Chaing Mai - Day 2

Near the top of the moutain

After yesterdays excitment at the Muay Thai Boxing I went Mountain biking which was fantastic. We started about 9 am and was taken to get our safety equipment from the mountain biking shop. I'd opted for an intermediate course which was good as there were a number of other guys had done the same.

We were driven for about an hour up a Jungle mountain. When we did stop there was a noticable difference in the temperature and humidity.... This was such a nice feeling and reminded me of England. We had driven to a height of 1,600 meters above Chiang Mai and would be mountain biking down to a height of 400 meters over the 3 hour ride.

Clouds on the hills during the ride

After our safety briefing we set off and after 5 minutes I crashed. I put my front tyre in a huge pot hole and went over my handle bars. I was going pretty quickly and hit my shoulder and knee. Fortunalty the safety equipment had done its job and I only got a couple of scratches.

It did make me more cautious after and I didn't crash again. One Australian chap who was with us crashed about 5 times. The crashes were spectacular but he was ok everytime but had some good cuts and bruises... It could have been alot worse.

The scenery on the way down was breath taking. Being able to look over a Jungle mountain and see all sorts of strange wildflife was fantastic. We stopped for coffee at a small shack up in the mountain and were shown some opium plants that has been cut down in the area - the guy couldn't give us any more details than that....... The ride was very challenging and I can honestly say that at the end I was shattered.

Lake hut where we had lunch

We stopped for lunch at the end of the trip at a small hut on the side of the river. It was a nice location and a good chance to have a good chat with the other cyclists and the tour guides. Im going to have a rest day tomorrow but will be looking to book onto a cooking course on Tuesday with some other people I've met in the hostel before leaving for Laos on Wednesday.