Tuesday January 20
We left Bangkok yesterday via train to a town that was the former capital of Thailand called Ayutthaya. We biked from there this morning to our stop for the night, Ang Thong. We found a guesthouse here and had a lovely dinner and strolled through the outdoor markets. We will set out tomorrow morning, hopefully early, for Sing Buri. Biking today was lovely, and we're having too much fun!
Wednesday January 21
We left at 0800 this morning after a lovely vegan ramen noodle, fruit, and coffee (instant) breakfast in the lobby of our hotel. We rode 25 miles to our current stop Sing Buri. We met a Belgian guy on the road who has done this ride 5 times and has biked in just about every country in the world (notably Anchorage to Argentina) and has given us many tips and advice for our ride. We checked into hotel for $8/night at noontime and walked around with our new friend and found some veg food (he is veg too so was able to give us some tips on that too). All in all, a great EASY start to our exploration of Thailand. The people are nicer and more friendly in theses smaller towns. I am so happy to be out of Bangkok - the pollution/smog/dirt was getting old! It is much more pleasant to be riding around the less populated areas. Plan is to ride to Nakhon Sawan tomorrow am. Will be 60 miles so we better get up early!
Friday January 23
Our scenery has changed quite a bit. It went from medium towns and more populated areas to mostly rice fields and beautiful greenhouses (minus the houses). Beautiful lush greens and multicolored flowers. Fruit stands. Roads are less crowded but still in excellent shape with a decent shoulder to ride on. We slept in uthai thank last night. Currently in Nakon Sawan until tomorrow am.
Sunday January 25
4pm
We arrived in Kamphaeng Phet yesterday afternoon after a 78 mile ride here (started at 0645). Our ride was tough as we never found good food on the way, and had bananas, 1 mango, nori flavored chips, water.. Oh and these bizarre donut things from a roadside stand. All in all, we had lots of fun - sang songs, blasted music from phone/mini speaker (Modest Mouse, B. Marley, Pink Floyd). We got loads of Hellos and waves from people in their yards, or in fields or in front of the billions of mom and pop style mini marts alongside the road. We also went through a town just northest of Nakon Sawan where all the sugarcane is trucked to for processing. There were hundreds of trucks packed full with half burnt sugar cane waiting in line to go in to the plant. It was cool to see, but made the road quite dusty and dirty from all the trucks. It was only a 2 lane road so we were getting passed by trucks constantly. None of them came close to hitting us fortunately. They were flying down the road throughout the day but always mindful of us and the motor bikes. Along with the sugarcane growing we also saw cornfields and of course, rice. Other than being hungry, the ride was awesome. We loved the guesthouse we are staying in here so much we decided to stay two nights (Triple J). It's $9/night and includes hot water and wifi! Sweet!
Last night we had our go at a buffet style - cook the food at your table restaurant. It was quite entertaining and Id say we were absolutely the only ones eating vegetarian there! They also brought us warm beer and ice. It was a good Saturday night. We rode to the only veg restaurant in town this morning only to find it is closed on Sunday. Bummer - so we had street food - roasted banana/coconut things, grapefruit, sour mango things?.. it ended up being all good. We will hit up the veg place tomorrow am - they all open at 6 or 7 am! Then close in the late afternoon.
We have decided to head towards Mae Sot next. That's the bordertown of Myanmar. We will cycle to Rangoon and then take a train up to the northern part of Myanmar. The train ride sounds awesome from googling it. We will then fly back to Thailand - to the hip city of Chiang Mai. The reason for our erratic new schedule is due to travel restrictions in Myanmar. There is only one border in the whole country that visitors can go into and out of and then freely travel in the country. Things are slowly changing there, but we are very excited to see a country that is virtually unwesternized. No more 7/11s! ha
Of course, our plans may change again - but that is our schedule for now...
Tomorrow am - it's on to Tak, Thailand.
January 28 at 1013
We have been resting/hanging out in Mae Sot, Thailand for 2 days. We arrived on Wednesday evening after a long rediculously challenging ride from Tak to Mae Sot. We were warned the road was quite hilly as it goes through the mountains but we had no idea what we had in store for us (luckily because if we did we would have opted out!!)
We left Tak around 0645. The road went from gradual inclines and declines to a 7-8% grade up hill. We knew we were in big trouble as the smell of brakes became stronger and stronger from the oncoming trucks in the other lane. We started up the mountain with relucatance and made it to a little aid station giving out water and support. We were the only people on bikes we saw all day. If anyone spoke english we would have gotten more information, but we could only guess how many more miles our uphill climb would last. I began pushing my bike on foot about 1.5 hours in. Joe lasted till about 1530 before pushing. According to bike nerds, my bike is not geared for steep climbs (my belt driven Shimano hub only has 8 gears). Joe's bike was better equipped for this day however it's weight (it's steel) was defintiely a con. We got lots of beeps and thumbs up throughout the day. Once we summitted the mountain, around 1130 - the ride was still up and down hills. We stopped at a fruit market. got really ripped off paying 200 bht for one bag of strawberries. They were delicious but we were mad that the woman ripped us off. All in all though, it's a pretty good thing that it took this time for someone to take advantage of us "farangs." I was absolutely exhausted by 12:30 and starving by this time. We went through a military "checkpoint" which for us was just a guy in a camo outfit asking us "where you come from?" I pedaled away after he pointed out where we could get some food. I was so tired by this point - my front wheel got caught on a hose in the road and I (in slow motion) fell over onto the road. Joe just said "aw Leese..." and of course 4 Thai men came running over to help me up, I was so embarrassed/annoyed/hungry/tired - I got up as quickly as I could and rode away leaving Joe to say thank you to the men. They gave him two cold waters. We got to a little restaurant only to discover my Thai cheat sheet "I want veg food without eggs etc etc" card I had been using everywhere was GONE. I almost cried.. Luckily Joe came to the rescue and got behind the stove/pot/chef and pointed to what we wanted and we ended up getting a delightful plate of veggies with rice - he put some coconut milk into it and it made it a nice mild curry. It was delicious and of course dirt cheap. It was exactly what we needed. We calculated that we only had about 20 miles to go at that point, no big deal right? Wrong! The hills continued and since our bodies were already so tired, the next part of the ride was so difficult. The hills (up and down) wouldn't quit! Every time we thought we had made it to the top of the mountain and could only go down, we would be at the bottom of another huge hill. I was whining and complaining and Joe was just quiet. I finally yelled at him asking if he was having fun or not. (how could I tell? he wasn't saying anything for miles!) So he finally started complaining and I was relieved to know I was not alone and that he was in fact hating this ride as much as I was. The trucks passing up were struggling just as much as we were. They were fully loaded in 1st gear crawling past us, always giving a honk of encouragement. The cars were whizzing by, but there were very few motorbikes. They knew better than to conquer this mountain. Finally around 1630, we found ourselves at the top of the mountain, looking only down - then it was 5 miles of 8% grade downhill into the town of Mae Sot. Thank god - we made it.
It took longer than usual to find a guesthouse this time because the first ones we found were too $$. ($18-24/night!) We finally found an adorable guesthouse run by a little man who spoke not a word of our language. We paid him ($6) for the night, just as the sun was setting. We found an awesome , cafe called Borderline that served Burmese food, was so delicious and satisfying.
We have been in Mae Sot since, doing research about Myanmar roads and relaxing - doing laundry (in a machine!) and EATING! There is a ton of amazing food here and we still haven't gotten it all in yet. We will probably set out for Myanmar tomorrow am. Once we cross the border, the first town we will stay in is about 70 km - will be another tough day as you have to cross another mountain and we've been told the road is not as cared for as Thailand's.
We shall see!!
