Day 3

Chedi Luang, Mae Suai District – Chiang Mai

All the sexy talk aside, I do get to taste some of the monk’s routine. After the meditation practice from the evening before, comes getting up with the monks at the crack of dawn. Well, let me just point out that 8am Thai time is in fact 2am Europe time. And since it’s the first time I’m jet lagged, I get to cry and whine for a bit.

I get woken up by a monk who opens a window to my room to give me a breakfast plate: a very unusual mixture of unidentifiable edible items. I drag myself out of the monastery after about an hour, only to stop *literally* 7 minutes later in what seems to be a local Starbucks (with international prices).

Once I get back on track, it’s just me, my bike, coffee houses, shops, egg-boiling hot springs, (sic) cabbages and condoms (sic and sic!). I do manage to figure out why Thai hot springs smell of eggs (because there are eggs ALL OVER!), but the mystery remains to the commercial logic behind the name of “Cabbages & Condoms” given to one of the local resorts…

Anyways… the views start to give way to a little bit more of nature and general greenery. Not by accident, I shall later find out, as we’re nearing the Mae Hong Son Loop: the most scenic and breath-taking piece of Thai land there is.

I come across an interesting piece of business: a closed restaurant with some fruit & veg laid out on the counter. You help yourself in exchange for the suggested donation (or whatever you can). I get my hands on my first piece of papaya ever: bigger than my head. It’s just the power up I need: the sun is slowly setting down whilst I still have an hour or so to go along the busy entrance road to the highly-coveted Chiang Mai.

Km: 121.77 km
Tm: 6:44 h
Av: 18.0 km/h
TOTAL: 220 km