From Bangkok to the MountainsZ Bangkoku do hôr

The cycling trip to Thailand was my first solo trip. Right after New Year's I bought a plane ticket and, completely spontaneously, flew out on January 9th. I had no idea where I was actually headed. The only thing I knew was that my return flight from Bangkok was booked for the end of January.

After landing, I put my bike back together, checked the map, and noticed that Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city, was roughly 900 kilometers north, up in the Thai mountains. Sounds like fun.

Since it was my first time in Asia at all, I genuinely loved the local food. On top of that, Thailand is a truly excellent country for cycling. It has beautiful nature, really kind people, and it's remarkably safe. Drivers are used to sharing the road with local scooters and stay alert, which makes you feel genuinely safe as a cyclist. The roads are wide, and riding on the opposite side of the road takes a day or two to get used to, at most.

On the way north I met a ton of great people. At one point I ran into a local community group repairing a school. They called me over to show me what their school looked like, what they were currently fixing, and how it would look once finished. They even gave me some food.

Another time I wanted to wash my bike, and about five guys showed up insisting no, no, they'd take care of it. So they gave it a proper wash. It probably hadn't been that clean since the moment I first put it together.

I also met a lovely woman roasting bananas over little fires, and one evening I even got drunk with some local Thais. Many Asians lack the enzyme needed to metabolize alcohol, so we made a deal: one shot for me, one shot for some random Thai guy. But since there were five of them, enzyme or no enzyme, they still won in the end.

Overall, I managed to find some kind of accommodation almost every night. I think the most expensive place cost 12 dollars and the cheapest 4, that one I basically just used to shower before moving on, which left the owners pretty confused. I only camped one night, in the middle of the mountains. In just my summer gear I was genuinely freezing, and a dog barked at my tent for about two hours straight. Luckily, it eventually decided it wasn't really worth the effort and left me alone.

I arrived in Chiang Mai just in time for the local markets, which are famous all over Thailand. I scarfed down some grilled squid, shrimp balls, and who knows what else. What amused me most was a giant pile of pickled pork knuckles labeled "vegetarian."

In Chiang Mai I loaded my bike onto a bus and traveled overnight back to Bangkok, then on toward Phuket by further transport.