Day 26

Today is a run day, however the Chiang Mai Marathon is tonight, start time 1:00am, so not wanting to do a double run, I decided to spend my day hiking the Monk's Trail. I had not been on the trail before today and so I drew a map of how to get there, deciding on a route which took me past the Pharmacy Gardens, through the CMU campus, and then past the zoo entrance. I had a bit of a hitch when I reached the end of Chiang Rai rd I was supposed to turn left, but there was only one way to go, which was right, so I went that way and after a 1/4 mile decided I was on the wrong road, turned around and looked at the dead end, which was a locked gate, however, the gate could be pushed wide enough for a person to squeeze through, so I entered and turned left, passed some food stalls which appeared to be in the middle of nowhere, then saw a road leading up the mountain, but I was unsure if that was the correct way because my map ended after the gate. I stopped to ponder, and saw two westerners on bikes stopped 20m away. I thought about approaching to ask, but decided against it. But then one of the bikers started pedaling towards me and then slowed down to a stop a few feet away from me, so I figured it was correct to ask and he directed me to the zoo, up the mountain, and to "look for the parking lot with lots of cars". After a very steep hike up the road, I reached the parking lot and then the fun began -

 

After resting a bit at the forest temple, I headed down the mountain and did not reach home until 2:00pm. Total hike distance appeared to be 7-8 miles. I was famished, ate a lunch, and then fell asleep from 7:00pm-11:30pm.