An Exciting Day Heading Towards Chiang Mai

It was a very early start today. We awoke to a view of mist over the Mekong River and the mountains of Myanmar and Laos in the distance. At 7:00AM, we left the Golden Triangle area and started heading back towards the big city (one million plus population) - Chiang Mai.

We jumped in the vans and rode for about an hour before, you guessed it, another bicycle ride. We rode through the countryside around Chiang Rai, stopping at an impressive new temple being built by the national artist of Thailand. For once, Jordan didn't relieve himself in the bushes of some country. It was hard to misunderstand the meaning of this sign.

Then we rode to a "smart" village, designated as such by the government because of its sustainable agriculture practices and small businesses. One of our B&R guides, Cindy, became familiar with this village several years ago when she worked with a student exchange program group. The villagers served us a fantastic lunch of local dishes (you'll never see them on the menu of any Thai restaurant) as we sat in a grove of trees alongside the rice fields.

After lunch, we drove for about three hours to Chiang Mai, and our hotel, the Four Seasons Resort. Along the way, we passed Chiang Rai Winery. Wine tasting anyone? Not quite Napa Valley, but not bad for a fledgling Thai industry.

This is not a third world country. Nor is it a second world country. This is a modern and progressive nation. One startling example was road construction. They are widening the highway between Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai. Unlike Kenya, where there was one worker with a spoon working on miles of highway construction, in Thailand there are entire work teams with heavy machinery, trying to meet a deadline of the King's 80th birthday in early December. You get the feeling that everyone in this country is trying to push the country forward to a more prosperous future. We ride around in brand new Toyota vans, our bicycles are brand new Trek 24-speed hybrids, and the bike routes we follow are paved roads in perfect condition. We continually pass road crews working to repair potholes caused by the recently ended monsoon season.

Once we arrived at our hotel, we had a cooking demonstration, followed by a cooking competition among groups of us. Caren, Cindy, and I almost won due to our outstanding Pad Thai Kung, but we were edged out by another group because of their superb Spicy Prawn Soup with Lemongrass.

After the free-for-all cooking contest, we adjourned to a professionally cooked dinner of authentic Northern Thai dishes. If it weren't for the daily bike rides, this could easily be a ten-pound trip (i.e. adding ten pounds to our torso).

Time for some sleep after a long day. Another bike ride scheduled for tomorrow AM.

One not so good note - Caren's luggage is still missing. It seems that the baggage system at the new Bangkok airport has some of the same problems as Denver airport had when it first opened. Bags getting multiple tags or no tags attached by an automated system. We think tomorrow may finally be the day Caren's bag arrives. If not, we're heading to the shopping mall with credit cards on hand.