I saw a huge sign advertising the national park saying waterfall 50km ahead. I stopped dead in my tracks and stared at Stephanie. "50km?!" She answers, "ya ba day" Burmese for "no worries." and she biked on. With a sigh (thinking to myself it is the Thai hot season, in the mid-day sun, with Steff's bike that constantly falls apart) I pedaled after her.At the base of the mountain, leading to the National Park, we came upon a Thai police check point. They just laughed at us
when they heard we were planning to bike the remaining 9km (vertical mind you) up the mountain to the waterfall. Anyone that knows Steff, knows she is stubborn as a mule and when she has a goal in her head there is no dissuading her. They refilled our bottles with ice cold water and with laughter and good wishes they sent us on our way. We made it just around the first bend out of sight of the Thai police and had to get off our bikes and begin walking. Steff kept saying we're only a few km away from swimming next to a nice beautiful waterfall and reminded us that we summited Mt Kili and how we could not let this "little mountain" get in our way. Two km later, with me getting dizzy and nearing heat exhaustion and even Steff admitting she was a little tired, we decided to postpone it for 
another day- perhaps taking a motorbike instead. Coming down the windy mountain was much more fun even though Steff's brakes were almost nonexistent. As we pedaled by the Thai police we tried to avoid their "I told you so looks."We refueled at a roasted chicken stand on the side of the road and had some nice watermelon from a local farmer. As we set off for home, it was getting dark and the wind picked up. We were a few km from home along the freeway and as we passed a home two dogs (steff described them as looking like two scheming teenagers) gave a knowing glance to each other and darted out after her.
She managed to keep her balance on her wobbly bike and not fall into the freeway traffic, but could not avoid one of the dogs latching on to her left butt check. Ouch. I yelled at the dogs scaring them away, but the damage had already been done. Steff's butt was already so sore from the bike ride she did 
not even know if it was a serious bite or not, she just knew it hurt.She tried to get out of going to the doctor (she had heard when she was a kid you had to get many shots in your stomach and it was really painful), but eventually decided to go. The doctors and nurses were really nice and the translation process went ok. She ended up with a couple shots of tetanus, and a few rabies vaccine shots in her butt. (the four other shots she needs to get over month are just in the arm). On the way home from the hospital, I asked "So was biking 90 km and getting a butt bite worth it?" She turned to me and without flinching said, "Yes!"
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