Flipping Mongoose

Today was a rush, we went mountain biking for the day. A guide took about 8 of us up into the foothills in a truck and you attempt to ride down. Easy right? The routs are ridiculously steep, like you have to lean way behind the saddle just to stop yourself flipping over, Out of all 8 young able participants only one person didn't fall off. I was riding a hardtail mongoose that was too small for me (in Thailand it is pretty hard to get hold of a large sized bike, but this meant it was a pretty unstable ride. The brakes here are the other way round too so it takes that extra split second to remind yourself which is your back brake. The trail itself was full of loose rocks and ledges 3 foot high in places. When I signed up for this I figured how hard could It be I have mountain biked in the UK, but I was in way over my head. Sometimes the guide would take us of the main track into a even steeper one where you had to contend with branches, rivers and tree roots too, this is where I took my first major fall. I think I must have been slightly leaning forward because on this particularly steep and narrow trail I hit a root and went straight over the handle bars, its one of those things that happens in slow motion because I remember still holding the breaks in a attempt to slow myself down, pointless of course because both wheels where in the air. I fell onto a log, a rotten one luckily that now has a human sized dent in it.

As you can imagine we had to stop pretty often for people falling off or people struggling on the punishingly steep uphills, but when we got going the guide was so quick to keep up with him my vision went blurry as I tried to analysis what rocks and grooves to transverse at speed. In another spot I hit a tree stump that wasn't going anywhere and I went over those bars yet again, I got a nice gash on my ankle this time because this time the bike followed me where I landed. The bike was in a bit of a state too, the back brake had been damaged. With only a front break I did pretty well only falling off one more time before the guide could fix it and my leg. At this point I wasnt so much riding my bike, I was falling down the mountain with style. There was only jungle route I didn't try, towards the end, the guide said it was the toughest one so without getting seriously injured after 3 falls I didn't want to push my luck, besides it turned out everyone except the guide walked their bikes out of it. At one point we stopped to have some fresh coffee that is grown all around the outdoor cafe, that was nice.

The trail leveled out at a lake where we sat in huts above the water and had lunch. This mountain biking had been such a adrenaline rush. In the evening we went out to a fancy restaurant called The Gallery, naturally I chose the cheapest food on the menu, but the meal was damn tasty. With full stomachs we walked to a local stadium to watch the tail end of a Mai Thai fight, these guys are vicious, and they just look like normal people. Next up we sat round a moving bar that had bicycle seats all the way round had a few drinks there and carried on to a club with some Irish girls. I don't remember too much after that apart from being chased by dogs on the way home.