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June 16-17 -  Bangkok – Ayutthaya – 83 km

At last, it was time to leave Bangkok, something I was extremely happy about as I just about had enough of that place. We woke early with the result that we got underway much earlier than usual, a good thing as well, as it was still nice and cool and the traffic not too hectic.

As always, it was stressful and slow getting out of the city, and it took forever to clear the city limits. Tania did extremely well on her first day, and we managed to get out of mighty Bangkok without any major problems. Soon we reached the outskirts of the city, and then it was an easy ride to Ayutthaya, past luminous green rice paddies and delicious-looking roadside stalls.  With its magnificent ruins, today a UNESCO world heritage site, Ayutthaya made a perfect stop. We found ourselves rooms at the well-known Baan Lotus Guest House, a beautiful, old, converted teak schoolhouse.  We spent the following day exploring the ruins and just eating our way through the day.

18 June - Ayutthaya - Lopburi – 63km

Once again, we were immensely lucky with the weather; it was a moderately overcast day of around 30/34 degrees Celsius, perfect for cycling. In Thailand, there is never a shortage of interesting things to see, and first up was the elephant kraal, which I had not expected. The elephants and trainers/owners were getting ready for a day with tourists, and the elephants were dressed in their Sunday best before heading out.

Next up was a rather bizarre, if not somewhat kitsch, temple with a humongous dragon or rather dragon tail surrounding the entire property. We followed small roads all the way to Lopburi, which made for enjoyable cycling. Again, a friendly woman flagged us down and gave us a bag of bananas, for which we were grateful and which kept us going the entire day. We were by no means passing any of the villages unnoticed as white women on bicycles don’t easily manage to do that, and mostly, we were stared at by slacked-jawed locals.

We passed huge Buddha statues, incredibly ornate temples, bamboo forests and, of course, the ever-present roadside stalls selling interesting nibbles. Once we reached Lopburi, it was easy to find the popular Noom Guest House where we booked in and then set off to explore the town and all there is to see. Tania seems to have taken to life-on-a-bike like a fish to water, as no sooner were we in the room than she had her shirt washed and a line strung, MacGyver style, on which to hang it.

19 June - Lopburi – Pak Chong – 103 km

In a haze of smoke from the breakfast BBQ we left Lopburi, which turned out to be a much larger town than expected. The touristy bits are in the old part, and the new city is a large area that I only discovered on cycling out. It felt like we cycled and cycled and never really cleared the city limits. Eventually, we turned off the big road and headed along farm roads to where we eventually met up with the highway again.

It was a beautiful stretch through the countryside and past small villages. The highway came as a bit of a shock as it was incredibly busy, but it was the easiest way over the mountains. Not only was it very busy, but it was also rather hilly, and we cycled over the pass in the midday heat, which did not make matters any easier. As always, all uphills come to an end, and eventually we sped downhill reaching speeds of nearly 60 k/h.

Clouds came in, making for a much cooler ride towards the end of the day. In Pak Chong, we spotted a hotel just off the main road and thought it a good place for the night. It came in at a bit more than what we normally pay, but it was mostly the sight of the mashing machines outside that made up our minds for us. I needed it really badly as I have not washed my clothes since leaving Bangkok and even the stray dogs retreated when they smelled me.

20 June - Pak Chong – Starwell Bali - 107 km

The stray dogs seemed to respond well to the word “voetsek,” and if it was uttered with enough conviction, they would retreat to a safe distance, or maybe it was just our smelly clothes that kept them at bay.

Along the way, we passed many statue-making areas where one can buy any shape, size, and colour Buddha that the heart desires. We passed more small villages surrounded by luminous green rice fields where locals keenly offered us exotic fruit, but the strangest of all was the elephant waiting for its lift at the bus shelter! Only in Thailand!

Again, we followed farm roads, but this day the road became more and more narrow and went from OK to just a muddy track, and in the end, it petered out completely, and we had to backtrack to the main road. We gave the big city of Nakhon Ratchasima a miss and followed the bypass road to try to escape the traffic. In the process, we found the most wonderful accommodation for the night. Beautiful wooden chalets surrounded by lush greenery were enough to make us stay put. I love it when a plan comes together. (www.starwellbali.com)

21 June - Starwell Bali – Phimai - 60 km

“Did you see the weather?” Tania said with a frown, as we woke to bucketing rain.  Fortunately, the weather cleared, and we had a short and easy ride to Phimai, where we went to see Prasat Hin Phimai, one of the biggest and most important religious sanctuaries in Thailand. Constructed around the 11th–12th century, it must have been a really important town in its day. Inscriptions found on one of the doors indicate that the town existed since the time of the ancient Khmer Empire and that it was built a century before the strikingly similar Angkor Wat in Cambodia. The town of Phimai also marks one of the most western outposts of the Khmer Empire's holy highway. I find all this fascinating, and I'm so pleased that we turned down to see it.

We found ourselves a room at the Phrimai Paradise House, a lovely hostel with wooden floors and high ceilings; I wish all hostels looked like this one. We just dropped our stuff and then set off into the park to explore the ruins after which we cycled to Sai Ngam, a 350-year old Banyan tree that by now resembles a horror movie where trees come alive and strangle unsuspected passers-by.  On our way back we stopped off at the night market to have our fill from the very large variety of food on sale.

22 June - Phimai

Phimai turned out a lovely laid back little village, and we decided to stay one more day. We went for a jog around town, just to explore by foot, and for me to get back into jogging after being ill. I have not been for a run for at least three weeks and needed to start getting back into it before it was too late.

I also had plenty of catching up to do – organising and re-organising my photos, which took about the entire day, laundry and a few long overdue phone calls. I walked around town and in the process met the (retired) town photographer; now, at the age of 78, he is still an avid photographer and collector of antique cameras. We had a lovely chat, and he insisted I take a photo of him with a self-portrait, taken 50 years ago, in the background. Before I knew it, the day was over and it was again time for the night market.

23 June – Phimai – Ban Phai – 119 km

We got away nice and early, and once again, we were lucky with the weather as it as an overcast day, so we ambled along quite happily. The northern part of Thailand is fairly rural, and we passed a multitude of small villages, each with its own temple and herd of buffalo.

We turned down to a small silk village where local women still weave silk threads by hand. Not a word of English was spoken, but they were more than happy to show us around. It was a day of roadside farming, and once back on the main road, we passed women cutting reeds by the side of the road and understood from hand gestures that they were using them for mattresses.

Locals even plant rice on the road reserve, and it seemed that using the road reserve for farming activities is what people do here as, just a bit further along, they were harvesting lotus flowers and seeds. Just before we reached Ban Phai, the area once again changed, and it seemed to be a bee farming area as the road was lined with stalls selling honey and honey combs. We turned off the main road into the small village of Ban Phai where I, amazingly, found a rather modern hotel for 600 baht. As soon as we off-loaded, we headed for the food stalls for our usual Thai noodle soup.

24 June - Ban Phai – Khao Suan Kwang – 115 km

It rained all night but, fortunately, it stopped in the early hours of the morning, leaving a lovely fresh day for us to cycle. We cycled along the highway until just after the town of Khon Kaen, where we turned off onto farm roads as we spotted a sign stating “King Cobra Village.” It sounded rather interesting, and we headed in that direction on the most beautiful of rural roads. It always surprises me that even along the rural roads, there are so many interesting things to see. I had my Google directions on “walking,” which always turns out to be rather interesting, sending us along the smallest of roads. At times, the road disappeared completely, and other times, it took us through peoples' backyards! Finding the way like this is always interesting, and today was no different.

Some people were drying thin slivers of meat in the sun; others invited us in to share their lunch. Farmers tended to their rice and buffalo. It felt like it took forever to reach the village we were looking for, and once there, it was rather disappointing. In a way, it was quite sad as they tried their best to make a little show out of it, and I thought it would have been much better if they just left the snakes in a natural way. In any event, it was a lovely ride there.

Again, we consulted Google maps, and it appeared that there was some kind of accommodation about 20 kilometres from the village. Once we reached the resort, it turned out that it used to be a resort, and once again, I thought it sad that such a lovely place went to ruin.

We headed for the highway, where we were sure to find some kind of accommodation, and no sooner were we on the main road than we spotted a 24-hour joint, normally let on an hourly basis, but we managed to get a good rate for the night. I think Tania was a bit shocked at the state of the room and that it only had one bed, which we had to share! Fortunately, it was a rather large bed, and neither one of us is very large!

25 June – Khao Suan Kwang – Udong Thani - 68 km

It was a short and easy but typical cycle-touring day. I stopped to take a picture and no sooner had I put the bicycle down when the roadside stall owner presented us with an already cut watermelon. Delicious! On top of that, she wanted no money for it. I felt so bad about them giving us all these things that I invested in 3-in-1 coffee sachets, which I can give to them in return. I know it sounds a bit odd, but they do like their sweet stuff and one sachet is the same price as a watermelon; it's also just the thought, not the value.

It was a beautiful day, scenery wise, butterflies darted around us as we peddled past large cassava plantations and sugarcane fields. We popped into one of the many monasteries along the way for a chat with the monks and to take a few pictures. Next stop was the durian stall where Tania (obviously) sampled some of Thailand's most famous (or infamous) fruits. The woman eats bugs so, no doubt, she will eat Durian as well!

We even tried our hand at some fishing along the way, but that was rather unsuccessful. Thai ladies fished in large ponds next to the road, using earthworms as bait, but we never saw them catch anything, so either there were no fish, or the fish did not like the earthworms. 

We slowly made our way toward the big city of Udon Thani, passing more monasteries and lakes with fishing platforms that looked a bit more promising for fishing than the roadside ponds. We had one final stop to buy sticky rice cooked in segments of bamboo tubes.  The bamboo tubes are filled with the sticky rice ingredients and plugged with a piece of coconut husk wrapped with banana leaf to keep in the steam for cooking the rice. In Thailand, this dish is called Kao Lam, but in Malaysia, it was known as Lemang.

In Udon Thani, we found the King’s Hotel, not much of a hotel for kings nowadays, but it came with the right price tag of 350 baht for a huge double room. I had some business to see to, and Tania wanted to stock up on some stuff that we may not find in Lao, so the early day suited both of us.