Overview day 425 - 441
1 January 2024 - 17 january 2024
983
Km’s Cycled
3360
Altimeters
13
Stages
0
Defects
Thailand part 2
We will close 2023 in style. On the Thai east coast, near Hua Hin, we find a campsite on the beach where we can pitch our tent among the Thai campers. The campsite is nicely away from the hustle and bustle, but close enough to get something to eat and drink. Even at the campsite we are warmly welcomed by our fellow guests. We are offered drinks, are allowed to join for dinner and when someone quickly drives into town by car for some shopping, we are immediately asked if we need anything else. Fortunately, we have provided ourselves with all the comforts and we can gratefully decline and offer them something in return, which they then gratefully decline.
Fireworks
Just before midnight we move our chairs to the beach and enjoy the 1000 wishing balloons flying through the air and the beautiful Chinese fireworks that are set off further along the beach.
And then the new year starts for us with, yes, you will be surprised: cycling! The alarm clock is set at 6 am and our year starts with a beautiful sunrise over the sea. The streets are still wonderfully quiet and we are enjoying this wonderful start to this new year. On to Bangkok!
Bangkok
We expected the last stage to Bangkok to be fairly chaotic. Busy, chaotic and therefore slow. Although it is busy, given that we we are cycling along major roads, we can cycle quite nicely. Before we know it, we have already arrived at the hotel, before 12 noon. That gives us some extra time to arrange some things.
In Bangkok we naturally want to see some things of the city, but big cities always offer the opportunity to purchase the necessary things. So we also try to find new sandals for Rob (unsuccessful: too wide or really ugly), buy a 2nd hand GoPro to replace the GoPro that was not so waterproof (successful) and inner tubes, kinesio tape. and SD cards that we had ordered in advance are also delivered to the hotel.
Bangkok:
After three days in Bangkok we get back on our bikes. Time to continue our way towards Chiang Mai. Our first stop is Ayutthaya, an ancient capital of Thailand, where many old temples can be found from 1350 to 1767.
Modern tempel
Along the way we also stop at a much more modern temple. The complex is gigantic and it turns out we can get a tour with a golf cart. Before we can start the tour, we are dressed in respectful white clothing. Fortunately, they have all this available and they seem to enjoy showing us the temple as much as we enjoy seeing it. First of all, we get some instructional videos on how to behave respectfully towards the people, the monks, and the people who come to meditate. We then receive a short meditation lesson and then it is time for the tour. We are shown around by a Monk, who can speak English quite well.
World peace through inner peace
We drive with the golf cart over the area, which is several kilometers in size. We get an explanation about the buildings and Buddhism and can ask him questions about the Buddhism and the community. The temple was built by Buddhists, for Buddhists, to provide a place to meditate and practice Buddhism for all Buddhists from all over the world. The largest temple is located in the middle of a site and covers no less than 1 square kilometer. 10,000 monks can sit on the rings of the temple for meditation and around it there is room for another 400,000 people to meditate. The temple itself is decorated with 300,000 small Buddhas and in the temple itself there are another 700,000 Buddha statues, all with the names of generous donors on them. It is impressive to see and at the same time very different from other temples in Thailand.
Ayutthaya
In Ayutthaya we cycle around ’the old city’ with our packed bicycles. More people use bicycles here to get from temple to temple. So we fit in well. We visit a number of temples from the inside and cycle past the rest. After a morning of enjoying these ancient temples, we use the afternoon to cover some kilometers.
The following days we cycle a lot. We reach 100 km several days in a row. We cycle on flat roads, through the rice fields and along the sugar cane. The sun is doing its best, but cold drinks and noodle soup work wonders. ‘An icecream a day keeps the heatstroke away’, as we say.
Warm-Showers Thailand
After more than 5 weeks in Thailand we stay at our first warm-showers host. Mark runs a small hostel and as cyclists we can sleep there for free. We arrive fairly early in the afternoon so there is time to go to the sauna with Mark! It is almost 40 degrees outside, but compared to the sauna it feels like a nice pleasant temperature. The sauna can be found on the grounds of one of the temples in the city and is frequently visited by the locals. You can see by the slippers in front of the door how many people are in the sauna at that moment. We’re glad Mark took us here. Still a special experience. After the sauna we go straight to the massage parlour. We’ll turn it into a real spa day. The masseuse pats our legs and says “strong”. Our egos are also being massaged, great!
A couple of pictures from on the road:
Don't spend too much
Highway police
Our goal was to make more use of the free places to sleep along the way to Chiang Mai. So we sleep again at the Highway Police and knock at a temple door a few times. At the Highway Police we are again warmly welcomed and again given far too much food. Also a large plate of pig innards. We think turning down is too rude so Rob starts chewing. To be honest, even the innards didn’t taste bad.
Sleeping at the tempels
We are also warmly welcomed at the temples. We are always allowed to set up our tent, and sometimes there even appears to be an entire room available that we can use. We are also always offered food and drinks, but since the monks themselves do not eat in the evening, we often indicate that we will get something to eat ourselves. After we have been provided with a place to sleep and water, the monks leave us alone. It is always emphasized, more than once, that we should just ask if we need something. While we have much more interaction at the highway police, we are more to ourselves at the temples. The monks continue with their daily activities, which often involves sweeping, playing a game of pétanque, sweeping, meditating, sweeping, or reciting prayers.
Mountains
In the last days towards Chiang Mai, the mountains start to come into view again. Before we start climbing, we sleep at our second warm-shower address. Francois and Mieke (from the Netherlands) are enjoying their retirement in Thailand and they have transformed a small piece of land into a piece of paradise. It’s wonderful that we can enjoy that for a while. The next morning we start the mountain stage in good spirits. There is no cycling for the last 3 km of the mountain. The steepest slopes we have had so far, even though all signs always indicate 8%. Maybe the ink ran out for the number “2” because we are crawling up roads heading towards the 30% grade. Extremely heavy even for racing bikes. Simply impossible for our heavily loaded bicycles
On to Laos
It’s heavy, very heavy. But after 1.5 hours of slogging over 3Km we are at the top of the climb. The show is back on the road! The last 80Km to Chiang Mai continues smoothly. We sleep one last time at a temple and are assigned a room there, wonderful after such a day.
We will stay in Chiang Mai for a few days and then cycle towards the border with Laos. Our visa is coming to an end, but we still have plenty of time. “Only” 350 Thai Kms to go.
A few last pictures:
Bye bye!
Great pictures of a great journey! All the best for you both!
Thank you both! Already a year ago that we had days with snow in Spain! So different from where we are now!