24/12/2019 – Racing to the border

After a couple of days to fully recover from sickness I had to get a wiggle on.

My VISA for Myanmar ran out on Christmas Eve which worked out alright as I wanted to spend Christmas in Chiang Mai. This meant that I had some big days to get to the border in time. Due to illness I would have to take a bus up to Chiang Mai which wasn’t the end of the world as I would be cycling back down the same road after Christmas.

The first day was nice and flat and then into the mountains. It was a particularly hot day with the temperatures in the mid 30’s just to add to the difficulty.

With stunning scenery the entire day the hours flew past and the sun was soon going down. With no hotels around I managed to stay in a monastery although sadly I didn’t have the room to myself. The biggest lizard I have ever seen walked round like it owned the place and hid behind the chest of drawers and not wanting it to disturb me whilst I slept, I let it be.

An early start was on the cards to get the mountains out of the way before the afternoon heat took its toll. Again, I was rewarded with some stunning landscapes and after another tough days riding I made it out the other side to a big town.

Having not had much to eat in the last 48 hours I made a beeline to the modern pizza restaurant near to the hotel and stuffed my face with everything I could get my hands on.

The rest of the journey to the border was flat so the aim for the next few days was getting the mileage in. Podcasts keep the miles ticking through and I soon reached Hpa an, the last big town before the border.

I checked into my hotel, booked a taxi for the morning to take me to the border. A 3:30am wake up call to rush to the border to make the bus up to Chiang Mai was made by the slimmest of margins.

After a couple of big days it was nice to have some time off to watch some Netflix and relax before a couple of boozy days over Christmas. Having not drank for a while I was looking forward to it, not sure my liver was though…