Bob on a Valley Spokesmen Ride in Thailand 2005

Our Northern Loop (Orange Line)

January 25 - Chaing Mai to Fang - Our 8th riding day - 95 miles - Weather low 70's to low 90's. This was a pretty ride and not too hilly. At one point, we were cycling in a river canyon where it was cool. It looked a lot like some of the rivers roads that I've cycled in California. We left at around 8:00 and arrived at 5:30. We had two flats including one on my rear tire. It's not easy to change a Bike Friday rear tire with its hub. It took three of us to figure it out. (It got easier as the ride progressed). It was a long day with several stops. We managed to average around 16 mph.

Tonight we ate dinner at the stalls at the night market. Yummy food and safe to eat. Lots of strange desserts. When we got to the hotel, we found 25 other cyclists from Bicycle Adventure Club - all Americans. It was strange to see other cyclists in an out-of-the-way Thailand town.

Burmese Temple

Small Village

Children along the Road

Woman Carring Sticks

Hill Village

Lunch Stop

Burma Border Crossing

January 26 - Fang to Mae Sai- Cycling day 9 - 74 miles - Weather mid-60's to low 90's. This was another pretty ride. We went past many hill villages with their thatched huts and people wearing traditional Thai country clothes. We had two very steep hills in the middle of the ride. One was long (about 4K) and the other was short (about 300 meters). Half of the group walked but Carol, Kaman and I road up them. When we got to the outskirts of town, there were a bunch of stands selling strawberries and strawberry wine. I bought some strawberries for the group. Our hotel, The Wang Tong, is about 50 meters from the Burma boarder. Our hotel was good except my air conditioning didn't work. I opened my window tonight to let in the cool mountain air. There was a screen to keep out the bugs.

Lunch Stop - Dick, Kaman, Geoff, Carol, Bob and Barbara

Delivery Scooter

Kids' Parade


Drum Major

January 27 - Mae Sai to Chiang Rai- 63 miles - Weather low 60's to upper 90's with low humidity. We started riding at about 8:30. Had to stop and watch a parade of school kids. After about 25k, we hit the hill of the day. It was fairly short. I had to take off my jacket 1/4 of the way up because it was warming up. After a screaming descent (where I dropped my water bottle again) we pulled into the Golden Triangle. That's where Thailand, Myanmar and Laos come together. It's famous for opium trade. They even have an opium museum. Now it's famous for sidewalk vendors. We did some shopping and then traveled on to an outdoor riverside restaurant for lunch. While eating, we could watch boats going back and forth on the Mekong River. After lunch it was a heads down push to Chaing Rai. It got hotter and hotter. When it reached 37c (you figure it out), I started to fade. I made it to the hotel, took a shower and snacked on yogurt.