The slums of Bangkok

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It’s 10:30pm on the eve of our ride and we’re sitting in our room after a quick dash to Patpong Night Markets preparing for the start of the ride tomorrow morning and laughing at all the crap we’ve brought along. Kel is also looking at the maps for the next four days and is panicking slightly at the graph of the hills on day 4!

Tonight we met our fellow riders and we were taken to Klong Toey Slum where the Duang Prateep Foundation is located. It is in these slums that the poorest people live. The people are friendly with nothing to offer but a sincere smile which certainly makes you think about how much we take for granted. The slums are a maze of never ending laneways with roaming cocks (roosters) and a Shar Pai that looked cute but almost ate Kel’s hand before barked aggressively at the rest of the group... but we survived 😊

Since 1978, the Duang Prateep Foundation has been working to help poor people throughout Thailand. We had the honour of meeting its founder Kru Prateep who has just arrived back in Thailand after staying away for 8 months following the recent political unrest. Such a warm, welcoming and inspiring woman who never walks away but instead will always put up a fight.

We then enjoyed a fabulous Thai dinner plus dancing from some of the children who are part of the slum community. We’ve already stolen cuddles from some of the cute babies - one with squeaky shoes - and if Kel’s bag was big enough she would have taken one home.

We’re now armed with our fantastic black and orange riders jerseys, accessories to pimp our bikes, and thanks to a friend back home we have a head cam ready to capture the start of our journey tomorrow. Roger that!

Off to bed to catch some zzz’s in preparation for an 84km ride from Petchaburi to Hua Hin.

Check in tomorrow!

Kel and Claire
xx

P.S having issues uploading photos - check out Facebook for some pics.

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Photos

Slum communities
Up close and personal with the children in the slums

Photo 4
An amazing performance by the children

Tuk Tuk race!
Tuk Tuk rides home from the night markets are always fun!

Comments

[Daniel]

So jealous!!!
Guys Enjoy an incredible ride, so great to hear Khru Prateep is back in Thailand and make sure you get out and have a few beers in the night markets in Hua Hin tomorrow night. The first 3 days are a breeze so enjoy the beer & food before it starts getting tough. (Yep, day 4 starts to suck pretty bad!). Well done on making it so far and we are all wishing you the best from back here in Oz! Daniel

[Jad]

Good luck
Good luck girls.... Thinking of you x