Racing through the Red Heart of Central Thailand - our group fragments...

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Day 258, 13th February

Ubon Ratchathani - Si Saket - Sikhoraphum

Our group is finally breaking up. Nick who joined our bikepacker group in Beijing left us a week ago to go north, and Scott who I’ve spent 8 months cycling with disappeared a few days ago near the Mekong. Still no sight nor sound of him. We decided that he knows how to look after himself and not to contact the authorities.

More decisions were made over breakfast regarding our future travel arrangements together, and it was decided that Rory was to speed off to Bangkok to get his ‘scrapings’ done at the pox-doctor. Toby would stay with him to Bangkok and then go alone to the south to meet up with some friends coming out from England. Stephane and I will stick together and travel west to Ayutthaya where we hope to bump into Scott, we have no wish to see the hustle and bustle of Bangkok.

So that was that. Over breakfast our group fragmented, but amicably. We all had things we wanted to do, and after eleven-and-a-half-thousand miles and eight-months cycling together - well, I suppose we felt it was time to chill-out and do our own things. Rory and Tobes set off at 8am then, and me and Stephane left at 9.30 taking our time. It’s the second time now that I’ve cycled alone with Stephane and I’ve come to know that with him there’s none of that blokey drinking stuff that I quite enjoy - just the serious cycling of a road cyclist, and not much conversation.

What I like about cycling with Stephane is the pace - his pace is steady and continuous, like mine. In a group you’re stopping all the time for something or other. The more wheels, the more puntures are possible, leading to a greater number of stops. At our pace we don’t sweat as much in these hot climes, and a result is fewer stops for drinks.

On the way along route 226 west near Sisaket, we stopped and talked to a guy who was making the incredible rubber dust-bins that we see everywhere. They are made out of old truck tyres and are virtually indestructible. A super example of re-cycling…

The road was flat most of the way and just after midday we bumped into Rory and Tobes who were drinking beer at a café. Tobes had to repair another broken spoke and a punture - they had been at the caf for two hours! We drank cola with loads of ice together and left as a group for a short while before they decided to speed off into the distance…

By sunset, Stephane and I had managed to clock just over 100 miles and camped near a stream far away from the road. I cooked up a noodle and spaghetti creation before it went too dark and the insects began to fly into my food.

As I drift off to sleep, I begin to hear what I’ve heard every night so far in Thailand - the cacophany of nocturnal insects and some crappy karaoke music drifting in from some distant bar somewhere….

Total Miles: 11667.31 Todays Miles: 101.68 Average speed: 13.8 Time on bike: 7:23


Day 259, 14th February

Sikhoraphum - Buri Ram - Nong Mung

We were up at first light and had the bikes packed as the sun rose a blood red in the east behind us. As we set off along the dirt-tracks to the road, dew was rising from the fields and a farmer and his son were in a field with their water-buffalo. An idyllic scene which I wished I’d snapped, but, don’t you know this feeling when you can’t be bothered to get your camera out and you just savour the moment?

We got onto the road and travelled west again in a sort of rush-hour traffic. Well, lots of bikes and overloaded trucks full of waving schoolchildren. An hour on and we found ourselves in Surin at a gem of a café that served us an excellent fried-rice dish. Incidentally, fried rice is called ‘Khao Phat’ in Thai, which is pronounced ‘Cow Pat’, lovely! The 226 route from here became flat and featureless.

The landscape began to look a little English in a way - not many palms and plenty of leafy trees. There were lots of places by the roadside selling Buddhist Shrines by the dozen, a sort of “Shrines Я Us”. There were loads of these places, industrial parks full of them, multicoloured and glittery. After Buri Ram, Stephane had two broken spokes. So as it was 1pm and we’d already done 80 miles, and it was becoming the hottest part of the day, we stopped in the next café at Lam Plaimat.

As we were chilling in the shade and sipping cool drinks, who should turn up but Rory and Tobes looking sweaty and flustered. They couldn’t believe we were ahead of them. After chatting, we found out that they’d camped right close to us last night, set out roughly the same time, bombed it along, and only gained half an hour! They didn’t stay long and set off very quickly with the idea of doing a 200km day - in the blazing heat!

Stephane and I just waited out the sun for a couple of hours until just after 3pm when we set out again. Everywhere new temples are being built and the scenery is predominant with palm trees now. As the sun was going down we passed the 110 mile mark at a small un-named village and stopped at a shop to stock up on water. We drew attention in the shop, and when we signaled that we needed to find a place to camp we were instead invited by an elderly woman to camp at her home. We took up the offer, had a shower, and were treated to some food in one of the other homes. Stephane had two girls interested in him, I had the elderly woman trying to gain access to my tent which Stephane found hilarious!

Total Miles: 11777.61 Todays Miles: 110.30 Average speed: 14.9 Time on bike: 7:24


Day 260, 15th February

Nong Mung - Khorat - Pak Chong - Muak Lek

Just after first light Stephane woke me - I’d survived the night! I packed my tent and found it crawling with little black scorpions, never knew they were in Thailand? We said ‘Thank You’ to our hosts, made our excuses and left quick sharpish…

The town of Khorat was 15 miles away and the biggest town I’d seen in Thailand so far. The entire city centre was surrounded by a huge square moat. The traffic was meg-hectic but we found a nice place for breakfast on the northern side of town. Fried rice again, with vegetables, two fried eggs on top and all the chillies you can eat for 35 Baht. I’m sure this diet is playing hell with my intestines but I’m just addicted now…

The road led us ever westwards and after 50 miles cycling became hilly. I had a problem with a bloody-stupid idiot dog that chased me from a shop and caused me to crash my bike into a field. It still tried to attack me so I pepper-sprayed the fucker, gave it my boot in the head, and it still was running blind trying to take a lump out of my flesh. As it came at me I picked up a handy rock and scored a direct hit - bastard! Sorry animal lovers, but you can’t possibly love anything like that, can you? Actually, I remember a funny story of cycling in Belarus in 1999 along the main road to Minsk, and a dog on a farm saw me from the opposite side of the road and came running and barking wildly in a bee-line for my legs. What the dog failed to notice was the big Russian 18-wheeler truck that mashed it into a pulp and sprayed my ankels with minced-hound!

At 1pm we were passing a huge reservoir to our right and decided to take out two-hour siesta here. It was time for food again so I heaved the dog carcass off the back of my bike and started to cut off strips of warm flesh for the baguettes…. No, only kidding - the dog did actually live, and besides, we’re vegetarians. We had rice again, of course. I decided to do some tyre repairs, though. The tread had worn completely away since Chelyabinsk in Siberia - wow, 7,000 miles plus so far and I’m damned if I’m changing them now, they’ll last till Singapore. There was a big long hole in the back tyre exposing the kevlar, so I took a strip of rubber and fixed it to the spot, it would have to do. As I was repairing my bike I remembered the beasties I’d encountered last night before the scorpion discovery. There was a poisonous-looking green sucker-toed flog in the bog, and a big four-inch-across nasty bastard hairy spider in the shower that moved so fast when I hosed it with the shower head…

Mid-afternoon, we carried on west again with a great tail-wind and good karma seemed to be with us. I stopped to buy veggies at a roadside stall and we were given grapefruit and some other fluffy fruits. At another stop we were in dairy-country, the field were full of normal-looking cows, fat and healthy. And I had my first real coool milk for what seemed like ages. Then there was the never ending downhill…..

It kept going down and down… past weird sculptures of tigers in the forest on either side of us, and then we saw an absolutely enormous golden Buddha. Then I said to Stephane, “Hey, this track on the left looks good”, and we took it to see where it took us. We ended up at a small isolated Buddhist temple with orange-robed monks wandering about. We asked the chief honcho if we could camp on the ground and he said, “No, of course not. You can sleep in the temple”! We were given food and drinks (water and Ovaltine), had a bath, they washed our clothes, and then we chatted to the chief monk whose name was pronounced ‘Tomb’. He gave us each an amulet to wear and in return Stephane gave him an Inuit pin, and I gave him an old English penny. He also gave us a pair of Bermuda shorts each which his mate designs and makes in Bangkok.

Tomb showed us around the complex and to a hut where a lot of noise was coming from inside. It turned out to be full of young monk-conscripts playing war games on a row of computers. Later we signed the guest book and Tomb pointed out the last western visitors who had found the temple - in 1968! Can you believe it, we’re only about 50 miles from Bangkok and not one tourist, even westerner, has been here for over 30 years! That’s before the Vietnam war!

We were shown to the temple and given a mat to sleep on. Everything somehow felt very peaceful tonight and I drifted off to sleep very well…………

Total Miles: 11876.67 Todays Miles: 99.05 Average speed: 15.7 Time on bike: 6:17


STOP PRESS: 15th February 2007.
I’ve been surprised by the interest in this Memorablog. Seems like 5-year-old stuff is still interesting to folks. So I looked for a website that specialized in this kind of thing and found there is’nt any out there. So, what did I do? I registered the following:
www.memorablog.com
www.memorablog.org
www.memorablog.net
I don’t want to be in competition with Travelblog who have been great in hosting my memorablog. I just want to set up a site for those one-year-old or older journals that couldn’t be blogged at the time for some reason or another. And for those old prints and slides out there that are crying out to be digitalized and to be shown to the world. This will be a free site, like Travelblog, and I hope to get it up and running by summer time (northern hemisphere). So if you’re interested to be the first to put your former journals on the Memorablog Site, PM me and I’ll put your email address on the mailing list. I guarantee no spam.
Thanks, ANDY (Bikepacker)

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Photos

Thai Babe on a Bike
It's great to cycling in Thailand you pass the locals who give you sweet smiles and a taste of home - Union Jack T-shirts!

Rubber Dust-Bins
Made from re-cycled truck tyres and virtually indestructible.

Thai Baht
The Thai Baht banknotes resplendent with a portrait of His Royal Highness, King of Thailand. (Don't deface then or you'll end up in jail)!

Remote Temple
We were the first westerners since 1968 to be there - wow! Off the beaten track or what!

Thai Village
Stephane and friends - where we spent the night.

Thai Milk
It's dairy country north east of Bangkok, the milk is just like what you get at home!

Tomb ?
The guy who ran the monastery, holding my bike.

Comments

[Jm]

your location please
Calling on Andrew John Ganner : Your Current Location please