In January of 2008, I had the good fortune to tag along with my friend Julian's planned trip to Thailand. Our greatest stroke of good fortune was on the trip from Narita to Bangkok. Julian arrived first and was moved from our scheduled flight to one an hour earlier. The subtext seemed to be an expected delay on our original flight. Once he was checked in that permitted me to jump the queue and also move to the earlier flight. Without that, we might have been stuck in Narita for a day! Above is Julian having the ANA services carefully bubble-wrap his bike.
Once in Chiang Mai, we had a generally delightful trip. Our hotel was close to the airport and we could leave bike boxes in storage for our return. Leaving town along the river was painless and scenic. The only hint of issues to come was in the first steep slopes of the national park to Doi Inthanon (Thailand's highest peak), particularly the broken fanbelts of overstrained pickups lining the shoulder of the road. The eco-huts in the park were basic accomodation but the coconut chicken soup at the restaurant defies description, utter pleasure. The peak was ridiculous: if you love 15% grades it was fine but we did not see many other cyclists for good reason.
It is hard to describe the whole trip, but apart from steep grades we did not have the slightest problem the entire week. No flat tires, no aggressive drivers, pleasant people, beatiful weather and scenery. A lot to recommend a trip in early January.
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