Hard Days, Easy Days

So, my second day in was a struggle. It was quite honestly one of the toughest days I have ever had in the saddle. It ended up being 68 miles with 3800 feet of climbing, far from one of my hardest days on paper, but by the time I was doing the last mountain stretch of three, I was wrecked. I think I was on the verge of heat exhaustion, needing to eat but food made me want to puke, not enough saliva to properly digest, feeling my heart in my chest, light-headed, generally feeling unable to cool down even pulling over time and again into the shade. I don't know that I have ever felt quite so much like my body was failing to be and do what it needed to. I made some major mistakes, not leaving Wichai's as soon as I should have to capitalize on the relatively cool morning, not making myself eat enough before it felt like a struggle, underestimating the way the 80% humidity affected the 90° heat, not knowing quite how much I would be climbing... Having experience doesn't always mean you won't make dumb mistakes, sometimes I think it makes it more likely because you get too confident you know what you're doing. I got through it and learned some lessons, and that's what counts.

Struggling and feeling awfully dominated a lot of the day, but it still had some highlights. I took a wrong turn that added some distance, but also took me down a quiet road that was a welcome break from the highway. Lampang was a fun little town, though I only saw a bit of it. I was amazed at how polite and safe drivers were in passing me on a winding highway up a mountain with no shoulder, way better than I've ever gotten in the US. Someone wanted to take a picture with me at a small temple at the top of a mountain where I was resting. I had an incredible ride down one of the mountains, having to slow down for a bus, and having a scary moment with some construction potholes at the end. And I got one channel in my room and spent some fun time watching infomercials at the end of the day. It was a good day really for how miserable I was for a lot of it.

The next day was easy riding. There was another mountainous stretch, but not nearly as steep and I didn't have far to go. I detoured off the highway onto a side road, riding up and down hills through jungle with hardly a car to be seen. I made a spur of the moment detour to go see a waterfall. ...Which I did not in fact see because it turns out it is accessed by boat and the boat doesn't run in the dry season because the waterfall doesn't exist during the dry season. But I only went to the visitor center to learn this after making the trek up (with a rather murderous final climb), and it turned out it was well worth it for the view, even without the waterfall. Going to the visitor center ended up quite worth it too, because I was apparently quite the spectacle and the teenage boy who was the only one who spoke English had a bunch of pictures taken with me for his "research project". I didn't begin to understand what was going on, but I smiled for the camera all the same. He also told me to come back and see the waterfall in August, which made me smile too. I got a slightly expensive (for Thai prices) hotel room in Uttaradit, and walked to a laundromat to do some much needed laundry, then finished the night with an overpriced take on "American" food.

The day after got easier still, flat and beautiful, lots of rice fields full of birds, tree covered mountains in the background. I got to see Si Satchanalai (a suggestion from Wichai I am grateful for) on my way to Sukothai. There were temples right off the road with no one there and I was able to walk their grounds in peaceful solitude. The last twenty miles or so of the day were on an almost entirely straight stretch of road, that while beautiful, became a bit monotonous. Thankfully, I was flying down it, going 14 to 15 the whole time. It's interesting not always being the slowest traffic on the road. There were a couple trucks filled with workers that I passed. One had a lady who smiled, gave me a thumbs up, and said, "Go, go fast!" as I was passing at about 20 to get around them before traffic came from the other way. I took a rest day today in historic Sukothai. I ended up paying more than I wanted again to get a private room, because I just couldn't bring myself to do a shared room with my bike knowing that I was going to leave it to explore the city today. But keeping the bike safe comes first.

As for Sukothai today, well, it's kind of an irony that in an area full of bike rentals and structured around biking through the grounds, I chose to walk around. But I think it's important to have time off the bike, especially since I have a nasty saddle sore right now, different and worse than any I've had before (and so early...). The distances weren't bad to do by foot either, and it was both a relaxing and sight-filled day. I ate a sorry breakfast of toast, crackers, and strange jam filled cookies at the hotel, but a good and very heavy lunch and dinner in effort to put some weight back on. I walked amongst ancient temples on meticulously maintained grounds while spending far too much time staring at them through my smartphone to capture pictures of them like trite trophies of travel, while watching people from all over the world do the same. I saw herds of school children on bikes zipping around the park and having a grand time. And when I was all done, I came back to my hotel room and watched some mindless television, even more mindless because I couldn't understand a word of it.

It was good. It was what I needed. And I'm ready for tomorrow and getting back in the saddle (hopefully with less soreness).