Toronto-Star

Toronto-Star’s reviews

1. Chiang Mai Thailand –The lush green farm fields of northern Thailand are beautifully framed by the jagged Chang Dao mountains as we spin through northern Thailand on a seven-day cycling trek. People call out "Sa wa dee kha!" ("Hello!") as we pedal by. The many glittering Buddhist temples (wats) are awe-inspiring, but even more important: The food is mind-blowing. Together, we ride from the city of Chiang Mai, a cool enclave of art and culture, to the northern border that Thailand shares with Myanmar. Pedalling at 25 km/h (on flat terrain), I can stare into the hills in the distance, eyeball the cows grazing by the side of the road or wave back at the kid sitting on the back of a motorbike who squirms around to laugh and greet the silly tourist on a bike. Going downhill is another matter: reaching speeds upward of 40 km/h scares the hell out of me. At every sharp curve, a blast of cool mountain air, chilly as air conditioning, shocks me into giddy excitement. It's a thrill you can't get from walking or being shut in a car. Lunch is always a stop at a roadside noodle shop. At first, eating is just the fuel for our pedalling, but with each passing meal, invariably delicious, cycling becomes just the means to the end of having more food. Khao soy, a northern specialty, is egg noodles in a soupy, lightly curried sauce with chicken. Green papaya salad, in its native land, is a revelation, salty and fishy, with bits of crab, crushed peanuts and fragrant herbs. Plates of food leave me reeling with their complex flavours, while Thai snacks are about simple pleasures. Steamed sticky rice and coconut milk is a favourite, whether it comes wrapped in a banana leaf pocket, or stuffed into a rod of bamboo the length of my forearm. Every morsel is swoon-worthy, and the range of food so vast that I forego any Fear Factor bravado and pass on the fried insects and other unfamiliar delicacies available at every market. By the end of our trip, we have visited temples with grandeur that rivals any European cathedral. We've stayed in luxurious resorts, passed through an elephant conservation centre and marvelled at the traditional dances of hill tribes in the border region of the north. The whole trip was done at the right pace, the tempo over the 150-kilometre journey set by our pumping legs and growing appetites. (Hannah Sung, writing for the Toronto Star, March 2010)

   Toronto-Star reviewing Cycling Tour of North Thailand