March 10, 2017

An uneventful days ride. We left Sa Keao at 8:15 a.m., a little late because we were waiting for breakfast. A baked egg concoction with bacon and some beige coloured mystery meat, it was quite nice and kept me going for about 40 kms. This hotel had a nice Buddha shrine situated on the property. 

Most Thai\’s are buddhists and are very calm.  I told Ralf that he is not to show that he is annoyed at something as he loses \”face\”.  However, yesterday we saw two separate incidents where the Thai\’s were getting very angry with each other.

We were following the 359 for about 50 kms and then had to head north to connect with the 304 where our hotel for the night was located. We are finding it a little difficult to find hotels on-line, as google maps and maps.me are not showing the towns we are cycling through.

I thought the 359 would be a quieter road,  and it was compared to the 331. However, it was a two-lane divided highway with a large shoulder. As most highways are, it was a little boring.

Then we spotted our first giant Buddha in Thailand.

We cycled down the lane to the Buddha and realized that the concrete structure that was covered with scaffolding was going to be a new Stupa. No safety harnesses for the workers, as they were leaning out and grabbing the next piece of bamboo scaffolding!

At the 50 km point we made our right turn to head towards Si Maha Phot. We spotted a 7-11 and decided to see what they had for lunch. All sorts of microwave meals and sandwiches and chocolate milk – lovely. We both had a sandwich which they microwaved for us and we drank our chocolate milk. We will definitely be keeping our eyes open for 7-11.

As we made the turn I noticed a cycle path, Ralf had cycled past the entrance. I headed down the path, then realized what Ralf had spotted. A very large mound of dirt leading from the road to a new construction area. The cycle-path went out of the small town for about 2 kilometres to the school, then the cycle path stopped and we had to join the road. Maybe a dedicated cycle path encourages the kids to cycle to school, or maybe it was too dangerous for the kids to ride on the road.  The shoulder wasn\’t very wide.  In Vietnam they cycle two abreast on the AH1!

This road was a more rural route, which had an ancient monument somewhere along the road. We obviously missed the turn. Most of the road signs for the smaller roads are only in Thai script, on the major highways and at the major intersections they are in both English and Thai script.

As we came to the main intersection with the 331, I spotted a couple of fruit stands. I have been craving fruit the past few days. I stopped and bought half a kilo of grapes, dragon fruit and two oranges. I made a nice fruit salad for dessert and we will have the rest on the muesli tomorrow for breakfast. We also had two papaya that the owner of the hotel gave to us.  No idea what this fruit is hanging from the trees.  Maybe we can try this sometime in the future.

The hotel used to be a resort, with a swimming pool, climbing wall, play area for children and nice bungalows. It is very run-down, there is no water in the pool and the grounds need a good gardener to spruce things up.

We are not sure why the hotel is a little run-down, maybe it cannot attract people to stay here for a week when they are only about 50 kms from a beach resort, which they can easily access by two or three good highways. Maybe the industry grew up around the resort and it is no longer a popular place to stay.

This Town is quite large with a lot of industry, but it isn’t named on google maps. Fortunately while we were at the supermarket yesterday we bought a paper map which shows a lot of the Towns along our route. We are able to type in the name of a town and ask if there are any hotels nearby.

Tomorrow we are “winging” it for a hotel. There is supposed to be a motel at 68 kms, fingers crossed there is, otherwise we might be sleeping at a temple. The temples are supposed to give travellers somewhere to sleep if they show up in need. A donation is always welcomed. The only problem with that idea is we don’t have sleeping mats only sheets and a mosquito net!

We are heading south to the coast for a week on a beach. 

March 9, 2017

We went to sleep last night with the rain pouring down on our little cabin. We moved our bikes from leaning on the outside to leaning on the inside wall, so they didn’t get wet. We were hoping that it would stop by morning and the roads would be dry. Our wishes came true, this morning the rain had stopped and there was a really nice fresh smell to the air. We had breakfast in the room and headed out at about 7:45.

What a difference a border makes. I forgot to mention after yesterday’s excitement at the border, that not only did I have to contend with almost losing Ralf, we had to switch the side of the road we are cycling on!. Thailand drives on the same side of the road as the U.K., Australia and New Zealand. I have a mirror on my bike which I can switch from one side of my handlebars to the other side very easily.  If it is on my right \”hood\” I know I have to cycle on the left side of the road.  It does take a little bit of getting used to riding on the other side of the road.  Although I spent 26 years of my life in the U.K.  I learnt to drive while in Germany.

The traffic is orderly, there are traffic signs which people follow. No-one came out of a side street without stopping and looking to see if it was clear to proceed, it was amazing. A few motorcyclists did come down the wrong way on the divided highway, but they rode into the dirt not expecting me to ride into traffic.

We were on the main highway for the most part today and took one detour off the highway. The detour road was the old highway and only detoured us off the highway for about 4 kilometres. Once again when a highway is diverted we always notice the small business that have gone out to business lost due to the diversion or widening of a highway.

As we headed down the small diversion, we were passed by sugar cane trucks, the sweet smell of cut sugar cane was quite nice. We saw one field of cane being cut by a machine. In Cuba we saw fields being cut by hand.

The King died in October 2016, the official mourning period is one year, there was one month of mourning where a lot of shops, restaurants etc closed. The Prime Minister stated that the tourist areas did not need to adhere to the one month mourning period so as not to harm the tourism industry. The Thai Restaurant in Barrie closed for the month.

 The King was highly respected and we have noticed a lot of memorials to him, some of the school children have black ribbons attached to their shirts. The King was the longest reigning Monarch in the world (70 years) and was very highly respected in Thailand.

Following the death of King Bhumibol, Britain\’s Queen Elizabeth II has become the world\’s longest-reigning monarch, having been on the throne for 64 years.

On our ride today we passed at least four army bases and one air force base. There was a military coup in Thailand in 2014. Maybe that is why there are so many military bases!

My sister-in-law works for Tesco in England, we have spotted several Tesco stores here – called Tesco Lotus, maybe Di could get a transfer to Thailand.

There are a lot of places to eat along the way, and places to pick up drinks. I don’t think we will go hungry or thirsty in Thailand. Spotted this little place with bicycles

We arrived on the outskirts of Sa Kaeo at 10:45 a.m. I spotted the sign to the hotel, (the Golden House Hotel) and we were allowed to check in early again. Again it is a small cabin style room, very clean and comfortable, although I am not sure about the mural.

We dropped our bags and headed straight out to Sa Kaeo for some lunch and shopping. We needed more cereal and milo and some coffee. I thought the big shopping centre was in the downtown area of Sa Kaeo. It was only 2 ks from the hotel. We left our bikes in the secure covered parking and went into a large supermarket. I hate to say it but we had KFC for lunch. Our evening meal was much better at a small café about 600 metres from the hotel.

Although it was a big store, there didn\’t appear to be a tremendous amount of food.  Two  aisles of noodles and another two of soya sauce and oils.  We spotted Tim Tams – a biscuit that we loved in New Zealand and Australia, we bought them, $2.00 for 8 Tim Tams, worth every penny.

As we walked back from the cafe this evening we noticed lightening flashing through the skies. I am guessing we are going to get more rain tonight. That is fine so long as it is tonight and cleared by the morning.

Tomorrow we are heading away from the main highway and hopefully get to see a little more of rural Thailand, as we head southwest towards the outskirts of Bangkok.