Simply cycling around
Today we finally reached Chiang Mai after 21 days cycling. We have done 51 km per day in average and stopped 3 days on the way. For this last day, we joined the Ping river again and followed it until the entrance of the city. The landscape did not change very much today. In fact, we avoid one more time the big roads which leads to the centre. Ours did the same but the road was nearly trafficless.
Mmmh, delicious day today :-) The last night at the temple was pretty quiet. After breakfast we cycled few kilometres before we stopped to visit a temple. There was another gigantic statue of one of the three famous monk from that province. After that, we kept on cycling until we reached a very nice coffee shop. We stopped there maybe 3 or 4 hours :-) Later this afternoon we travelled a bit further expecting to find a temple I’ve spotted on Maps but that time it did not work. The people from the place where we ate told us that temple doesn’t accept people to stay overnight. We had to find another place then and it was not easy…
Today is THE day! The windy, hilly road is in front of us. All we have to do is smash it! Actually it was easier than I imagined. During the climb we could even enjoyed some downhill. The steepness of the road was gentle and the traffic, a part few trucks, was mainly quiet. After two and a half hours (including break time), we reached the summit and visited… a temple, of course. Monks (and religions in general) have good taste. They always build temples on hills, close to the water or anywhere we can see them.