The stay at the Cave Lodge was lovely. The soothing sounds of the wilderness, the extreme chill during the night and a planned late start to the day’s ride meant I had a good night’s rest.
Since we had only 52km with only one major climb for the day on the menu, we had a leisurely breakfast at the Cave Lodge and left a little before 9am. Even at that time, the initial kilometers felt quite chilly.
After riding through the initial 6km, we stopped at a local coffee roaster’s place called Flying Turtle cafe, for a coffee tasting and buying coffee beans. A Thai lady and her Canadian husband run the place. They not only make great coffee but also sell their own brand of organic coffee beans of various roasts.
After the coffee tasting was done, we rode on to negotiate the big climb of the day towards Pai.
The climb to Kiew Lom view point is a 10km 7% climb with a few kickers leading up to the actual climb. The day’s major chunk of elevation gain comes from that climb and rest accumulates over the remainder of the distance.
I began climbing at a very moderate effort trying to pace myself for the long climb ahead. It was difficult to keep the effort moderate on the steep sections that made us use all the gears we had and also all the cycling muscles.
I was climbing with Ravi Kiran at the start of the climb and a couple of times I went past him, I saw him accelerate ahead and go past me. I smiled and thought to myself that it is not a very smart thing to do at the start of a long climb.
An even pacing without needless expenditure of energy with accelerations etc is always a smart way to tackle long efforts. One needs to go at their own pace and not get drawn into following others unless your effort levels and pacing strategies match.
I kept to my pacing and eventually went ahead on a steep section as Ravi did not have enough gearing to deal with that steepness.
Every time I hit a steep section on this trip, which is way too many times, I thank my 36 cassette and keep plugging away at it. There were quite a few very short sections that were way too steep on this climb too. I needed all the gears I had for those bits.
After chipping away at the elevation, one vertical meter at a time, I made it to the top of the climb. It was satisfying to tick off another major climb on this challenging tour. We have covered nearly 11,000m of elevation gain already and would go past 12,000m after the last day’s ride.
We spent soaking in the sun at the Kiew Lom cafe and taking pictures. We saw a couple of riders on folding bikes doing the same climb from the Pai side and going the way we came from. They are apparently doing the Mae Hong Son loop as well.
We descended towards Pai quickly. Even at noon with tree cover, the first half of the descent felt cold. We quickly made it to Pai and stopped for lunch at a restaurant called LongBeer.
Our stay for the day, Pai My Guest Resort, was 2km away from our lunch spot. We rode there after lunch, freshened up and rested a bit. Around 4:30pm we took the bus to visit a hot springs pool.
After the hot springs pool, we made our way to a very popular sunset viewing spot and cafe called Two Huts.
The place was buzzing with activity by the time we got there. Live music was playing, the visitors, most of whom looked European, day with their food and drinks to enjoy the music and the fantastic view of the sunset.
After having spent most of the evening enjoying the sunset at Two Huts, we took the bus back to Pai Downton for the night market for a bit of shopping and dinner.
That was a packed and super fun day!
What’s Ahead?
Today is the last day of the tour. It’s 129km from Pai to Chiang Mai. The first part of the ride is full of climbs and descents with the last 50km is flattish to Chiang Mai. We should see another 1500-2000m elevation gain today to complete well over 12000m for the tour.
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Day 2: Mae Chaem to Mae Sariang!
Day 3&4 Mae Sariang to Khun Yuam