The next morning, we had planned to leave Chiang Mai and possibly head north, but since we'd had so much fun in town so far and really enjoyed the relaxed and fun atmosphere, we decided to book in to Green Tulip in our penthouse room for a couple more nights. We were also feeling rather tired after our busy day (and night) and thought we could do with a day relaxing.

Our only real plan for the day was to arrange some mountain biking for the next day, but just after breakfast we bumped into Jen, the American girl from our trek. She mentioned going to see Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, the famous temple on the hill high above Chiang Mai. We hadn't thought about visiting the temple, but deciding it sounded like a good thing to do on a lazy day we said we'd go with her. We arranged with Nine, the lady at the hostel, for her husband to drive us up in his Fast and Furious-style pimped out Honda Civic for a reasonable fee.

We were soon on our way through town and then cruising up the steep, serpentine road winding up the mountainside behind the city. After some 40 minutes we arrived at the entrance to the temple, which was surrounded by food carts and Thai people as it was a local holiday. We made our way up some steps and bought a ticket to the temple, which included a ticket for a cable car to take us the last part of the way up the hill to the temple. We hopped on the cable car and were soon up at the temple. When we saw the stairs we would have had to climb up to get to the temple, we were glad we'd opted for the lazy option in the heat.

We walked around the tiled area around the temple, which from the outside seemed to be the usual ornately naga-adorned, gold painted affair. We saw the statue of the white elephant which supposedly chose the site for the temple after wandering for ages through the countryside. That elephant certainly had a good eye for a great view, as we enjoyed the fantastic view back down the mountainside to Chiang Mai far below. Seeing the setting of the town, among the lush jungle-covered mountains, gave us a proper sense of perspective and of where we actually were. After circumnavigating the temple, we kicked off our shoes and went into the main temple building, where the gold-painted-ness was turned up to 11. A huge stupa in the middle of the courtyard in the temple blindingly reflected the sun, and the shining tiles and gilded facades of the various buildings surrounding it made us glad of our sunglasses. It was fun to walk around though, and was definitely one of the better maintained temples we had visited, looking particularly resplendent in the cloudless sunshine of the day.

After looking around the temple, we grabbed an iced coffee, Lucy managing to suck a full mouthful of solid coffee grains up her straw somehow, then we walked back down the long, long staircase to the base of the temple, admiring the green-and-yellow scaled naga bodies which made the banisters. At the bottom we found our way to our taxi driver and cruised back down to town and to the guesthouse.

Lucy wasn't feeling great at this point, due to the the coffee she had inhaled, so nipped upstairs for a lie down. I followed after her to relax for a a bit, then we headed downstairs, catching Jen to say goodbye just before she left to catch a flight. We went for a walk through town then, checking out the mountain biking place on the way to see what the options were, and to get some food. Feeling like some western food we opted for an Italian-looking place and ordered some pizza and pasta. The food wasn't bad but wasn't great.

After eating we just went back to the guesthouse, booked our mountain biking for the next day, opting for a 'beginner' level trail which still sounded like great fun, and relaxed for the rest of the evening. We also booked our onward transport for a couple of days down the line, into Laos.

After an early night we got up, got a bag sorted out with stuff, wolfed down our included breakfast of toast and jam with a cup of tea, then headed up the road a short distance to the mountain biking place. After getting kitted out with a riding top, helmet and pads, we hopped in the back of another sawngthaew with a few other guys who were taking on a more demanding trail. The pick-up, with our bikes strapped on top, headed out of town and up the winding road we'd taken to the temple the day before. Sitting sideways in the pick-up on the winding road didn't make me feel too great, so I sat with my head hanging out in the breeze most of the way, like an excited dog.

We passed the temple and continued up a narrow, even more winding road through dense jungle before eventually reaching the start of our cycling trail, at about 5,400 ft. After setting up the bikes and getting a quick briefing, we were introduced to our guide, a smiley guy called Tak, before starting the first part of our ride, down a fairly steep, mossy road twisting through the jungle then onto a rough dirt road before popping out a small hut perched on a hillside. The first off-road part was a bit more adventurous than I would have imagined for a 'beginner' level trail, and though I enjoyed it I was a bit worried for Lucy, but she was getting on great.

The hut on the hillside was actually a little coffee shop on stilts above a coffee plantation on the hillside below, where we stopped for a quick drink and a snack before carrying on. I had a taste of the local coffee but not a whole cup as I knew the coffee was pretty strong and didn't want any ill effects on the ride.

From the coffee shop we had a small climb up a dirt track, before cruising along for a while and eventually reaching a small village along the track, home to some local people of the Hmong tribe. This was the start of our descent proper, and where the track got fairly gnarly. We set off down the steep, rutted dirt track from the village, with Tak and I soon quite far ahead of Lucy. We stopped every so often to let her catch up, and when I looked back and saw how steep and rough the track was, I was always really impressed that she managed to ride the sections she did. I got chatting to Tak while we waited, as he was a really nice guy, and it was good to learn a bit more about local life from a local.

At one point when Lucy caught up, she was dirtied and a bit sore from a fall but told us she was fine to continue, which we did at a slightly slower pace. No matter what the pace, I loved coming down the steep track surrounded by jungle, with glimpses through the trees of thousands of feet of green hillside below and Chiang Mai stretched out over the valley floor far below. At one point we stopped for a break with a breathtaking view over the area, and Tak pointed out three huge trees far far below us, telling us to remember them for later.

The next part of the track was supposedly the toughest, so Tak told me to go on ahead and he would stay with Lucy, which she was also happy with. I set off and soon rounded a corner to find myself tackling a massively rutted dirt track strewn with big rocks. The terrain was actually really similar to that at home on hill tracks which have been eroded a lot by rain, leaving deep, rock filled ruts which you have to zig zag back and forth over, picking the smoothest line. It had been ages since I'd ridden a bike properly so I relished the opportunity, and picked my way down the slope, splashing through a river crossing to wait beside a hut for Lucy and Tak to catch up.

They weren't too far behind, though Lucy had walked down most of the section which was perfectly understandable as it was definitely beyond a beginner level of riding. Once reunited, we stuck together down the next section of track which undulated along the hillside, slowly descending until we reached some more steep sections. At these steeper sections, Tak directed me to short runs of singletrack off the main dirt road, which I took on as he guided Lucy down the dirt track. I would pick my way through the rooty, jungle singletrack then pop out on the dirt road a little further down to meet them. In this fashion, we made the last part of the descent, with Lucy doing an incredible job of taking on the trails, far harder than what most novice riders would do, even though she was dragging her feet along the ground most of the time!

Eventually the track levelled out and we found ourselves at the end of our descent. We popped out from jungle onto a dirt road beside some beautiful lush rice paddies, backed by the towering mountains we had just descended. Looking way up the hillside, we could see the big trees from earlier, now way way above us. It really gave us a sense of how far we had descended, which only made me more impressed with Lucy for taking it all on.

We cycled along the road beside the paddies then onto a paved road and a short distance alongside a lake until we reached the end of our ride, on the shore of the lake. Here, we found the other guys who had taken the other route, and joined them for lunch in a little hut on stilts over the lake. Before lunch, Lucy and I went for a splash in the lake to cool off, though the water was almost as warm as the air until a metre or so under the surface.

After a tasty lunch of red curry and rice, we got back into the pick-up and drove back to town. Because we were staying just down the road from the biking place, we didn't need to hang around for a lift like the other guys so we said thanks to Tak and made our way back to Green Tulip for a much-needed shower.

After a shower, and with Lucy feeling her cuts and scrapes from her falls on the bike, we decided to treat ourselves to another massage, so set off into town. When we left the guesthouse we couldn't believe our eyes as all the main streets of the old town were completely transformed, full of market stalls and teeming with people, mostly Thai, meandering through them browsing the clothes, souvenirs, food, art and jewellery all on show. We made our way through the throng to the same massage place we had visited with Simone and Kai, and had a back neck and shoulder massage which turned out to be much the same as the full body Thai massage, though with slightly more emphasis on the back and neck. It was really relaxing though, and we left feeling good if a little sore.

From there we wandered the streets of the weekend market, at an incredibly slow pace dictated by the solid mass of people moving in front of us, but enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of the market. On the way back to the guesthouse, we made a detour through the grounds of one of the many temples in the town, which had been turned into a food court with loads of different stalls selling various foods. We decided to try some of the tiny fried quails eggs we had seen at so many stalls, getting a tub of 10 freshly-fried mini eggs which were delicious, and also a salad of a kind of fried curry-rice-cake chopped up with herbs and spices with nuts. It was also tasty, but not enough to satisfy us so we finished off with some sticky rice and fresh mango covered in coconut milk. Yum.

We then inched our way back through the market, eventually reaching Green Tulip and sorting out our things for leaving the next morning before getting off to bed.