Day 184: Sakhothai to Kamphaeng Phet (50 miles)
For most of Asia, the roads have been crazy and chaotic. There’s always something to watch out for: on-coming traffic, cattle in the road, piles of poop, people carrying too many things on the back of their scooters on the verge of crashing. While always on the lookout, there has been little time to think of anything else. The past few days in Thailand have been the complete opposite; the scenery is flat (finally), the traffic obeys they laws (mostly), and the stress of riding in Asia is starting to diminish. This allows my mind to wander, think about our trip over the last seven months and 5000+ miles and play clips of random songs over and over and over in my head. Usually signs in Thai remind me of the English version of the word and my random brain finds a song for it. For example, I saw a sign for the city of Pharae. For the next few hours, I had the song “Frere Jacques” stuck in my head on repeat. Also, the largest brewery in Thailand is Chang. Every time I see a banner or t-shirt with that name, I start singing “We Go Together” with John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John. “Chang chang changity chang shoo bop. We’ll always be like one. Wa-wa-wa-one…”
Kamphaeng Phet ruins.
We’ve ran over so many dead snakes on the shoulder. I hate snakes. I’m glad, at least, that they’re squished and not crawling when we have to ride passed them or over them. Most are small(ish), some are medium, but today we saw one disgustingly large. It was so huge that from afar, I questioned what was on the side of the road. As we approached it (still far away), I thought it was a deer laying on its side. Nope! It. Was. A. Giant. Python. I screamed when we rode beside it. And THAT’S why we’re not camping in Thailand. Period.
We walked around town in search for dinner. We found street food -rice and veggies. It was one of my favorite dishes so far in Thailand. We thanked the cook afterwards and she was thrilled and asked to take our picture. It’s a small town and I don’t think many foreigners pass through here. When it’s not overly done, it’s fun to be the lone foreigners in town who the locals like.
Day 185: Kamphaeng Phet to Ban Bo Tham (50 miles)
Here’s what the last week of riding has looked like:
5:35 Alarm #1 rings.
5:43 Alarm #2 rings.
5:45 Alarm #3 rings.
6:05 Get out of bed.
6:05-6:40 Dress, pack, load the bikes.
6:45 Stop at 7-Eleven for milk, water, and breakfast pastries. Drink the milk.
6:50 Start riding.
8:00 Stop to eat the breakfast pastry.
8:00-10:00 Ride, stop to pee a million times, stop to snack a half dozen times, sweat profusely.
10:30 Apply sunscreen to already sweaty skin. Sweat blocks absorption, so skin looks white.
10:30-12:00 Ride, sweat, continue to say how hot it is on repeat, look at the pretty scenery.
12:30 Find a hotel or guesthouse. Shower.
1:00 Find a place for lunch.
2:00-4:30 Stay inside air-conditioned room. Nap. (No one is outside at these hours.)
6:30 Find dinner.
7:30 Netflix, shower again because walking through town to find dinner made us sweaty because it’s still 90+ degrees outside even at night.
8:30 Plan for tomorrow.
9:00 (me)/10:00 or later (Sean) Sleep.
A worker placing vegetables to dry out.
Thais are so nice. We ate lunch at Tesco, the supermarket, and one of the workers asked s a few questions. Because he knew English, we asked him about where a hotel is for tonight. (We kinda went out of order from the schedule I just posted. We were too hungry to wait to check into a hotel first.) Another woman overheard us talking and got on her tablet to help search for a hotel. When we arrived at the hotel, we had to wait for them to clean the room. Someone brought us cold water. A few women asked to take pictures with us. When the room was ready, we had four people helping us with our bags and escorting us to our room. They all bowed to us when they left. We bowed back. Not sure if that’s what you’re supposed to do, but it’s fun and humbling and everyone is little and cute and polite and I love it.
We tried to get a tour of the Chang brewery but they would not let us in.
Day 186: Ban Bo Tham to Nakhom Sawan (34 miles)
The short ride this morning put us into town at 10:30. The middle of the city has a huge gated park with a lake in the center. A sparkly dragon guards one of the entrances. People biked, ran, played basketball, skated in the tiny skate park, exercised on the outdated equipment and even took engagement photos on the bridge. Everything seemed so normal, so not-Asia. We found a bench under a tree near the water to watch the fish, eat a snack, and talk. We melt in the sun while riding, but the weather was pretty perfect in the shade at 10:30. The remainder of the day was spent shooing away mosquitoes, resting, researching and eating.
Large dragon in Nakhom Sawan park.
Day 187: Nakhom Sawan to Chai Nat (38 miles)
Online, we asked people to send questions to us to answer about the trip. Here’s a video answering those questions. Also, we’ve been told we sound like the SNL Shwetty Balls skit, so check it out and hopefully you’ll laugh. We didn’t mean to sound awkward, just trying to be quiet because people were around.
Day 187: Chai Nat to Suphan Buri (60 miles)
5:00 am wake up calls are not fun, but neither is riding in the killer heat. Nevertheless, it was a great feeling to have ten miles underway before the sun showed its face. Lately, we’ve been up before the sun rises, but haven’t been on the road. This morning, it was fantastic to see the deep midnight blue sky reveal the sun. The orange line seemed to sit on the horizon as if thinking whether or not to rise. Good thing it decided because the next few minutes were the best display of cotton candy blues and pinks. For those of us who are able to be awake at this hour, God sure does know how to put on a good morning wake-up show.
Our busy paved route suddenly turned to dirt. It was a good reminder for life. Sometimes the nice and easy roads end and the rough ones begin. Most of the time, it’s the rough part that makes the journey worthwhile. We went passed the most vibrant green rice fields on these dirt roads. This green is now my favorite shade of green. I call it Rice Field Green. It’s the most beautiful green I’ve ever seen.
Rice field green
Day 189: Suphan Buri to Nakhom Pathom (59 miles)
A kajillion vehicles pass us on the street each day. Today, there was a particular motorbike with a sidecar piled with a few women and their wares that stood out. A few minutes later this same vehicle turned around and stopped next to us as we were putting on sunscreen on the side of the road. The eldest woman got out and offered us food in a bag. Long are the days when we decline food from strangers, especially on a bike trip. She seemed nice enough. Plus, it’s hard to say no to food-bearing Asian women. They’re like Jewish mothers. I say that because my childhood best friend was Jewish and her mother, deemed my Jewish mother, insistently offered food to us. It’s how she showed her love. She was not a good cook though. But there were always Cheez-its or cereal or bagels being offered and we always accepted it because you can’t say no to love passed through food items. It’s was the same with this woman in the sidecar. We were a little weary of the homemade bagged food because you couldn’t tell what the thing was. Was it meat? Was it jelly? Come to find out, it was a homemade deep fried banana with toasted crunchy things on top. The crunchy things were good, but still a mystery. It was amazing! She said she makes a living selling these treats, but she wanted to give it to us for free. The woman didn’t stay long. She gave us one more bag of fried bananas before she left. It felt amazing to be the recipient of a random act of kindness. It was a wonderful reminder that there are kind, loving people in this world and I want to pay it forward. Kindness needs to multiply.
There was good riding amongst the rice fields.