Four days in the saddle

We are in a small town on the Thai/Burmese border called ThaTon after 4 days of mixed riding….small roads, main roads, flat ones and a few major ramps. Jungles, banana plantations (Nick – you would hate it – bananas everywhere), rice paddies crowded with workers shouting ‘Hello’, mostly small villages, amazing bamboo and teak houses……

We left Chiang Mai along the river Ping on some mellow roads and it didn’t take long for the urban setting to turn to rural life. Our first night we stumbled upon a ‘nature reserve’ as the sun was setting and ended up staying the night in a luxury resort in our own little hut on sticks and hung out around a fire with the staff playing Thai pop songs on a guitar.

The next night we camped at some hot springs for midnight bathing surrounded by coconut palms. The next day we followed a tiny road through some serious hills and as we got back to the main artery going north the jungle gave way to industrial agriculture. Apparantly the Royal Family have developed the rural communities here to avoid such a dependency on drug trade.

Off to Mai Salong tomorrow and some steep hills are promised!