Back in the saddle

1^st December –  Bangkok to Pak Tho (except it doesn’t exist) – 61.56 miles, Av 12.9, Max 24.7, Ride time 4.45

Exiting Bangkok by bike is not, I repeat not, for the fainthearted. It is a titanium nether region and owl like vision activity. I had worked out the route and tried to memorise it and it was by far the maddest journey yet. Imagine if you will the size of the M25 but in a city where every mile or so it is bisected or connected to another M25 type road. There were times when we left the hard shoulder to go down an off ramp to find it joins the fast line of the next highway. Only the very essence of SE Asian culture comes into play here and drives slow, swerve but never get aggressive as they would in the UK…well not that we know due to the heavy layers of tinted windscreens.

Lanes ranged from 3 to 8 in each direction, all moving at motorway speed, the mirrors we both bought at Probike are already invaluable to know where you both are in relation to each other and traffic. Smog is heavy, sweat is free running but the sense of being back in the saddle oddly rewarding.

Salt plains with windmills, lorries, accidentally cycling on an expressway for 8 miles and cycling on the hard shoulder avoiding the detritus of the combustion engine made up the almost all of my first 60 miler plus day. We were given bananas and coconut custard for free with our lunch and saw on the opposite carriageway some sort of cycle tour with more support vehicles than riders…pah!

We began searching for Pak Tho according to the map but ended up suddenly on the Highway 4 heading south and our learning of the Thai word for Hotel came into action. I stopped mimed being asleep and was pointed 200 metres down the highway to an establishment that I will describe as a by the hour payment or overnight. Many mirrors adorned the room as did some interesting viewing content on TV were the giveaways plus we were not allowed a key…we wandered up to the service station, oh what a life, to buy breakfast and stopped on the way back at a roadside café for dinner. This was without doubt the hottest chilli fest of food we have had to date. My tongue and lips were screaming and the fact that we had extra dried chillis and chilli sauce placed on the table made me think that maybe Thai people have asbestos linings to their mouths.

The plus side is that any soot and dirt that had ingrained its self in any pores soon came out in a chilli sweat….how pleasant. A lovely evening sunset stroll along the hard shoulder back to our den and a much needed sleep.


the view from the door of our by the hour accom



getting up at 5.30 really makes G come alive!



stranger things have been sighted



2^nd December – Pak Tho to Hua Hin – 60.57 miles – Av. 12.1 – Max. 20.1 – Ride time 4.56

Out of our curtained establishment at 7.35am! Stopped for a break after usual 20 miles at Big C – never again and an experiential learning at its best. Opened at 9 allegedly but supermarket was so big took 25 minutes to negotiate but banana muffin and can of tango makes up for it til next stop at Cha Am after a sweaty 42 miles – awesomemungus just off the beach and able to watch the world go by over lunch. This town is currently hosting the 2012 Olympic qualifying heats for beach volleyball which I saw on TV last night but it would have been way too distracting to go and watch for real so onwards we go but not until I had admire my first quadem – think tandem but for 4!

Many more police, paramilitary and army roadblocks to smile and wave through as I think the King was at his holiday home in Hua Hin some time over the weekend. Well it was his 83^rd Birthday on Sunday and the flags all along the hard shoulder seemed to have been put out overnight.

There is also a motorbike show over the weekend in Hua Hin so there was a distinct increase in the number of proper motorbikes we heard and saw including an ever growing understanding and appreciation (for me) of the distinct sound of the Harley Davidison.

Hua Hin however is an odd place. All of the big global hotel brands are here well 10km either side of town and line the highway offering ever more extravagant lifestyles and then you happen upon the town and after finding the road suggested in the guides we promptly dispatched with their advice and stayed at a cool little place perched on stilts above the beach called Bird Guest House. A quick change and lotion application and off to the beach and my first swim since arriving. It was very good to be in the sea and let it wash the days yumminess from me…

the view from home for the night

Watched the fisherman bringing in their catch from the end of the stilted guest house then after the wonders of hand washing our gear from the day we set off to explore and settled down at a very good Italian just opposite the guest house. Now here is a thing, my challenge here is that I had a very good pizza but this could have been anywhere in the Mediterranean. There was a distinctly Germanic feel to much of the language heard and advertising done here. I succumbed to a peppermint tea at a little coffee shop, then it was back to bijou home for the night.

3^rd December  - Hua Hin to Prachup Khiri Khan – 58.23miles – Av. 12.4 – Max. 32.4 – Ride time 4hrs 39mins

This was my first day of hills/slopes/not flat, made some decisions today also – life changing they are not but they are worthy of note. When you see a dog racing towards you faster than you are riding – speed up and howl at it – worked a treat. Secondly Caltex services are the best by far. Wow earth shattering I am sure for the average reader but when you see the blue flame sign of the above services you know that food, 7eleven and coffee are sometime within the next 30km. First decent downhill and up to over 32mph was a great compensation for the climb up. Seen a couple of racers today and a few mountain bikers all kitted out in Lycra. Had a brief chat with a guy on a moped he bought in Vietnam then decided to carry on going similar route to us til now.

2000 miles today!

sunrise from our room

We are staying at Nings guest house a massive room in a beachfront Folkestone-esque style property decorated by its Austrian owner and his Vietnamese wife. He was probably once a man of the moment and great artistic talent but this has moved on to alcohol and Lennon/Elvis fuelled eccentricity.

Had an excellent seafood dinner at Ma Prow’s overlooking the beach and watched the Harley’s cruise the seafront. It was the first overcast day we have had which made a blessed relief from the sun however I of course still managed to catch it.

4^th December – Prachup Khiri Khan to Bang Saphan – 61.88miles – Av 11.1 – Max. 25.2 – Ride time 5hrs 31 mins

Longest undulating ride so far by a couple of yards. Our route out of Prachup took us through a naval base, over their runway and through their town which we discovered we could have hotel’d or camped at. Both decided probably not the best and most relaxing thing. Odd bloke doing unmentionable rode up alongside G and had I been next to her versus in front then I would have lost it with him I know, I thank the stars that I bought the horn for her as a couple of toots on that certainly gets my attention. We negotiated our way back to the Highway with the use of my new compass (thank you A & CK).

I had 2 lunches today as the food was so good and so fresh and with many undulations my fuel reserves were depleted by the time we stopped for our half way rest. Today was much like yesterday in terms of road users, speed, crazy overtaking and heat.

I only nipped off to the loo to find G resting!

undulating....

We arrived in Bang Saphan then headed another 4km’s south to the guide books listings. A quick trawl through a couple of odd sleep places and we ended up in a bungalow on stilts in the jungle. Wow! Dinner in their restaurant listening to the sounds of the unidentifiable but wild imaginations did flow. Met a Canadian couple doing similar as they have for the last 6 years in SE Asia – 2-4 months at a time touring these nations. I know for sure that if health, wealth and happiness are with me I will come back here. You can only do so much in the timeframe we have and there is the whole of the mountainous north to explore for another time.

5^th December – Bang Saphan to Chumphon – 62.19miles – Av.11.1 – Max 32.7 – Ride time 5hrs 34 mins

OMG! Hills, where did they come from. My thighs know that tonight I have added another layer of ache. Each hill which started when we left our overnight stop, had the upside of a down hill and my fastest speed not trying so far. Deserted beaches, jungle either side, beautiful birds and doughnuts will be my memories of today.

We discovered at our morning stop the delights of mini ring doughnuts and there is most definitely a prize if you can guess how many we consumed during the day. We needed the sugar honest!

This was our first day of riding on secondary roads and it made such a difference to the ride style and views and was far more relaxing to enable you to take in the lives going on around you in the jungles of southern Thailand. Our lunch stop was an absolute bargain and I think my taste buds have either adjusted or been burnt away as the food went down a treat without the usual mouth on fire aftermath.

Watched egrets sitting on the backs of water buffalo and alongside the mouths of cattle as we waited for the unearthing of their next meals, saw rice out to dry again which I have seen since Cambodia, heard hello’s from homes as we rode past and could not believe how much I had missed them.

we both just laughed

We are staying in Chumphon for a day to rest and blog and plan the next leg of the journey. We dined in Fame and just sat relaxing knowing that the interweb awaits us tomorrow. Dropped off laundry on way back to watch the whole lot go into the machine unsorted!!! Ummm tomorrow will be much pink me thinks.