Bicycles and buddhas

This is Michel from Holland.

He has become a good friend from the gang at Pun Pun and recommended this guest house to me, where he is staying too. He travels widely for fun and does simple, enjoyable things he loves like working at farms and learning yoga. Proof that you don't need to be rich to be happy. Just live simple, want just enough, be gracious and smile.

Michel has traveled all over the region, and the world but likes to call Chiang Mai and Pun Pun home most winters. Right now he is studying traditional Thai massage here in Chiang Mai and training for a long distance cycling trip later this month through Thailand south through the Malay Peninsula, where I might meet him again later.

We spent the morning mountain biking with Krit, our amazingly kind friend and owner of the tiny family guest house we are staying, MoreRelax. Seriously, this place is more relaxed than anything here. I feel like I'm in some zen garden, instead of the motorbike choked streets of the old city.

We had a great time cycling around the base of Doi Inthanon and it felt good to work up a sweat instead of being on the motorbike. The highlight of the trip was heading up a low mountainside to a local temple, and predictably there was an enormous Buddha on the top looking down. Top it off with lunch at Pun Pun resturant behind Wat Suan Dok temple on the way back and it was the perfect Sunday morning adventure.