A cycling guide’s worst nightmare…

It’s day 2 of our Tribal Trekking group. We are much happier with this group than our last one as it only has 5 students compared to the 16 we had on the previous trip. We have just got our bikes and are ready to go out for a warm up ride. The next two days will be long, strenuous days and we wanted to make sure the students would be ready for it. We already knew that on our first day of cycling, we would start by going straight up a steep incline for several miles. This would be made worse by the fact that we had to take a boat across a lake with the bikes to even get to it. This means no support vehicle and no bailing for the first part of the ride. It also would be the hardest stretch of the whole ride.

Because of all of this, we took a warm up ride that climbed a steep road to the top of a mountain where a temple and an enormous Buddha sit. This is a very popular ride in Chiang Mai and it was packed with other cyclists. It started out great as we rode past rice patties towards the start of the climb. Slowly the road started getting steeper and one girl kept getting slower and slower. Soon, she could not power the bike up the incline anymore and just fell over.

She had not been on a bike much before and didn’t really know how to shift gears, balance at slow speeds, or how to wind up a hill well. This would all be fine except that Brooke and I knew what was in store the next day and what a disaster it could be. Every time the girl fell of the bike it was harder to get started again. The road was getting steeper and there was no way to build up momentum to start. I would hold up her bike and run behind her pushing the bike until she got enough speed. I would watch her ride off like a proud parent who has just taught their daughter how to ride a two-wheeler for the first time only to watch her fall again, and have to start the whole process over again.

Needless to say, this 15 year girl was quite embarrassed that both of her guides had to stay back with her and teach her how to ride her bike up the hill. Especially because she knew what she had to ride over the next couple of days.

That night, Brooke and I were both worried about what was going to happen the following day and were anxious to get out on the road. In addition to the girl that couldn’t ride the bike, we had a sick girl who really wanted to attempt riding even though she was feeling terrible and couldn’t keep any food or water down.

We took off over the lake, still anxious, with all five students and our bikes. The hill was tough coming off the water and heading straight up into the mountains. We dreaded what was to come, and started up the hill. Surprisingly, the girl who couldn’t ride her bike the day before was pushing through. She and the others were weaving up the hill like a snake and conquering the hill with high spirits. The sick girl was right in there with the group as well, pushing up the hill. It was an amazing turn around from the day before and was a great start to what would be an amazing journey by bicycle, foot and raft across the entire Northwest portion of Thailand.

written by

brookejason on August 14, 2009 from Chiang Mai, Thailand

from the travel blog: Thailand 2009

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