Lots of hills

Today we spent the whole day climbing, but not with a harness and rope. To cycle from Tak go Mae Sot, located right along the Myanmar border, we had to cross the Mountains. It would have been a stunning scenery, where it not for the heavy traffic and large trucks. It's an ugly road with lots of construction winding through beautiful forests and past two national parks. At the top, we enjoyed some great food at a hill tribe market and marveled at the people’s colorful clothing. While in Mae Sot Sera tried some other specialties: caterpillars and grasshoppers.

Mae Sot is a trading town, but unfortunately not only legal goods make their way across the border. Banners with dead and headless elephants as well as an explanation of the CITES treaty, make it clear that the smuggling of endangered animals and plants is taking place. The forest border area to the south of Mae Sot is one of the last areas where elephants, tigers, and tree species such as rosewood still exist. Hence closing down the illegal trading here is so very important.