Day 1 Bangkok to Saigon - updated with pictures

Day 1: 8th November Distance 41.57Km Ram Laem Mae Pim Beach to Mae Ram Peung Beech

Today I get to ride a bike, it has been three days without cycling, this is the longest time I have not ridden a bike in the last couple of months. Even when I was ill for two days I rode on the third day. From the cool comfort of my hotel room the weather looked ok, no sign of the lightening and rain of the previous evening.

It was an early start, up at 5.45am, breakfast at 6.15 and I made the most of the opportunity – lots of food, then a 30 minute taxi ride across town to where the other two participants were staying and to meet up with the Symbiosis Travel Team. In my eagerness to get going I had forgotten to take my anti-malarial tablet with me to breakfast, but it was ok to take straight after a meal as well. According to the nurse who advised me I have to start taking them one day in advance and then for one week after entering/exiting the malaria zone. Bangkok itself is not considered a malaria risk; once we are in the countryside it becomes a problem. I am not overly keen on taking medication unless absolutely necessary and I spent the next 10 minutes after taking the tablet convinced that I was feeling different. The real reason for the lightheadedness was probably that eating breakfast at 11.15pm seemed odd to my jet-lagged body.

The route technically does not start in Bangkok; given the amount of traffic and the apparent chaos, we'd struggle to make it across town alive. Judging from the lack of information displayed on my GPS system that wouldn't be much help either. The ride actually started from a beach location to the south of Bangkok – Laem Mae Pim Hadd, which roughly translates as “Promontory water block beach”. This allowed us to, start on pleasant roads, meet each other and either get our bikes sorted or in my case meet my bike for the first time.

The owner of Symbiosis Travel is Chris Gow who will be riding with us; he also has local support from a Thai company called Spice Roads. In all there are 6 of us, Khun Lac driving, Khun Yao riding and helping to navigate in Thailand, Chris, Mary and Jim, brother and sister from the US and me. The journey took around 3 hours from Bangkok and as the start hotel location is a new one to the organizing team it took us a little time to find it. The resort is mainly visited by Thai people although apparently there are quite a few Swedish people in the area - a Swedish Building company operated near by.

There is quite a degree of modesty in the Thailand, despite some of the perceptions, here the bathers remain modestly covered - no bikinis in sight.

On arrival we set up or assembled the bikes. Jim had bought his mountain bike over with him, a beautiful titanium MTB with S&S couplings which allow the bike to be dismantled and carried in a suitcase, Mary had brought her pedals over and I had my pedals, saddle/saddle pack, bottle cage/bottle and handlebar bag. I might have mentioned the temperature before, after a few minutes of bike fettling I started dripping, doing anything in this heat is difficult. Apparently it is easier when you are cycling because of the cooling effect of the air “rushing” by.

Although the first part of the ride starts on tarmac we were all using MTBs with knobbly tyres, except for Jim who has also brought smooth tyres as well. I must admit seeing Jim’s bike made me think perhaps I should have brought a bike over with me. The plan was to have lunch and then set off when it was cooler at around 3.30pm. Lunch was delicious after Chris deciphered our various food issues he ordered in Thai – moi jealous non ;-). The food was everything you like about Thai food but much better and cheaper. Lunch plus a large bottle of local beer was around £2. This is Jim, Mary and Chris (left to right) choosing what to eat. The restaurant is open to the street on one side and the beach on the other. Chris' view is that Thai food is safe to eat pretty much everywhere.

I do not normally start any cycle ride with beer, especially when it is 8.30am, but actually beer for breakfast is pretty good when it is hot!! The ride was lovely, nothing special about the road, just following the coast, but cars do give cyclists space here. It was flat and the breeze was lovely despite my by now soaking T-shirt. We headed off, Jim set the pace, Mary followed and I struggled, I’d run out of gears, so I cycled with Chris and Khun Yao. ("Khun" is a bit like using "Ms") A quick glance at the front mech showed that although I thought I had changed gear the bike hadn’t and with a bit of nudging I found another bunch of gears and set off after Jim and Mary. It was great to stretch my legs and Jim set a nice pace. At around 23Km he started to get away and with a push I chased him down. As I got close one final push on the pedals and my chain broke and flew back down the road.

Actually it was not a bad place to stop for a drink, Mary stopped with me and we waited for the chase van. After a short while Khun Yuo and Khun Lec fettled my bike back into some sort of shape with Chris over-seeing the operations. It turns out that neither had dealt with a broken chain, yet they worked through the problems and with a bit of advice got me back on the road. It was great to see two young ladies work through the issues rather than “ask a man to do the job”. I did have gear change issues because the fix required losing a link from the chain, but that is a problem for later.

The dogs in these parts tend to hang around basking in the sun, and when a dog came in from the left, yapping, I was paying way too much attention to it and whilst thinking about ramming my pump down its throat (see earlier blogs for why!!! (eh Josie J)) I found myself heading straight for another dog lying on the road, a quick skid later I swerved around it. It was good that despite the jet lag my reactions still worked – just!

After the breakdown Jim and Mary headed back whilst Khun Yao, Chris and I headed on. We cycled on to the beach where we were originally going to stay, by this time it was getting dark, but we had no problems from the cars. After a while I was starting to wonder about all the insects getting ready to infect me because I had not put any DEET spray on to scare them of, but we stopped and the van took us back to the hotel (Tamarind). It seemed to take longer in the Van than cycling! The view of the sea as it got dark showed some threatening clouds.

After a quick shower and a down load of my GPS information we went out for dinner, courtesy of Spice Roads, Khun Yao chose the menu. Once again it was delicious food. You are advised put your rice on your plate and then help yourself to a dish at a time and frequently there is some other food that you should pair your choice with to maximize flavor, it works. One combination was tofu soup and pork omelets plus sweet chili sauce, yummy. Thai’s eat slowly and carefully that’s why they can stay thin despite the delicious food, they are also very chatty!

One of the things I like about travel is to talk with people from the area, both Khun Yao and Chris provided fascinating insights, so much so that Chris and I had to head off to another bar to put the world to rights, Oh dear we have a 6am wake up time tomorrow.