Thailand

After traveling to 15 different countries on our bike tour, we finally arrived in Thailand. We were excited to experience the unique culture and beauty of this country.
 

Our first challenge in Bangkok was to transport our two bike boxes and our extra luggage to the next "Skyline" train station. We didn't want to take a taxi as it was too expensive. So, we decided to manage it ourselves. We successfully brought everything to the train station and onto the train, arriving at the nearest station to our hostel. We reassembled our bikes and rode the rest of the way.

For me (Jan), it was my first time in Thailand, and also the first time I had to ride on the left side of the road, which was challenging at the beginning. However, for Iris, who has visited Thailand many times and has a Thai driver's license, riding on the left side of the road was no problem. We stayed in Bangkok for four days, which was a short amount of time to explore such a big city.

I (Jan) fell in love with Bangkok at first sight and we knew that we would be back soon to discover the rest of the city, after we visited Laos. We also decided to take a little break from bike touring and work on our project, "Cycling for Society," as we had a big backlog to catch up on. Iris found a nice place next to Chiang Mai, which was 20km away, to stay. So, we started to ride north to Chiang Mai to our "working place." The guesthouse where we stayed is owned by a very nice family, which made our stay feel like home.

We wanted to stay for a month, but ended up staying for another week as our workload demanded it but also because of this beautiful place and family. Along the way from Bangkok to Chiang Mai, we camped at temples, national parks, and rice fields. We even visited hot springs, which were a fantastic experience. Wild camping is not easy here as most of the land is owned by someone, but we still managed to find some wild camping spots. Thailand is a beautiful and easy country for bike touring in comparison to the other countries we visited. Food and water are easy to access, basically behind every corner you can find a small stall that offers something to eat. We enjoyed every moment of it.

Overall, our trip to Thailand was unforgettable. Unfortunately, Thailand is the last country of our journey and soon we will be back home. But even though our travels have come to an end, our project has just started to grow, and we have ideas we want to implement in Berlin, which is the most important part of our journey.