spider I have seen in my life. And I have seen some pretty giant Aussie spiders! Measuring bigger than my hand, this mama spider hung from our ceiling and carried a white sac the size of a baseball. Sweet dreams....
Despite the unique Thai culture, the pounding and pulling that is mistakingly called a Thai “massage”, and delicious albeit hard to digest Thai food, it was time for this Colorado girl to head home. The mountains were calling, as was my new winter job.
Trading in my road bike for a pair of skis,
Kristyn
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