Hitch-hiking with touring bikes??

October 25th, 2001 at 12:00am

It has been another strange but interesting day. We just couldn’t seem to get an early start. It was still pouring this morning after having poured all night so we were really in no hurry to hit the streets. We also had to decide whether to head directly north towards Chang Mai or to go west towards Myanmar (Burma), then north through the mountains, then back east tow Chang Mai. We finally decided to go west to get a taste of the mountains.

Then, as we tried to finally get going we just kept hitting walls- first Kathy’s bike computer went dead and then the valve on my front tube broke off. Neither of us was in a very good mood due to our bike troubles. So we finally got going sometime after 10am and we had an 80km ride to Mae Sot.

It was raining lightly when we left but in just a few km it started to pour. Then we hit THE MOUNTAIN. It was a huge forever going uphill windy climb that just would not end and it was even more dreary in the downpour. We went up and up and up and up. The morale was low. Then Kathy’s chain kept hopping off and then it really started to pour and we said screw it. I stuck out my thumb and within one minute a pick-up truck pulled over, an off-duty Thai police officer with his 2 young daughters. He helped throw our bikes in the back and proceeded to give us a ride for the remaining 50 km here!!!! We were SO grateful, especially once we saw how mountainous the road was all the way to Mae Sot.

This town is only 7 km from the Myanmar border and there is a large Muslim population. We can definitely feel the tension as we walked through the streets this afternoon. We did not feel the warm welcome we have felt previously in all the other towns. We walked by one store with a wall of Osama Bin Laden t-shirts for sale.

Tomorrow perhaps we will cross the border.

Miles biked today: 14.69

The view out of Tak (note the ominous rain clouds lurking in the distance)

Entry Filed under: Cycling,North,Thailand