Advertisement
Published: January 4th 2013
Edit Blog Post
yesterday we truly started our multi-sport portion of the trip. The driver met us at 8:30. We left one of our suitcases (each) at the hotel as we will be coming back to Chiang Mai and staying at the same place next week. The van took us about 30 minutes out of Chiang Mai and then we got on our bikes. It's a mountain bike. We drove thru the country side stopping in little villages, along the road and at a buffalo/rice farm. The scenery was grand. I'm amazed at the nicer houses I saw. I was expecting the rural areas to be much poorer - ie I thought I would be reminded of Vietnam and what we used to see on tv. we did see a little of that but not that much. Today's biking was about 50 kilometers. Part of it was real bumpy and my butt is really sore. oh well.
The buffalo and rice farm was very interesting. We saw how to plow the fields using the buffalos, plant the fields, harvest the rice and then get the rice from the stalks. it makes you appreciate eating rice now. We also both got to ride a
buffalo.
Lunch was a local meal at a little place beside the road. The food here has been great.
We got to the lodge and signed up for another thai massage. oh that felt so good on my sore legs. Then we had dinner - another good thai meal. this one was included. Then an early night - i am tired.
Today we woke up and had nice breakfast and then started a bike ride for a litte over an hour. This ride was great. If y'all remember seeing pictures of Vietnam during the war, it looked the same. I swear I could just see soliders walking thru the fields.... After the 1 hour bike ride we got to the Shri Lanna national park were we did a 3.5 kilometer kayak to our lunch on a floating restaurant. Shelly then went with one of our guides for another kayak as I read at the floating restaurant. Once Shelly got back, we kayak'd back the 3.5 kilometers then got back on our bikes and rode home. So, we are sore. I butts are sore from yesterdays rough ride (really bumpy) and now our arms are dead.
So
a little about the public toilets. Most are squat toilets and they don't flush. instead there is a big barrel of water beside it and you scoop some of the water out and pour it in the toilet to flush.
We met someone today that works for the same company we are using for the multi-sport. He is from Asheville and we talked with him for a while. He's in his 20s and fell in love with it here and plans to stay as long as he can. Makes me think of Nicky and Tim wanting to go to Spain. The other day I met a couple traveling with their young daughters (4 and 1.5). I was like wow. Turns out they have been teaching in Nigeria for 3 years and take ever advantage to travel and said the girls travel great. What a way to be brought up.
I hope to have internet again the next couple days, but who knows.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.106s; Tpl: 0.029s; cc: 13; qc: 27; dbt: 0.0625s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb