March 25, 2017

 A lovely ride today. Ralf had planned the route and added points at each Wat so that maps.me saved the route and we were able to follow the route better.  It was a little longer following the scenic route as opposed to the straight lines of the highway, but it was much more enjoyable.

We headed away from route 323 towards Ban Pong. Ban Pong is a large town that is clean and very nice.

We cycled through rural countryside and along the Mae Klong River for about 30 kilometres. We had to join the highway for about 1.5 kms and we were able to get back onto rural routes again.

What a day for Wats.

We came upon this very old Wat, dating back to 711. The “newer” Wat was 100 years old. As we were investigating the area, a fella on a motorbike came up to me and asked where we were from. He used google translate to “talk” to me. I asked him a lot of questions about the Wat and he was able to answer them with the translator on his phone!!

It seems as if there is no money to put into old Wats, they let them just decay, but lots of money to put into new Wats.

He showed us different eras of grave stones as we walked towards the river. I almost jumped out of my skin when the firecrackers started to go off. Apparently the fireworks are to honour the dead. His family were at one of the family grave sites honouring the ancestors. As were making our way back out to the main Wat, the family gave us some fruit – papaya, oranges and apricots. They directed us to the right road and we were off again.

While we were at the Wat we chatted to a Dutch man who told us about two other Wats that were close to Kanchanaburi that was well worth going to see when we were in the area.

Little did we know that we would be cycling right by them. We stopped to take some photos and decided that if we can get a train to Bangkok we will spend another day in Kanchanburi and cycle back to these Wats. The temperature was getting hotter and we wanted to get into Kanchanaburi and our air-conditioned room. The temperature today topped out at 40 degrees, the average temperature was 33.5!

We came across an Ancient Monument site, Pong Tuk is believed to be the location of an ancient site during the Dvaravati period in the 11^th Buddhist Century. The rocks were used as Buddhist gongs so I banged on them.

 The guest house we are staying at is indoor camping again, basic room and a bucket to flush the toilet. There are a lot of restaurants in the neighbourhood where we can eat, at least we are not eating noodles.

While Ralf was showering, I headed out to buy a couple of beers. Dam too early, back to not being able to buy alcohol between 11:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. After we showered  we headed out to a bar for beer and something to eat. Apparently you can buy beer at a bar but not at a supermarket. We found a bar called “Aussie Rules” bar which had Aussie Rules Football on the Television. Here we are in Thailand drinking beer in an Aussie bar watching Aussie Rules football, listening to Australian accents, very weird.

We relaxed for a couple of hours and then wandered down the street and had a light meal at a Vegetarian restaurant, it was really good and we will eat there again.

We have decided to take the train into Bangkok, if we can get our bikes on the train and we know how lucky we have been doing that. If not we will take the bus or a private taxi. We booked our hotel for Bangkok. Dear god I hope it is not indoor camping, it looks nice but photos do lie!!