Day 103 – Mueang Nan to Chiang Muan, Phayao
This was our hardest day ever, only 70kms but 1,620m of grade that was too steep for us to cycle up in parts. Plus we didn’t eat breakfast before we left the town. The total travel time was 8 hours. We usually cover 120km in this amount of time, but today was long hard work.
It was (a) slow (b) hard and also very hilly in a short space. I think it was 50% more hillier than our previous hilliest day, and 50% shorter. So you can image how many hills that was for us. Our bicycle is too heavy on steep grades, we have too much shit, electronics, lard and not enough legs, muscles and power 🙁
We pushed the bike up to the peak of many hills. We both had pretty bad headaches around the 50km mark. We ate some bananas for late breakfast at around 25kms. So, basically, fucking hills!
This made me more worried about the hills in Mae Hong Sod area. The rear brakes stopped working on the two really big downhills we encountered, but came back after a ‘cooling off period.’ I need to Google or talk to my mechanic about why this happened and what I have to do to fix/stop it. The brakes got softer, and then a little softer, and then they were completely gone.
We found a hotel, a dodgy love hotel owned by the Mayor. Why do the mayors always own love hotels? The plan is tomorrow Phayao proper, but I think we might split it into two days and make it easier, both of our legs need some time off.
We spent 3 nights in Nan, loved the place, loved meeting Jan and Tu. I hope we see them again soon, maybe in slow season. They planted their own rice organically. I would like to know more about these type of projects since I am thinking of building my own mud brick house someday. I really want one.
I like the idea of what Jan and Tu are doing with their lives.
