Thailand Adventures

Well, as I imagined, I have had trouble keeping up with this blog. I am frankly amazed that in years past I was able to blog almost daily while also doing more miles most days. I was touring in the Spring and Summer so I had more daylight, but I doubt that was it. Did I just have more youthful energy to be able to spend my scarce free time on writing about my day? Who knows. But if I don't want this post to simply be about how I don't post, I should probably actually talk about my time here...

From Sukothai I rode on to Phitsanulok, almost entirely on highway, and without a whole lot to see. But I did come upon a rice field filled with cranes, and that was definitely the highlight of the ride. The afternoon and evening were interesting enough though to make up for the day's ride. I survived traffic in Phitsanulok (with some back tracking, mad dashes across intersections and the like) to arrive early at the hostel run by my Warmshowers host. No one was there when I arrived, so I sent him a message and just hung out and waited for awhile. The guy was fun, a British ex-pat who had nothing good to say about England (weather is apparently shit and everyone whines too much), and so now he lives in Thailand, speaking fluent Thai and running a hostel with his Thai wife. He showed me around the place, and on the rooftop hang out and laundry space, he introduced me to a very interesting older woman who was staying long-term in exchange for chores. She was eccentric, extremely talkative, and claimed to have two PhDs and to have lived and worked in many different countries around the world. I felt it might well be all true, and much of it might not be, and I had no way to know. My host took me with him to a sauna he frequents every day at a local temple. Then he went back, he directed me how to get to another temple that is apparently the most visited by Thai people outside Bangkok. That evening, he, the long term guest, an Australian guest, a German guest, and I all went to dinner at a restaurant, where for just 70 baht apiece we shared a considerable communal meal of numerous different dishes, mostly vegetarian. I wish I knew how to order in Thai the way he could... It was a good time. The lady talked about a great many things, from tiger farms in Laos to the unhealthy eating habits in much of the world. The German was largely quiet. The Australian hitch-hiker inquired our host about many things, mostly where he could stay for free (mosques and temples and such). And the ignorant American, me, found himself caught out feeling foolish only a few times here and there (once when I failed to recognize that the mosque across the street was a mosque). Afterwards we came back and tried some bitter herbal whiskey of our host's concoction and chatted some more. The others went out to the bar then, but I headed to bed so I could get out early for the long day to follow.

Rising early in a six person dorm and trying not to wake anyone is not the easiest trick, but I think I managed. The long-term guest was extremely kind enough to make me a big breakfast while I got ready, having also shared pasta with me the night before, saying she only did it because I was a cyclist like her father was (who apparently lived to 107). Some Dutch cyclists had arrived after I had gone to bed, having taken the train up from Bangkok, and I spent some time looking over their bikes. I would have loved to meet them, but I had miles to make. My host had offered me an alternate route through the mountains to the East, saying Ayutthaya was just like Sukothai, and there was little to see between here and there. I deliberated a lot on what to do, but ultimately decided to stick to the original route. I rode 88 miles that day, and it was largely boring. The highlight was a brief conversation with a monk outside a restroom. But when I got to Nakhon Sawan at the end of the day, I was able to ride up a steep hill (doubling the climbing I did on an otherwise very flat ride) and see a really cool temple with a great view of the town. There was an observation tower that I wanted to go in to, but when I tried, a lady spent a lot of time on her phone figuring out how to get Google to translate "Under maintenance". The ride down the hill was a blast. That night at my hotel though... Let's just say it wasn't the best place I have stayed, and leave it at that.

The ride to Sing Buri the next day I was able to get off the highway onto a side road along a river for awhile and that was a welcome reprieve. Other than that, it was a largely uneventful day. I was finally able to do laundry in the evening as they had coin-op washers, and a really nice balcony in the room with a clothes line to let them dry. I actually did my laundry in my jacket and rain pants (both items I have realized I have no reason to have this trip) so I could launder all my shirts and shorts.

I made a half day ride to Ayutthaya. My hotel there was a little pricy, and a little behind the times, but nice and clean. It involves walking down a very narrow passageway to get to the rooms, one my bike and I barely fit in side by side. The lady showing me to my room (I think the owner), practically scoffed at me when I asked about bringing my bike into the room, and told me I could lock it up outside. I'm not a huge fan of that, but in this case, it seemed to be in a pretty safe place. So I locked up, took just a little down time in the room, and headed out to see Ayutthaya. It's true that it may have very similar architecture to Sukothai, but it was still incredible nonetheless. I saw some amazing temples, a beautiful public park, people riding elephants (which while an interesting spectacle, is sad and majorly messed up), and lots of bird life. It was a fun several hours walking around, even if the town was not particularly walkable thanks to a moat and several other barriers. I got offered a ride by a tuk-tuk driver who insisted the walk to one temple was impossible from there. I had fun proving that wrong, if only to myself, and even if it wasn't the funnest walk. In the evening, after a long day walking around as many temples as I could, I was able to get a good vegetarian meal at a restaurant that actually had a specific vegetarian menu. It was a damn good day.

That vegetarian-catering place was not open in the morning, and neither was the restaurant attached to the hotel, so I ultimately gave up on getting a good breakfast. It was a short ride to Nakhon Nayok, but I made it longer trying some complicated routes along side roads. It's always nice to get off the highway, take rural roads where you see things you otherwise wouldn't, slices of village life, wildlife, gorgeous fields, all of that. I saw so many cranes and took a lot of pictures. I saw several monitor lizards, and failed to get any pictures. I saw interesting farm and fishing equipment. I saw a man holding a dead bird in one hand while driving his motorcycle with another. I went up a steep bridge where I got such a wide-eyed look from an old woman with a single speed bicycle who had to walk up it. I rode roads that seemed more like a bike path in the US and yet somehow had two way vehicular traffic. The last part of the day on highway was so dull compared to the early half navigating side roads. I got to the hotel early, and had to be checked in by the cleaning lady, with a bit of confusion to making the process happen, a good part of it my own damn fault when I somehow handed her the wrong bill. I felt really embarrassed and dumb to make that mistake after this much time using Baht. But hey, mistakes happen. That evening I had an interesting time getting vegetarian food. I went to one place close by and after a lot of hulabaloo got told there was nothing for me by the teenage boy who was the only one who spoke English. Then I walked quite a bit further to a bar. The first guy got me a large bottle of beer, and then I asked for food. He had to get a second person to ascertain that I indeed wanted food with help from Google translate. Then a lady showed up who spoke some English, and I showed her on my phone (because apparently I can't pronounce it worth a damn) that I'm mangsawirat, vegetarian. And so she asks, oh, so then you want fried vegetables? And rice? To which I decided, sure, yeah, that sounded great. And then she added, and french fries? We could do french fries. So I drank beer and ate fried vegetables with rice and french fries, and I was pretty damn happy.

This evening I actually made a damn 40 minute round trip walk along the highway, at dusk on the return, just to get to another place here in this little town where they were willing to serve me plain rice and fried vegetables (not that I wouldn't love something else, but that's the only thing most people seem to understand vegetarians want to eat). It's not always easy to be vegetarian... Aside from that, I have little to report about today. I rode highway. I saw some tree farms. I saw some temples. After getting settled in to the hotel I tried to walk to some sort of garden, but I incurred the ire of some dogs and the road turned to dirt and undergrowth and I wasn't entirely sure it wasn't someone's property, so I gave up. I got some taro flavored Bangkok icecream from the store, and polished off a can of Pringles and some soda to calorically supplement my dinner while writing this blog. And that rather unceremoniously brings you up to date with the present.

It's been a really fun time in Thailand these last couple weeks. It's hard to believe that time is drawing to a close. After tomorrow, I'll be headed into Cambodia. A new country and a new adventure are just around the corner.

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).

On the Other Side of the World

Well, it's been awhile. I mean, I never even finished blogging my previous tour, and here I am on another one, on the other side of the world. It's hard to pick this back up again after leaving it abandoned, like a book or a game that circumstances kept you from finishing and now when you try, you don't know where you were or how to proceed. Needless to say, Joel and I finished our last tour, made it to the coast, shipped our bikes home (boxed them ourselves and my 920 made it home safe this time!). I kept on intending to make an entry in New Orleans, then in Mobile down the line, then at the the end in Florida, then once I got home, and I just...well, I didn't. That's the important thing: I didn't do it. could try to run through it all, but like I mentioned earlier, I'm literally on the other side of the world from where I was then, and it just doesn't feel like the right use of my energy. Maybe I will at some point for the sake of posterity, but right now, let's move onto the current chapter and what I'm doing right now (you know, the new shiny thing!).

I'm in Thailand! Rachael and I got married, and we just had our honeymoon in Chiang Mai. We got a super posh hotel, we wandered the Old City, we went to an elephant sanctuary and bathed a baby elephant in mud, we climbed the steps of Doi Suthep, we took a river boat ride, we shopped for a passport book for me at the night bazaar... We had a great time. ...And then she left me, here, in Thailand, went home without me, abandoned me with nothing, but my new bike I built, and my panniers, and all my touring gear, and... So yeah, I'm that guy who goes on a honeymoon and then plans to stay and bike around for two months while my wife goes back home. Judge me how you will.I have a very understanding wife, and I am super lucky and grateful to have her.

So yeah, Rachael left on her flight back to the States this morning, and I left Chiang Mai by bike. It was a little hectic at first. Traffic here is much different from the US. Streetlights are rare, crosswalks exist but seem to serve no function, there are at least as many motorcycles and scooters as cars and they move with their own rules, traffic will sometimes go one way on a one way and this is normal, pedestrians will often be walking the side of the street because there is no sidewalk, traffic just flows through any open space. I had it described as crazy but you get used to it, and those seemed dichotomous to me, one or the other, but I think that sure enough, I am slowly getting used to it, but it's still crazy. 

I had an inauspicious start by missing my first turn, consequently making a wrong one, then briefly riding on the right (which is wrong, because here they drive on the left). But I got sorted and rode 106, the rubber tree road, which to its namesake has huge rubber trees bordering it. The road has a shoulder and that made me a lot more comfortable, even as I adjusted to having scooters and motorcyclists using it as well. I eventually got onto the Super Highway, though making the turn to get into it was not an easy one. While the traffic on it is very heavy, it has a really good shoulder (again, still watching out for the motorcyclists that use it too) and it wasn't bad riding. Going up the mountain in the 90 degree heat had me suffering more than a little because I am not in shape yet. I had to stop for a long rest break at the rest area at the top before cruising down hill and riding easy most the way to my destination tonight.

I am staying with a Warmshowers host tonight. He's an incredible guy, extremely generous and lucky for me his English is very good. He biked from here to Singapore, and his dream is to ride Australia, but right now he's taking care of his sick wife.  After I got my shower and rested, he showed me around his little town by bike, and we hit up the local market to get food. We brought back several bags full on our handlebars, which he used to make a really good, and vegetarian friendly, meal for the night.

I burned my wrists and my neck, I am feeling the fact that I neglected chamois butter, I am tired from what was a fairly short 50some mile ride, I miss my wife dearly, and I couldn't be happier I am here.

I will do my best to update this blog. But no promises.