The plan was to have breakfast at 6.30am and then make an early start at 7am to getting some cycling in before the heat of the day. For me that meant a 6am alarm, but thanks to the cycling (and beer) from the night before I slept really well and woke around 5.45am feeling refreshed and ready to go… and have breakfast. (Mary did warn us that Jim was a faffer though, so we started a fair bit later. We also taught Jim and Mary the meaning of the verb to faff. (Definition: To dither about when getting ready and so delay proceedings!)
I walked from my room to the open air lobby for breakfast and found Khun Lec and Khun Lao having a go at fixing my bike, we thought it might be the chain and they oiled and eased some of the links. A trial run in the lane by the Hotel and I thought the bike seemed better if not perfect. I also popped out to take some photos of the street. Fruit was already being sold,
We were briefed by Khun Yao on the next section of our journey; she has a little notebook of the routes, with hand-written diagrams of various junctions. The routes are not too complex, but require some navigation to try to keep away from the main roads. Every now and then we bunch up to allow her to lead us through some of the small towns. Khun Lec follows us in the van, in case of mechanical problems and every 15-20Km stops ahead of us to allow us to get some water and something to eat. Each time we stopped she also gives us a small cold towel which felt fantastic after the hot sweat cycling.
Jim and Mary come from a Pepsi Distribution dynasty in Iowa, so Khun Yec arranged for different types of Pepsi to be available. We also had fresh pineapple and grapefruit along with Jack fruit crisps – a great way to try local snack foods rather than stick with what we know. The fresh fruit is delicious – better than eating It after shipment to the UK,
It was great cycling in a completely different environment. We passed coconut trees, mango trees and jack fruit trees growing as we cycled past through the lush countryside. There were mangrove swamps, rubber plantations, banana plantations and fish farms along with rice paddies, some being harvested. We also passed a shell fish farm in action; we passed loads of fish farms. They were harvesting the shellfish as we cycled by; it is quite a valuable crop in Thailand.
Later on we saw rice being harvested in the field, it was mainly women, with a couple of men helping - they were well shaded against the sun and gave us a cheery wave as we photographed them.
Here is the shellfish farm we passed, they looked smaller than oysters.
The roads were not too busy and there were a lot of motorcycles being used as multi-purpose vehicles. Here one is carrying a multi-purpose motor on a make-shift sidecar.
The teams had worked out where the lunch stop will be and Khun You had ordered in advance for us. This is great because it stops us from always choosing what we know. I thought I ought to check out whether Thai people are smaller than English people and so walked straight to the covered table by the beach where we were to eat, yes I banged my head, but it was not a fair trial because I had my cycling helmet on. As you might know from a previous blog, the one-time scientist in me likes experiments to be a little more sound than one sample so I tried it again without my helmet. From the bruise on my head I feel safe in saying that yes I am taller than the average Thai person. Here is Jim at our lunch stop, probably faffing (or being a putz as he might say,).
Chris ordered some barbecued squid from a passing vendor – it was delicious although not all the group enjoyed it. Then Khun Yuo ordered, trying to ensure that it would not be too spicy, she ordered two versions of a salad – one a traditional Thai spicy salad, the other without the chilli – for me there was no question it had to be the spicy one. I love eating chillies and they have some delicious ones, there was a particularly hot small one its name literally translated as a “rat shit chilli” or rat dropping chilli.
On the ride we normally see lots of dogs, sleeping in the hot sun, we did encounter one mean looking dog with teeth bared, we all gave it a wide berth, even Khun Yuo who ought to know rode wide of it, perhaps I should have had the rabies vaccination before I came out. The roads are less formally organized compared with the UK we even had a small stampede of cattle when a dog chased them across the road. You do see a lot of roadside limping dogs; most have learnt the hard way not too chase things in the road fortunately.
After lunch we headed on towards the seaside we saw some interesting sights such as this Buddha looking out to sea.
We also occasionally passed under these entrances, sometimes they are used for Temples and towns I understand.
When we reached the hotel my bedroom was a few feet away from the lapping waves, with air-con. But I had a broken bike, all my earlier problems had stemmed from a broken bottom bracket, the thing that allows the pedals to turn and move the chain, rocked as I cycled. This meant that the gears did not work properly and the chain slipped every few turns. A slipping chain is not what you want when trying to nip across road junctions where small always, always gives way to big. Here is the bike, with my pedals, saddle, saddle pack, bar bag (with my camera) and Custard.
The team managed to get another bike from one of their other tours, unfortunately a smaller size than I would normally ride. We spent way too long swapping over the pedals, saddle and so on. With the saddle set high it was not too bad, but the way things fitted onto it were different. The pedals and handlebar bag were ok, but the saddle needed to be pushed way back and the GPS bracket would not fit in the same place. We got it all on in the end and I returned to my balcony to find Mary, Jim and Chris guzzling Vodka as if it were going out of fashion with various additives including the local supercharged original version of Red Bull. I was way too hot and just need to chill (and don’t like spirit drinks) so I joined them on the veranda but typed up my (this) blog. I was impressed, they just ploughed through heaps of Vodka and also went in the warm sea. Unfortunately there was coral in the sea, Jim cut his fingers and Chris slashed his foot, coral is razor sharp apparently. Jim also, somehow managed to delete his camera pictures taken so far, the next time we get an internet connection I will try and retrieve them for him.
I had a shower and before heading to dinner liberally applied some anti-mosquito spray. I had some extra strong DEET – it warns against putting on sun burnt skin, since I don’t suffer from sunburn I sprayed it on all over and wow, immediately discovered several very tender sun-burnt areas. Bits of my cheek, outer elbow and just above my knees were all red. Next time I will have to be more thorough when I apply the sun-tan lotion. In the case of my face I will need to regularly re-apply it ‘cos the sweat washes it off when cycling in the hot weather.
Dinner followed the usual pattern we sat outside in a roofed area, Khun Yuo ordered the food and we ate. Mary didn’t join us. Once again we had some interesting food. A really nice dish was a soft-shelled crab curry, saving any hassle with extracting the meat from the shell, you just ate the lot. This was the view from the table.
One strange thing as with the wind blowing on-shore it almost felt cold, I don’t really think I am acclimatized yet, but I am getting a little more used to the heat.
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