The real Thailand, via two-wheels, leave the Bangkok bustle behind and pedal your way past rice paddies and Buddhist temples

Sri Lanna National Park in Thailand - For too many tourists, a visit to Thailand means bars on the beach blasting Bob Marley music, or falling prey to the Bangkok touts who dupe visitors into buying fake gems or overpriced tailored clothes. But there's another way to see Thailand that is far more authentic while at the same time extremely unlike the typical Thai experience, namely a trip where you bicycle and snack your way past rice paddies and Buddhist temples, through jungles and farming villages, up steep mountains and around Thailand's verdant lakes.

I feel like someone who has been tricked into doing something very exhausting, joked Dhana Kucivilize, a 33-year-old Thai businessman, after the first leg of a three-day 125-mile bicycle trip organized by the Thai Cycling Club. But with plenty of rest stops and hourly munching thrown in, Dhana, who normally prefers motorcycles, admitted he would do it again.

The club's monthly trips may be one of the best and most affordable ways for foreigners to glimpse the Thai way of life. With the TCC, there's always good food. We always eat well, said Bob Usher, a fit 74-year-old Briton who has lived in Thailand off and on since the 1950s and often joins the biking trips.

I joined Usher and about 40 Thai men and women ranging in age from 22 to 74 on the trip in Chiang Rai province in northern Thailand. Some were avid bikers and regulars on the trips in Thailand like Usher, but all had a common goal, to escape to off-the-beaten-path, biking in Thailand.

We paid a grand total of 2,000 Baht (US$ 53) for the bicycle trip. The price included an overnight 435-mile bus ride from the capital Bangkok to Chiang Rai in Northern Thailand, a double-decker truck for our bikes, basic accommodations at national park facilities or campsites in Thailand, and Thai food for dinner every night. For the other meals, we snacked as we biked, an average of 30 miles a day on paved roads and dirt paths.

After kicking off the trip with the long bus ride and a quick breakfast in a small town, we set off into the mountains of Sri Lanna National Park, biking six miles past rice paddies and jungles, then made a rest stop for mangoes and pickled garlic bulbs.

Another 6 miles up and down the foothills of the mountains, then a bowl of noodles. 6 miles more through villages and past waving children we arrived at a longan farm, where we ate as much of the fruit as we wanted, for 25 cents a person.

Flexible Itineraries:
The way the biking trips are organized is very Thai, said Usher, the only Westerner on the trip not counting me, a Thai American. In addition to the food stops, we took breaks to photograph Thai farmers working in rice paddies, to chat with children in the remote villages, and to take dips in the spring-fed Bua-Tong Waterfall. Swimming was done the Thai way: Men wear shorts, but women stay clothed.

The bicycle trip was also a way to meet an interesting cross-section of Thais. The group included two 40-something businesswomen; a hard-core cyclist exuding an air of Buddha-like serenity and a potbellied 74-year-old who occasionally took a break from the biking by hopping a ride in the truck that always accompanied us.

Our stops included an ornate Buddhist temple on top of a hill, with a clear view of palm trees, rice paddies and mountains, and an eerie, ramshackle monastery deep in the jungle of Thailand, where a monk has been living alone for a few decades.

Then after a meal of fresh fish, we hauled our bicycles onto a boat and crossed the reservoir created by the Mae Ngad Somboonchol Dam and resumed the trip by biking up yet another mountain.

Some Biking Tour Details:

Prices:
The Thailand Cycling Club organizes free day biking trips around Bangkok as well as modestly priced out-of-town bicycle excursions ranging from 2 to 4 days, covering a different destination every month. A 4r-day trip costs 2,000 Baht (US$ 53), including bus transportation from Bangkok to the start of the biking journey.

The biking trip begins in Bangkok, and the club can recommend local stores that rent relatively new mountain bikes for about 350 Baht (US$ 9) per day.

Contact:
Thailand Cycling Club can be reached in Bangkok at +66 2 612-4747.
For details in English, call Bob Usher at +66 1 555-2901.