In February 2008, Markus Staas and I rode our bikes from Chiang Mai, up to the border with Burma, across over to the Mekong River and the border with Laos and then back through Chiang Rai on a magnificent trip. Photos and the story of these days can be found at Cycling Northern Thailand 2008
We contracted with a local cycle tour promoter, Khun Game, who drove his van with the bikes (and us from time to time) and arranged for hotels, Thai massage after long rides, great places to eat and drink and even shot photos with our cameras as we rode. We paid Khun Game a couple hundred dollars to accompany us with his luxury air-conditioned van, and Markus and I split the costs for the three of us for lodging and food. It was a fun, cheap and excellent way to get in some early-season training.
In fact, it was so much we have decided to go back and, this year, invite others to join us.
Here are the basic facts:
Start Time: Friday, January 23, 2009 at 3:00pm
End Time: Friday, January 30, 2009 at 10:00am
Location: Golden Triangle, Northern Thailand and Laos
City/Town: Chiang Mai, Thailand
If you are interested in joining us, please visit the Facebook Event that we have set up with more information. Here is the Facebook Event Link
The roads are smooth and most have good shoulders. During a week of riding, we never had a single incident with car or truck drivers who were all incredibly respectful of us on bicycles. Temperatures during this time of year (the dry season) were 16-17 in the morning, up to 30 during the day. Very tolerable and one heck of a lot better than trying to ride in the Northern Hemisphere in January.
This year we will be sharing all costs equally. We are waiting on the costs per person from Khun Game, but I would estimate that we will each have to pay about US$200-US$300 total for the services of Khun Game and his van. Daily costs for hotel rooms, food and gas should be about US$40-50 (food is cheap and lodging outside of the big cities in very inexpensive.)
Khun Game can arrange Traditional Thai Massage each night, which are usually less than 800 Bhat (about US$25) for two hours. There is nothing better than Traditional Thai massage and cold beer to help recover from the 100km per day we are planning to ride.
I’m guessing that we will cover about 600km during six days of riding, although since the van accompanies us as we ride, anyone can bail at any time and relax in the van’s captain’s chairs with the cold beer while the rest of us hammer the hills.
Flights into Chiang Mai are frequent, either from Bangkok or directly from several countries in Asia. We’ll be meeting up on Friday, 23 January at the Tha Phae Garden House where rooms are 400 Bhat (US$12) per night and leaving on Saturday, 24 January. We plan to return to Chiang Mai on Thursday, 29 January for a final dinner… although we may only get back on Friday morning if we decide to spend the night outside of Chiang Mai on Thursday night. But, you can plan to fly out of Chiang Mai on Friday afternoon, 30 January.
If you are interested in joining us or just need more details, send me an email to kimo@iisd.org or visit the Facebook event page and see who else will be on the ride.
