Damn and Blast

Today has been pretty amazing.  To start I had ruled out going on a long bike ride, planning instead to just sort things out in the city; get my train ticket, get my passport, do some shopping etc. 

Mae Sa - Samoeng Loop: Panorama

I headed to the train station and got my ticket ok, 880 baht (12 pounds) which isn't bad really for a sleeper train with air con/fan.  I then headed over to Blue Diamond for a lovely breakfast.

Next, the hospital.  This is where the "damn" comes in.  Ther Ram had still not received anything back from the insurance people so I rang them again and found out that the emergency people are waiting on the underwriters to confirm that everything is ok.  I let them know in no uncertain terms that I was not happy with the length of time this had taken and would need them to get it sorted by friday otherwise I would have real problems (not really that big a deal just means I have to pay out 200 quid and claim it back) which will hopefully get them moving a bit more, we'll see.

Mae Sa - Samoeng Loop: Scenic View

Anyway after that dissapointment I felt like getting out of town for a bit so decided to go for a drive and have a go at the Mae Sa-Samoeng loop, which is about 100km through gorgeous scenery.  I topped up the bike and headed off. 

First stage of the run was fairly boring, well it was just highway so not much to see.  Once I reached Mae Rim and turned off the main road things started to get pretty.  It wasn't long before I was climbing pretty steeply and enjoying the view.  There weren't many people on the roads, and certainly no tourists on bikes that I saw.

Anyway first stop was a lovely little Wawee coffee, set next to a gallery.  Just a fab little place, the kind that I would hang out in on a Sunday morning (Denise you would have loved it).  Anyway I had a strawberry tea and some Blueberry cheesecake (lovely).

Mae Sa-Samoeng Loop: Fieldwork

After a quick check of the map and the time I was off again.  The roads got slightly narrower but still wider than a typical B road back home.  The surface however wasn't as good as a B road, and it was a bit of a challenge avoiding the potholes at times.  They are not fun on a bike with very little suspension (I do have a rather sore bum now :-( )

I passed several tourist sites including Mae Sa waterfall. I was going to go in but they wanted 400Baht (6.50) entry and 20B for parking my bike.  That seemed a lot for what was a natural feature and I wouldn't pay that back home, let alone here.  I carried on up the road and found my own waterfall!  There was a fantastic little restaurant (basically just wooden shacks propped between trees and boulders, right next to the falls (and I mean right next to!!).  The food was great, which was a bit of a surprise.  I had stir fried vegetables in oyster sauce and it was "a-roi".

Mae Sa-Samoeng Loop: Lunch by the river

I carried on my journey and passed snake farms, orchid farms, elephant camps and the like all of which seemed to have there share of farangs but not too many.  I did see a very funny sign which said "Agro Tourism: 7km"  I'm not sure if that means the same to them as it does to us but it made me smile :-)

I bit further on I started to notice that the bike wasn't behaving the same, it seemed to be bouncing a lot and I was getting bumped all over the shop.  I stopped a few times and everything seemed ok but I was not familiar enough with bikes to know.  I prayed for a garage and over the next rise there came one (got to love the divine :-) ).  They spoke no english but through pointing and miming they understood the problem and took a look. Turns out it had a puncture in the back tire.  They removed the old inner tube, found the little pin that had got through, removed it, patched everything up and put in a new tube.  All for the exorbatant price of 90B!! (1.20).  I gave them 100 as it felt wrong getting change when they had done me such a huge favour.  As I left the garage I saw I lage buddha on the hill looking down on me.  Amazing how I feel so protected and looked after.  Anyway I popped up to the temple to show my appreciation.

Mae Sa-Samoeng Loop: My Saviours

Carrying on (without the bumps) the ride started to get really pretty.  The hills were higher and the valleys that opened up just stunning.  It was hard to capture the feeling but it was such joy to be riding free on that road.  No one around, the sun shining and the amazing visa unfolding around every bend.  All this with the incredible feeling of being safe and watched over.  Truly this was one of the best experiences of the trip and probably one of the most memorable of my life.  If anyone comes to Chiang Mai in the future I seriously recommend hiring a bike and doing this loop. It would cost about 200B for the bike and 100B for petrol and the rest if just a pleasure.  If you wanted to there are buses that do this tour and I stopped by a particularly stunning view point where about 4 bus loads of Germans were standing looking out.  They all seemed amazed to see a western women turn up on a bike :-).  The thai driver seemed impressed when I said I was alone and gave me a thumbs up, which was nice.

Mae Sa-Samoeng Loop: Pretty River

Anyway I stopped at a few places to take pictures but I was just enjoying the ride so much I didn't really want to get into "photo-mode".  Another little example of divine assistance came in the form of a toilet in the middle of no-where.  I was needing to go and round the next bend there was a police hut which was empty but had a loo.  So I used it, gave my thanks and carried on.

This leg of the trip seemed a lot longer than it looked on the map maybe it was the state of mind I was in but It was just so beautiful I wanted it to carry on indefinitely.  My petrol was doing ok, down to about half, but I wasn't sure exactly how many kms were left and I felt a little nervous as I hadn't seen a gas station out here at all.  Anyway, another prayer later and up popped a little petrol station with a kindly lady who topped my tank up for 60b (seems the same everywhere).

Mae Sa-Samoeng Loop: Temple

The road started to improve (surface wise) so I had a bit more of a blast (still on 80Km/h) which was nice.  The vista slowly returned to a more flat, agricultural look as I neared the main Chiang Mai road.  I fired back into Chiang Mai and got back to my guesthouse at about 4.30pm.  All in all the loop took about 5hrs which was pretty good.  If I had stopped at all the tourist sites I would have needed a whole day, as again I wouldn't want to be out there when it's dark as those potholes and things would be very hard to see coming.

Anyway I'm planning to meet Dana tonight and maybe hit the night bazaar for some last minute shopping.  I only have 2 nights left here :-( so I need to start thinking about what I need to get.  My train for bangkok leaves at 6pm saturday and gets in at about 7am.  I realised today that I will have my rucksack and everything with me when I get there so firing around doing the tourist thing is going to be a bit of a pain. I don't know if I can leave my bags somewhere at the airport and then head back out.  Check in will open at about 10.50 so it might not be worth it.  I can always do bangkok on the next trip :-)

The night bazaar was like it normally is, busy and a bit hassly but not too bad.  I managed to pick-up just about everything I wanted and a few things I hadn't planned on :-)  I did spend a lot but not compared to what I would spend back home, and as these are xmas pressies I am saving myself a lot.

Met Dana and Gora for some food at Tianzi, which is an organic place specialising in bio-diversity and macrobiology (sounds great, not sure what it is exactly though).  The food was nice, although Dana and Gora did try this Vegan 'cheese' which was basically fermented tofu, it smelled like a spicy gorgonzola and I tried a bit.  If my stomach had been stronger I might have tasted more but I wasn't going to risk it.  Dana seemed to enjoy it, but she did say her stomach felt strange later (maybe not such a good bet afterall) so I hope it passes quickly for her.