The Old Man on the Rickety Bike, and Riding in the Silly Heat

Route: Sing Buri to Ayutthaya
Distance: 79km
Total distance to date: 810 km
Daytime high: 40C (again)

Thai’s seem to love interacting with us odd looking foreigners. They light up when we try & speak with them, even when we just take notice & wave. They love to have their photos taken too. Today while we were riding an older man on an even older bicycle took on the challenge of riding with us. He was laughing & talking the whole time, even though we couldn’t understand a word he said. His legs looked strong so we can only speculate that he has ridden that rickety old bike for many years. When we finally parted, he was smiling ear to ear with his accomplishment, keeping pace with us farangs.

We have only seen two other cycle tourists since we have been here. There just aren’t that many tourists here—at least not north of Bangkok where we have primarily toured so far. But this morning, while turning the corner onto the street to get rolling we suddenly encountered a big group of cycle tourists from Hong Kong. Lots of chatter, and we discovered that they too are travelling to Bangkok. All were men, we noticed. Nobody is as lucky as Randy is, to be travelling with two women. 🙂 Maybe that’s why people smile so big at us! We rode with them for a short bit but once we were out in front the gap widened and we didn’t see them again.

We arrived in Ayutthaya, where our hotel has a pool. We can’t tell you how thrilling that is after riding in 40C.  Deana and I quietly dip into the pool while Randy does a big ole yeeehawww cannonball & causes a mini tidal wave. The hotels are so clean & the floors are pristine. Glistening & polished, actually. We felt particularly guilty as we lugged our bicycles up to our rooms on the second floor and the hotel staff followed behind us, spraying and buffing every mark we left on the floor with our tires.

Night Market in Ayutthaya—another gastronomical grazing extravaganza. We barely made it 10m from our hotel before we were sampling some crispy this & that’s. There were ducks rotating on rotisseries, guys grooving to music while making tasty grilled I-don’t -know-what’s, and the food variety was something to behold.

I don’t know if it’s because of the time of year, but trees have so many big giant gorgeous flowers on them. Water hyacinths are in bloom, so too are big gorgeous lotus flowers. It’s so wonderful to see all these beauties in their natural environments where they are welcome to  grow and flourish.

Riding here is hot. Sticky & humid.  Feels much like a convection oven. We have established a routine of waking up at 6am, on the road around 8am, then by mid afternoon we are in full-on roasting mode. We seek out Cafe Amazons when they are on route, and cool down with Strawberry Yogurt Smoothies then head over to 7-Eleven and buy bags of ice to pour into our water bottles—water that in fairly short time goes from cold to cool to warm to ugly-warm. When we stop for a photo, we snap fast and get rolling as quickly as possible because standing stationary even for a few moments becomes intolerable in the heat. If we stop roadside even to check maps we always seek out shade. The upside of stopping even briefly is that you drip sweat which then evaporates as we ride again, cooling us ever so slightly. But hey! It’s not snow, or ice, so we are in our happy places.