Route: Sukhothai to Phichit
Distance today: 128km
Daytime high: 39C

Today, it was the journey that thrilled, not the destination. We rolled our bums out of bed by 7am in order to get some distance in since the forecast showed cloudy skies which made the heat bearable. We made hay while the sun didn’t shine and went for 127km. And what a fantastic day it was!

We happened upon this little roadside coffee vendor. Not much to look at, just a rickety little establishment and our expectations were low. Randy ordered an Americano coffee and Deana and I a couple of strawberry yogurt smoothies. After some mixing & spinning, frothing & whirring and other such magical preparations, Randy was presented with a giant sized frothy iced-coffee and Deana and I both were recipients of little strawberry smoothie masterpieces! that now firmly occupy the position of best smoothie of our lives!

Rolling on down the road again, temperatures creeped up to 39C and the sun started blazing on us again. Seeking a little shade, we pulled off the road under a tree at the entrance to a temple. What transpired next was a very special experience that meant so much to us. There was an orange-robed young monk who greeted us and within minutes we were offered cold water, and a Pepsi. We were introduced to his mother Penn and father Colin who he had on video-chat on his cell phone. Not long after, all of us were standing together, this fine young man procured more Pepsi for us, and we were loaded up with drinks for our journey. Penn insisted that if we wanted we could come and stay at her place for a real Thai experience. Unfortunately we had some further distance to travel, so had to decline. But Penn—we promise you that if we ever pass through your village again we will stay with you and Colin. Much gratitude and thanks to your son for the wonderful privilege of meeting the three of you.

The lush green rice fields, quiet rural roads and especially the human experience made today extra special.

We spent the day doing what tourists do—touring the UNESCO world heritage site, Sukhothai Historic Park containing the ruins of what was once the capital of the Sukhothai Kingdom in the 13th and 14th centuries. We toured in the morning, marvelling at the complexity, and enormity of the structures. Because we went in the early part of the day there weren’t too many tourists and it was cooler. We noticed three monks together who also appeared to be visiting the site. It seemed uniquely interesting among all these ancient Buddhist fixtures to witness those three monks taking selfies in front of Buddha with their smartphones.

Deana splurged for an hour long Thai massage ($12), we all frolicked in the pool, revisited the Historical Park at sunset then ate at a fancypants restaurant and spent the most we’ve ever spent on a meal. ($16 for two of us–including beer). (Deana spent more—cuz she had some wine).

We have noticed that despite the reported increase in tourism since COVID, hotels are still have a lot of vacancy, so reservations don’t really seem to be required. And it means we mostly get the pool to ourselves!

A most excellent day it was!

Route: Thung Saliam to Sukhothai
Distance: 62km (total 331)
Daytime high: 41c

We were up at the crack of dawn to try and get some distance covered before the blazing heat. Anyone that knows me knows that dressed and ready to roll by 7:00am is a gosh darn miracle. Waiting around for our congee breakfast delayed us till about 8:00.

We rode through a lot of farmland. Cows here and there—in fields, in barn stalls, grazing near watering holes and even in the backs of pickup trucks. How many cows do you think fit in the bed of a Nissan? About 4!

It was an easy ride today. Glorious and flat. Nevermind that the temperature rose to 41c again according to Deanas bike computer! It’s almost an essential skill here, to ride with just one hand on the handlebar because the other hand is airborne most of the time, waving hello to people near and far. I mean absolutely everyone!. We noticed three school girls just calmly walking in the distance and we pro-actively hollered “Hellooooo” and all three of them lit up, jumped up & down and got all excited. Honestly, we feel like pure celebrities.

We stopped roadside for ice cream. The lady looked very surprised by our wanting two scoops each. Super delish and refreshing! We will shamefully admit to each having two double scoopers. All together we consumed 12 scoops plus three bottles of water. Total bill: $6.00

Our room tonight has a pool. A poooooooolllll! We dreamed about it all day long. We swam till our fingers turned pruney, our bodies cooled and tired, then it was afternoon nap time.

After dinner we strolled down to Sukhothai Historical Park to capture some evening pictures. Then of course we just had to go for another swim.

Today was supreme!

It’s pretty hard to blend in, but we are thrilled to be guests. We took a much needed day off the bike to re-hydrate our bodies and be lazybums. Our breakfast of pork and shrimp rice porridge was delivered to our door fronts in lovely china dishes along with some delicious orange juice. Afterward—exploration time! This wonderful village of Klang Dong lay just down the little alleyway, and we were going to wander! Not because it stood out in anyway, but because it looks so typical. We want to go blend with locals.

We are fascinated by everything! The homes, the gardens, the stores, the chickens, the signs with messages we will never know about, the trees, the fields, the places of worship…it’s endless.

The Buddhist Temple Wat Klang Dong was beautiful. Wats are very exquisitely tended to, and this was was no exception.

We can’t just go about our adventures willy-nilly anymore without factoring in the heat. So we decided to siesta during the hottest hours in mid-afternoon and return for a round two in the late afternoon.

At the Market we bought some unidentified but tasty looking meats-on-sticks, and some fresh cut pineapple. Walking down the street we had a vendor on a motorcycle ask us if we’d like something he had in his cart. We looked inside and saw bricks of ice cream! He cut them into portions, inserted sticks and for less than $1 we were all enjoying what tasted like fudgsicles.

Finally, we walked by what appeared to be a daycare with some young children outside playing and looking at us with curiosity. We said our “Sawasdees” (Hello in Thai) and they jumped for joy, ran over to the fence and were laughing with delight at the fact that us odd-looking foreigners chose to speak to them. Of course, when they saw the camera come out, that was it—They wanted to be stars!

Another day, living the dream!

Route: Theon to Thung Salian
Distance: 64km (total 269)
Daytime high: 41c

It was just a little ole ride up the mountain. That’s all it was supposed to be. 8km uphill then down the other side. But let’s throw in 41c and relentless burning sun, and we now have a brutal experience that was nothing short of a Hell on Earth Ride.

When the Garmin says 6% grade, what it really means is an average of 6%. Several places were more like 12%. When we stopped at a little roadside stand to bemoan our fate, we noticed a hose at the side of the shop, so we all doused ourselves and left looking drowned, down, and out. Enough said. We are staying put for two nights at our resort tonight where it feels like a little slice of paradise (minus a pool).

There were a couple of highlights on the mountain (when we weren’t sitting on the pavement dying). Btw, “we” refers to Deana and I—Randy was usually a few shady patches ahead, waiting patiently for us. At our lunch stop, there was a table full of school girls. When we approached the outdoor seating area they all enthusiastically began practising their English “hello” and “how are you?” And when we responded by asking to take a selfie with them they all squealed in delight. When one of the girls tried on a few more English phrases all her friends giggled with excitement and happiness at her success. They seemed thrilled to be interacting with us odd looking foreigners from Canada. A little while later three of them, all riding a scooter, passed us on the road and there were more big happy waves, and joyously loud Hellooooos. It really made our day to see how much the interaction meant to them. (And to us!)

At the top of the mountain came the Piggies. (and a few scrappy chickens). We speculate it was a boar sanctuary. For a small donation the nearby worker brought us a knife and some melons to cut up and feed the those curious piggies who were now gathering at the fence expectantly. A little pushing and shoving, but we ensured that even the ones at the bottom of the pecking order got their very own melon slice.

By mid-afternoon we were in full-on meltdown mode. Barely able to think straight we actually feared heat exhaustion. As we rolled nearer to our destination there suddenly appeared a gorgeous little resort surrounded by exotic tropical plants, beautiful mountains and our rooms faced a marvellous sunset. Breakfast will be delivered to our rooms in morning (we splurged—$37 for the room and breakfast—we are living large!). As we sit outside on our patios in the darkness, we also marvel at the sounds of what we can only imagine is a plethora of insect and amphibian nightlife. And remarkably there are no mosquitos or any other flying, biting thingies. This is paradise!

We woke up and were all enthusiastic-like, thinking we might go out and conquer 106km today… but it was just delusional coffee and heat interfering with our sensibilities. As we are riding down the road the conversation turned to pickle juice, melting, and ice cold smoothies. Some fresh black tarmac during a construction zone felt like we were in a frying pan. By the way, it didn’t stop all the workers from honking, beeping & giving us smiles and thumbs up.

We aren’t wusses. Honestly! But the heat just did us in today. And the coming days are forecasting highs of 36c and nothing but sunshine. By day’s end we were each desperately trying to keep sun off our necks & shoulders. Randy and I were nerded out with our “daBrim” over our helmets. Couldn’t care less about how we look, lol!

We wussed. Right around the 60km mark. Somewhere between downing the bag ‘o salty chips & guzzling water and staring ahead at the looming mountains a cute little roadside resort presented itself to us—none of us could resist escaping the heat. 690THB (about $28) bought us each a room.

It took a while to get rolling today. First time on the loaded touring bikes is a wobbly experience that makes you say to yourself “whoahhhhh”, “phew”, and then “ok, ok, I’m in charge here!” Then we took the plunge, and popped out onto the busy street to go with the flow. Right out of Chiang Mai we flowed down the left hand side of the road past streets full of cars, scooters, motorcycles cutting in and out. Here, you pick your line of travel and don’t stray because all those fast-than-bike-but-slower-than-car moving forms of transportation feels like organized chaos. Once you release your death-grip on the handlebars, it’s easy to start noticing all the gorgeous flowering trees and shrubs everywhere. You’ll just have to take our word for it because we ain’t stopping to take a picture! Despite the busyness I still saw so many Thai faces light up with big giant emoji-smiles, and sometimes road workers would issue words of enthusiastic encouragement. Yep, smiles everywhere.

When traffic thinned and we were finding our groove suddenly this big glittery golden gorgeous piece of architecture compelled us to pull off the road for a period of admiration. The Buddhist temple Wat Ton Phung Mueang was something that can only be seen. Photos don’t do it justice. There wasn’t a soul in sight so we just planted ourselves under a tree in glimmering appreciation.

Then it was time to look for a hotel or something. This was supposed to just be a little 30k warmup ride to work out the kinks. Found one! But upon arrival the gates were locked and it didn’t look welcoming. (Neither did the barking dogs across the way seem to want us there). So we revisited booking.com and found one about 6 km back where we came from. About an hour later, and after some multi-lane highway lane-switches, down a teen tiny pathway we managed to find our accommodation. “A Day Inn” (who comes up with these names?) Not fancy, and there’s a little house-gecko occupying Randy’s & mine room. I guess he can stay. He was here first.

We headed out for dinner. First to a “buffet hot pot” place that looked supremely popular but not our style. Down the road we went to the little happening restaurant where we had to cross a rickety bridge to get to it. All Thai menu—we couldn’t understand a thing on it, but it was a lot of fun trying to figure it out with our server! We got three Thais all smiling & laughing trying to help us out. We ended up placing an order for something and waited to behold what arrived. I guess it was tasty cuz we all ate every bite on our plates, and Randy ordered up a second meal! There seems to be a correlation—the less English available, the better the food! As we were preparing to leave, one of us (not naming any names) ventured to the toilet. Squat time! A cultural experience to be sure!

As we were leaving the restaurant a whole table full of cute smiling Thais were delighted to try out their English. “bye-bye” “have a good evening” “good night”. The day ended the way it began—smiles in the Land of Smiles

Jet lag, Luggage Reunification, bicycle reassembly and the Chiang Mai Nighttime food-fest

Today was reserved for recovery from the 12 hour time difference, acclimatization to temperatures 50c warmer than where we came from, and to eat Khao soi, which we did twice today. And we played Lazy Tourist. Mostly because we feel all wide-eyed & spry until that jet lag hits and bam! exhaustion hits hard. That’s when a swim in our rooftop pool feels just about perfect.

As promised, our luggage babies were delivered which means we can roll out whenever our little hearts desire.

The food quantity and variety is mind-boggling. There’s a Halal food sub-district here in Chiang Mai and we happened to find ourselves sampling a buckwheat something-or-other and also some big giant crunchy noodlish who-knows-what. Taste tests work wonders. We walked away with two.

We discovered a nighttime cruise of the Ping River for 200THB ($8). We’re in for that! It’s a sensory extravaganza of lights best shown rather than described.

Far from home now, and far from our luggage too!

The flight was fantastic! EVA Air has their act together. The food was quite tasty and the seating gods bestowed upon us an empty seat between Randy and I, and two empties next to Deana. After sixteen hours of darkness in the sky, we were treated to a spectacular view of the sun peering up over the earths edge. We would be landing at the same time our connecting flight was boarding and somehow the airline attendants knew this—about 30 minutes prior they came and relocated us to the fancypants seats near the front so we could disembark first. Time to mooooooove it! Chop chop, run! that flight was waiting! Dang those airline folks are good. They held up signs, and fast-tracked us right through! Next landing—Chiang Mai. As soon as we reached the luggage retrieval location, there were our bike boxes all smiling at us, all happy and saying “I’m here!” in their beautiful cardboard & tape glory. Then, like expectant parents, we waited for the second pieces of luggage to arrive like magic on the conveyor belt—which eventually just ran bare. Everyone else took their babies home and we were empty handed. All three pieces of our luggage babies were left in Taipei during that speedy-switchover. Tomorrow—That’s when the “PIR” (Property Irregularity Report) claims it will come.

We opted to find a taxi big enough for all our bikes and us and for 300Thb ($12) we were delivered to our hotel where we sat under some amazingly fragrant trees that sprinkled us with beautifully fragrant flower buds from a Millingtonia hortensis (Indian cork tree), and purple flowers from a Blue jacaranda, listening to tropical bird sounds, sipping beer (and Coke), and noticing it was pretty darn warm even here in the shade.

We ventured in the old city area (8k walk—not sure how we had the energy) and sought out some Khao Soi, and Pad Thai for dinner. $2 each. Out in the street we each picked up some delicious fresh carved pineapple for about $.80

Our hotel room is lovely—king size bed, big screen TV, kitchenette area with a bar fridge, and a beautiful shower. With or without luggage we are not roughing it here in Chiang Mai!

Three people, 150lbs of bike, 100lbs of gear and 2,000kms.

We have a start point and an end-point—Chiang Mai down to the beaches of Prachuap Khiri Khan then to Bangkok. Everything in the middle is going to be our free-range adventure! Randy and I are ready to roam and we are bringing our good friend Deana with us this time for Thailand 2023.  Bikes are packed with foam, paper and plastic in boxes and they are weighing in at about 48lbs each.  We’ll carry about 28lbs each of gear in the form of panniers, clothing, sunscreen etc. on our bikes. Everything we need for more than 6 weeks on the road. Randy will be hauling all the bike tools & spare parts so will need to carry four panniers.—Deana and I (Anita) will each carry two, plus a handlebar bag and trunk bag.  We have packed like minimalists, nothing so glamorous as a hairdryer.  Ha! No room for such luxury.

Our flight leaves late Sunday night (actually, early Monday morning, 0045h). Our brains will be all stirred up and crazy once we reach Chiang Mai 22 hours later when Randy will unpack the bike boxes right in the airport terminal and re-assemble them—probably a 4+ hour job!  We’ll load up and cycle right out of the airport onto the busy streets of Chiang Mai, all wobbly and woozy from the long transit.  We’ll try to keep ourselves sharp as we navigate traffic that rides on the left-hand side of the road. Given the fiasco that is air travel and luggage handling in Canada is right now, we are grateful to be flying with EVA Air—so we cling to the hope that our luggage AND our bikes will arrive.

Let the adventure begin!

Deana’s bike looks a little more like a skill-challenging puzzle

That’s it! I hope it arrives.

That’s what’s going into Randy’s panniers. He thinks of everything—we are in very good hands. Having a bike mechanic among us is a godsend.

Flame shoes, Public transit Thai-style, Big. Golden. Reclining. Buddha., the Bobae Pier, Life under the Overpass, and Thai massage.

Three more days, and there’s no end to discoveries made in Bangkok. It’s a city of wildly varying socio-economic circumstances, and the spectrum of choice is mind-boggling—where to walk, what to eat, what to wear, what to see, where to live. People’s lives unfold in an array of simple wooden structures with a few sheets of tin to keep rain out, to ultra modern homes sparing no expense. Almost everyone wears flip flops—likely because footwear is customarily removed when entering homes or even businesses. Flip flops can be found for as little as $2, or you can head to the MBK mall and blow $100 for a flashy pair. Or, you can pickup a real practical pair of funky designer shoes with 4” heels and appear to be shooting flames out the back! There are styles and price tags to remind you that Bangkok is a world class city.

Bangkok is a labyrinth of waterways. Rivers weave around historic ancient structures, and narrow canals transport citizens to and fro. Hop on, hop off, and you’ll make your way across parts of the city faster than any other transportation method. We noticed a long boat pull up at a pier, and a bunch of locals casually hopped on board. Nearby a larger boat sported English words “200 baht! Hop on Hop off, all day pass!” Same canal, same stops. So what’s the difference? Turns out, not much. We watched. We studied. No locals hopping on that boat. So, our observational powers led us to conclude that the bigger one was designed for farangs with the moolah. (Farangs are foreigners). Well! We made like locals and hopped on the “real” public transit, paid 9 (not 200) baht and made our way happily. Cruising down the canal we grinned big silly smiles, enjoying the economical commute.

Randy’s son flew in from Kyoto for our final few days. We decided on a “tourist” day, seeing The Grand Palace, Wat Pho and the Reclining Buddha. We expected Reclining Buddha to be big, but it’s enormity was astounding and like witnessing the Grand Canyon, it can’t really be captured in a single camera lens. You need to be there in person—standing in front, moving down it’s length and changing viewpoints taking mental snapshots to stitch together in your minds eye to see it in its entirety. There’s a lot of gold happening inside the building housing that reclining Buddha! Pretty sure we’ll never see that much gold on anything that size ever again! Did we mention it was BIG?!

The Bobae Market is for wholesale (and retail) clothing. Like other markets, stalls are cramped and squished into a tightly packed neighbourhood of merchants selling copious quantities of shirts, skirts, shorts, bras, underwear, dresses, etc. Proprietors are buried knee deep in inventory, counting, sorting, and arranging. Despite being a wholesale market, there’s also a tourist component, and you can buy individual items from the mind-boggling selection. Room to manoeuvre inside the maze is limited at best, and it’s hot sticky and steamy but motorcycles still zip down passageways dropping off massive bundles of clothing here and there and places in between.

After Bobae we canal-boated our way two stops back to our home base pier. A few steps away is a concrete overpass of the busy street above. Even there, under that grey dark overpass, even there families are living lives—doing laundry, repairing motorbikes, sleeping, reading, chopping fresh fruit and veggies. Even there where the sun can’t even shine, you can get a plate of homemade food served fresh and delicious by happy smiling Thais! There’s vibrant life everywhere in the city.

The morning of our departure came. We were a little sad to load the bikes into the airport transfer vehicle, our journey officially ending. Ironically it rained all of the way to the airport and all morning while we waited for our flight. On the runway we looked outside the little airplane porthole then at each other. We smiled big Thai smiles at each other, knowing that we have lucked out immensely these past six weeks. We had six glorious weeks of sunshine, raining only as we are leaving. It seems a fitting conclusion!

GPS abandonment, the $4 haircut and the $40 omelet, the alleyway discoveries—There’s no place like Bangkok!

Our day started with a little shortie bike ride to drop off bikes at Velo Thailand, a hidden gem of a bike shop with a couple of fantastic guys who will clean up our bikes all sparkly then squish them into boxes in preparation for the flight home. Our short little three kilometre trip stretched into 6k as we discovered that the surrounding buildings make the GPS go all birdbrain on us. Stay in school, learn to read a map, kids!—It’s a skill that comes in handy when your GPS lets you down.

After gleefully handing off bikes we found ourselves bike-less, accompanied by a strange but liberated feeling of loss. We could go in and out of any store we wished without standing on guard with our bikes outside! We were mobile in the City! And that led to a haircut….

Randy’s haircut! Without bikes, and with our newfound spontaneity we hung a quick right into the nearby barber shop—very much a man’s-domain! Randy got a great hair cut, his face spritzed & dried, and a mini shoulder and neck massage all for the big price of $4.

After the $4 haircut we sipped ice-cold strawberry smoothies and struck up conversation with Dhanube, a young local man who kindly showed us on the map where we could find a particular restaurant. Not just any restaurant, but the one with the famous crab omelette made by none other than Michelin Star street-food chef Jay Fai. We’re not talking about your typical dollar-omelette, but a big, feasty, juicy, sweet crabby one with a big juicy price tag of about $40. If you are unfamiliar with Jay Fai, do google her, she has a fascinating story! Given the tourist shortage we were able to score an omelette every bit as delicious as they all say! Not only did we score the omelette, but we were seated in the best spot in the restaurant to watch her in action the whole time. We should mention that her restaurant does not resembles the hoity toity style one might expect. Menus are still old faded color photocopies held together by plastic sheet protectors, and its open-air street-food dining atmosphere is unspoiled. She herself still cooks every single dish over hot charcoal woks. One could ponder the irony of a $4 haircut and a $40 omelette, the cost of which in Canada would be reversed.

There are alleyways, lanes, and narrow rivers, all crammed with Shophouses, which in turn are crammed with product waiting to be discovered at every turn. We just hang a left here, turn right there and everywhere you look, you can’t stop gawking. So much to discover, and best captured with pictures rather than words.

After we exhausted ourselves with walking in the scorching heat we negotiated a tuk tuk ride to the hotel. Not knowing if the driver even understood where we wanted to go, we agreed on a price and off we went. Nevermind that he stopped halfway, sought directions from another tuk tuk driver, then offered a cold glass of water to yet another. Who even cares where we are going?? We’re going on a tuk tuk ride and it’s gonna be a blast!

Randy prepares for his $4 haircut.

It’s really quite fascinating how much inventory can be stuffed in such a small space.

The sidewalk goes around the tree….as it should!

Motorcycles and other slower moving vehicles always migrate to the front, ready for take-off when the light turns green!

The entrance at Jay Fai’s restaurant.

Jay Fai prepares our wonderful omelette

There it is. That’s what a $40 omelette looks like. (btw, it was worth it!)

Public transit!

The fabulous folks at Velo Thailand, located at 29 Samsen 4 Alley, Bangkok