Amazing Thailand

Biking across Northern Thailand- Part 1

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What was supposed to be a 400km ride turned out to be a late night biking expedition covering 530kms, as we rode 60+kms in wrong direction. All was well till noon, when we stopped for lunch at Mae Sariang. Post lunch, we should have taken Route 105, instead we continued on Route 108. A few display said this road heads to Chiang Mai and that didn’t ring a bell to any of us. Only later, our pilot Sumon pulled over, cross checked his map, consulted our support team (who had take right turn) and decided that we need to go back. Without a whim we rode back all the way to  the city where we had lunch. We should have added another 200 curves to our count by then,  because of this extra ride.

It was evening by now and we still had another 230kms to cover. We fuelled up and began riding, this time in the right direction.
Soon it became darker and suddenly, we found ourselves on dirt track. This feels like India- we told ourselves. Our speed dropped to single digit and we negotiated the bad road slowly, maintaining gap between bikes to let the dust settle. We were very close to Burma border, with our road running parallel to it. There were hardly any vehicles other than hours and there were no lights or shops or anything else. Pitch dark, deep forest and 100 more kms to go.

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Biking across Thailand – Bridge over the river kwai

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After our brief encounter with wild cats concluded, we headed to River Kwai bridge. River Kwai bridge was constructed under Japanese command during world war 2, to enable Japanese troops to cross across Thailand to Burma and eventually India. Thousands of PoW (Prisoners of wars) were deployed for construction work, without adequate food, rest or medical care. This resulted in deaths in thousands and being alive for one more day was a luxury at that time. Our generation isn’t really exposed to such life and death hardships and all we complain about is traffic, high fuel prices and slow internet. But life back then was very different. A visit to the museum and war memorial will remind us of harsh realities of life in the times of war. River Kwai bridge stands as a testimony to the fact that thousands had to die to satisfy greed of few emperors. The movie by its name, which was pictured in Srilanka has made this bridge immortal.

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Self-Drive trip across Thailand (7 days, 2000 kms) : Part 6 – Chiang Mai

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We also spend some time in a fantastic session called ‘Chat with Monks’. This particular wat, which is also a training facility for the young monks, offers tourists an opportunity to interact informally with the monks. There is a common area where the tourist group is met by one of the waiting monks. You can sit with him and discuss anything related to Monks/ Buddhism/ Thailand or any other topic of interest. Well, to answer the ‘why’ of it – such interactions enable the monks to practise spoken English as also widening their knowledge base and the tourists, of course gather valuable insight.

A good & handy source of drinking water is the vending machines placed at common areas. Though bottled water is available across Thailand costing B15 – B30 or more depending on when and where you buy them; these vending machines (working on coin system) offer you potable water @ B1 (one bhat) for a litre.

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