Being the attentive, supportive kind of person I am, the first thing I did when I heard that Kylie had another scary dentist’s appointment was to sign myself up for a whole day of mountain biking.

After dithering about which route would be a suitable difficulty for me, I opted for one of the intermediate downhill routes. It turned out to be just about right – although I confess to wimping out of a couple of the more ‘interesting’ sections.

I can thoroughly recommend Mountain Biking Chiang Mai – they’re very professional and great fun too! Here’s some highlights from my day:

• You get driven right to the top of the mountain. The road goes from wide and smooth to very narrow and bumpy as you ascend right up into the clouds. Its actually quite chilly at the top!
• One of the guides was slightly injured from his Muay Thai fight the night before. I guess he just needs a nice relaxing hobby in the evenings to help him unwind after biking all day…
• Apart from the guide and I, there was one other person doing my route: a Dutch chap who’d just emerged from 17 days of meditation at the local temple! Needless to say, he was pretty chilled…
• Our guide proudly told us he uses the same bike each day and does his own maintenace. We politely kept quiet as he then stopped three times along the way to fix problems with his bike!
• We discussed how men and women and, most importantly, ladyboys say hello.
• I only had one minor ‘parting’ from my bike. But nobody saw – so it doesn’t really count.
• Our guide, on the otherhand, did a full-on superman impression at one point!
• 35km of downhill tracks. Lots of rocks, roots, mud, ruts and other entertaining features.
• At the bottom you end up at a big lake where I tried to calm down (it really gets your heart beating!) while demolishing our green curry lunch.

First stop – a coffee farm that served up its own fresh coffee.