Another adventurous week to say the least. I left Umphang in search of Mae Wong national park. Mae Wong has been on my mind for the past three months, ever since reading about it in the Bangkok Post. They reportedly just added seventy kilometers of bike trails. Ahhh, to be on freshly-laid bike trails that have not been spoiled by others...
First, I had to get to Kampheng Phet, which serves as the closest big town to the park. Details on the park have been sketchy, getting there even sketchier. Eventually, someone was able to give me clear directions and even a map to get to the park, which is not too far away from town. I even got details about camping - no food but there are food stalls and restaurants in the nearby waterfall park in Klong Lan.
On the first night in Kampheng Phet, I had my first unfortunate battle with Thai food. As usual, I sought out the local food stand market in search for good eats at cheap prices. I found som tom (the spicy papaya salad), strawberry smoothie, chicken skewers with curry/peanut sauce, roasted duck with sweet-n-sour sauce, sliced pineapple and jelly-filled donut balls. Well, some demon grabbed ahold of the insides of my belly in the middle of the night (Friday, the 13th, I will add) and wouldn't let go after until many trips to the bathroom. It took me a whole day to rid myself of that demon.
When I was able to safely leave the confines of my hotel room, I roamed around the town. Just like Sukhothai, this was an area of an ancient Thai kingdom and many of its ruins still lay around town. (Photo to come later)
On Sunday, I departed for Mae Wong and Khlong Lan. Khlong Lan is only sixty kilometers away, so I packed the tent and a brought some clothes and camera equipment for the voyage (no bulky backpack this time ;). During the whole way, there was road contruction. This means for me that the shoulder was dug up, waiting for a new lane to be paved; or in other words, a two-foot drop if I should get bumped to the side.
Fortunately, this never happened. In fact, traffic was very light and I was making great time on the flat terrain. So great, that I actually missed the turnoff to the waterfalls and went another five kilometers to Mae Wong. The waterfalls looked nice, but even nicer was being able to camp alongside the stream that resulted from the waterfall.
When I checked out Mae Wong, the park ranger informed me that there weren't any new bike trails... only the road that goes up the mountain. Hmmmmph! I guess you can't believe everything that is printed in the paper. Since I was already here, though, I decided to go up the mountain until the sunshine got too hot to handle.
On the way back to the campsite, I decided to check out a few of the breaks in the forest alongside the road out of the park. The first turned out to be a bust, ending up in another ranger station. But the other break was a winner!
It was labled as a forest restoration project and began as a steep climb up uneven, rocky terrain. After pushing the bike up this (yeah, yeah, that's not really keeping it real), I saw a smooth dirt road created by a big bulldozer. I'm not sure what the real intention of the restoration is, maybe this was the new bike trail?!? If so, I haven't been on anything nicer in the country. The best thing about the trail was that the downhills were usually steep enough and the trail integrity was solid enough, that I didn't need to use my brakes. I would let gravity and momentum take me down the hill and up the next hill without even having to pedal. At one point, it felt as though I were on a roller coaster... until the end when the momentum took me over the first initial rocky hill from the road. As I was descending down this rocky road, my whole life wsa flashing before me... then I applied the brakes.
