Day 8: Lampang to Chiang Mai

Distance biked: 100.22 kms / 62.28 miles
Time on the road: 4:58
Total Distance biked: 790.86 kms / 491.42 miles
Total time on the road: 38:54

The Riverside Guesthouse was a beautifully designed and decorated place owned by a friendly Belgian woman. The rooms were comfortable and no shoes were allowed to be worn inside because the building was made of rich, dark teakwood and is easily damaged. I went to bed that night looking forward to a good night's sleep. Unfortunately, just as I was dozing off a dog started barking right under my open window at about 10:30PM. I lay there patiently waiting for the owner to come out and take care of the situation. Half an hour later the dog was still barking (and barking constantly) so I stuck my head out of the window and "shushed" into the darkness. Silence. Then more barking. Frustrated I went back to my bed thinking "How am I going to get enough sleep? Why doesn't someone come out and do something about it?"

At midnight, after an hour and a half of non-stop barking I was exhausted and, not thinking rationally, stuck my head out the window and yelled "WILL YOU SHUT UP?!?" The dog kept on barking. Exasperated, I went downstairs and found that the owner was awake (probably wondering why the American was yelling out of his window at midnight) and I asked her if she could do something about the dog next door. She went outside the property and "shushed" at the dog too. Now three dogs started barking. She offered to move me to another room further from the dog. I gladly accepted and at around 1AM I finally drifted off to sleep to the distant sound of barking.

After lacking the strength to make it smoothly up the previous day's hills I chose to get a bit of a late start. At the guesthouse I ordered the American Breakfast of eggs, toast, croissant, coffee and freshly squeezed orange juice. It was pretty filling and, taking a few photos of the place before leaving, I got my things together and started back up highway 11 which would bring me to Chiang Mai.

The ride to Chiang Mai was pretty straightforward - a few hills here and there for the first 50 kilometers but nothing like the day before. The last 50 kilometers were as flat and straight as the southern plains were earlier in my trip. I got into Chiang Mai around 4:30PM, found the "Your House Guesthouse" where Megan stayed a week earlier, and booked a room for 3 nights. I had a feeling I'd need to rest for a few days before attempting to take on the ride up to Chiang Rai. From my map it looked hillier than anything I had experienced so far.

But for the time being I was comfortable and had a nice place to stay. I ordered a full dinner at the guesthouse and had a Singha beer to celebrate the completion of the next-to-last leg of the journey and called it an early night.