I remember why I went on a cycling trip not a running trip now

Day 194: into Bangkok

Day 194: that was rather a long way

Day 192: Doi Inthanon (that was some uphill)

Day 190: Chiang Mai up to the mountains

Plan for the day was to summit the tallest mountain in Thailand. It’s not very big at 2,500m but oh my do they like building steep roads here. In Nepal they would wind and wiggle here there and everywhere. Here it’s always about a 20% gradient 🤣 so this goes up there with one of the top 3 toughest climbs of the trip! 

We headed out of the amazing Mountain View place we stayed in with a good early breakfast after watching the sunrise. We had to climb initially then descended almost all the way back to sea level! Then we were on the Doi Inthanon road - 33km from the top. 5km in we came to a spectacular waterfall which we popped in to see and got a good early lunch. At this point totally fair enough guy decided he probably wouldn’t enjoy the climb and elected to chill (v sensible) and I headed off up the remaining 28km climb with about 2000m of climbing to go. It was brutal! Though there was a trail running event on so I couldn’t even feel that sorry for myself 🤣 

With 10km to go I reached the National park entrance and had to pay to carry on. They told me I would be fined 1000bhat if I cycled down the hill! Possibly the most ludicrous thing I have ever heard🤣 the road then reached new levels of steep - 25% gradients were common and there was over a KM at over 17% right before the top. I made it though and the view was well, a bit underwhelming as they had built a military base there 🤣 had some emergency satay before hopping back on with a jacket as it was a bit chilly up there and heading back down! I did stop and ask a ranger about the fines and he said just be careful. I zoomed through the checkpoint before anyone could ask me for any cash! Not that I had any anyway 🤣. It was an amaaaazing ride down - taking about half an hour to descend what took me nearly 3hrs to get up! 

Guy lined up some milkshake and noodles for my return which were devoured a bit toooo quickly 🤢 then the second phase started - return to Chiang Mai. 70km away…. Oh well at least it was mainly down hill for about 20km and then flat-ishhh. It was dark in an hour and we cranked out the KMs either the promise of a nice hotel and a lie in tomorrow! 

My biggest day of climbing ever! Nice to break the 3000m mark!

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Nick Franke

Day 192: Doi Inthanon (that was some uphill)

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I remember why I went on a cycling trip not a running trip now

Day 194: into Bangkok

Day 194: that was rather a long way

Day 192: Doi Inthanon (that was some uphill)

Day 190: Chiang Mai up to the mountains

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