Chiang Mai Bike Tour

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The next morning, it's time to get up early again. We have an appointment with "Whit". He takes us by car to a bike station just outside the city. This station is owned by a Dutchman who emigrated to Thailand 15 years ago. Judging by his appearance, probably for the good food. 😂
Our group consists of seven bike enthusiasts. A couple from Manchester, a couple from the Netherlands, a couple from Germany 😜. We are asked if we want to wear a bike helmet. Of course, we don't want to. For me, there is nothing more beautiful than to move freely in a foreign country. We already experienced yesterday in the city that there are more liberal rules here than in Germany. Driving a scooter without a helmet, overloaded with four people where only two should fit, and women sitting on the back of the scooter like on a horse. Of course, without lights. All no problem. 😉 So, instead of a helmet, we decide on a beautiful, blue city bike with a low entry, wide tires, and no bell. 🛎️ After all, appearance is everything. 😜Now we're off. The first 2 kilometers we still ride on the road and we still have to get used to driving on the left. Then we ride through nature, past banana and 🥭 mango plantations, simple villages, and temples, because they are just as essential as churches in Germany. In Thailand, it is possible for anyone to take the "career" of a monk. Even if you come as a foreigner from abroad. We now reach a typical farm. Here, roosters are trained for cockfights much to our dismay. The Thais place high bets on these fights. We quickly move on because the temperatures are rising. In the early morning hours, it was still pleasantly cool at 25 degrees, but now we have already reached 35 degrees. Our next stop is a bakery. Here, baking is still done traditionally by hand. No wonder. The women receive a monthly salary of around €200 for 10 hours of work a day. We can now try a kind of "Schillerlocke". Heavenly after the exertion. We have to imagine the cappuccino to go with it.We now ride along rice fields. Jasmine rice 🌾 is still planted by hand and harvested with machines after 4 months. It is the first time for me to see a rice plant up close. The nature we explore with our bikes is very diverse, sometimes appearing exotic and then again very barren and desolate. Farmers in Thailand do not pay taxes to the government, and there is no retirement system for all Thais as we know it in Germany. People basically work until they pass away. The farmer whose fields we visit and who still works them with his own hands is already of advanced age. We meet him smiling and smoking a cigar made of banana leaves on his veranda. He actually looks younger than 89 years. 😬 I have great respect for him, as I cultivate a garden myself and know how hard that work is. I can't even imagine having to do that in this heat. The price for 1 kilo of kohlrabi is only about 20 baht at the local markets. That's approximately €0.50. 😕 No wonder the younger generation can no longer identify with this work and fields are sold to construction companies after the farmers pass away. Residential developments are then built on them.Our bike tour ends and we are richer for the experience.
Our life in Germany is much easier and more comfortable than in Thailand. So, we can consider ourselves very lucky.