mountain braking
6:42 a.m.
so we enjoyed our first complimentary breakfast at our hotel, complete with condensed milk. oh and brittany murphy dying. a really random news factoid, but did not put a hamper on our plans.
so to satisfy keya's need to check out the doi suthep temple and my desire to bike, we ventured on with this mountain biking tour company. i figured it would be a similar thing to my mexico trip with biking, ziplining and cenote swiming, so i was all about it.
when we arrived at the office and saw our fellow tour mates, we realized how much more intense this would be. there were about 5 different treks going on with varying difficulties. some families had even brought their own gear and cycling dress. pretty intimidating. but i guess the nature of this company was for the very adventurous.
it was a relief to know that keya and i were the only ones on tour nine. mostly because nobody else could judge our ability. even though keya and i are pretty comfortable city bikers, i think we underestimated the bitchiness of real mountain terrain. even taking a practice bike around when we first got there was kind of a struggle and rendered a simple life-like moment as i almost rolled backward down the hill because i was laughinh so hard at keya's inability to get up. lewis, our tour guide, was gonna have a handful with us on his trail.
i eventually got the hang of it, and it became evident to me that it was more like mountain braking and not so much biking as my fingers got more of a workout than my legs. it was cool to see how much momentum i got once i released my brakes and was propelled uphill without any pedalling. physics in action!
and once we got more settled in the tour part, it was even cooler that we were solo cuz lewis gave us some history lessons and more importantly introduced us to local foods. the first was rotee, a muslim pancake preparation that was so good that we had to have it again later in the night once we returned to the city.
and secondly was chiang mai ice cream which was served between 2 slices of white bread with some coconut sticky rice in between scoops. lewis got us. it was a great match.
the temple was also quite lovely and we received this sort of rope bracelet from the monk's assistant before the monk said a blessing. it was a very nice spiritual thing and made me think about what i wanted to achieve out of life.
outside of that, biking got to be easier as we went along. the most terrifying part was when we were along the narrow road and there were cars zooming by in both directions. fortunately, chiang mai drivers are more considerate than LA drivers so we weren't in any major danger.
...or so i thought, until lewis took us on a death mission on our final leg after eating to head back to the office to pick our stuff up. there was nowhere on the pamphlet that said we'd be biking around the city. but here we were. almost getting hit dodging rush hour traffic. without any protective gear. maybe the most adventurous part of our bike ride!
luckily we made it unscathed through the urban jungle. what a ride.
and then we came home in utter shock to see that the mcdonald's at the bottom of our hotel, which was rather unassembled the night before, fully built and open for business. a testament to globalism if i even saw one.
i'm lovin it. (but not really)
so to satisfy keya's need to check out the doi suthep temple and my desire to bike, we ventured on with this mountain biking tour company. i figured it would be a similar thing to my mexico trip with biking, ziplining and cenote swiming, so i was all about it.
it was a relief to know that keya and i were the only ones on tour nine. mostly because nobody else could judge our ability. even though keya and i are pretty comfortable city bikers, i think we underestimated the bitchiness of real mountain terrain. even taking a practice bike around when we first got there was kind of a struggle and rendered a simple life-like moment as i almost rolled backward down the hill because i was laughinh so hard at keya's inability to get up. lewis, our tour guide, was gonna have a handful with us on his trail.
i eventually got the hang of it, and it became evident to me that it was more like mountain braking and not so much biking as my fingers got more of a workout than my legs. it was cool to see how much momentum i got once i released my brakes and was propelled uphill without any pedalling. physics in action!
and once we got more settled in the tour part, it was even cooler that we were solo cuz lewis gave us some history lessons and more importantly introduced us to local foods. the first was rotee, a muslim pancake preparation that was so good that we had to have it again later in the night once we returned to the city.
the temple was also quite lovely and we received this sort of rope bracelet from the monk's assistant before the monk said a blessing. it was a very nice spiritual thing and made me think about what i wanted to achieve out of life.
outside of that, biking got to be easier as we went along. the most terrifying part was when we were along the narrow road and there were cars zooming by in both directions. fortunately, chiang mai drivers are more considerate than LA drivers so we weren't in any major danger.
...or so i thought, until lewis took us on a death mission on our final leg after eating to head back to the office to pick our stuff up. there was nowhere on the pamphlet that said we'd be biking around the city. but here we were. almost getting hit dodging rush hour traffic. without any protective gear. maybe the most adventurous part of our bike ride!
luckily we made it unscathed through the urban jungle. what a ride.
and then we came home in utter shock to see that the mcdonald's at the bottom of our hotel, which was rather unassembled the night before, fully built and open for business. a testament to globalism if i even saw one.
