51-Bike Trip!

One interesting way to travel is by bike. Not motorbike, but pedal power on a bicycle. My older hippie friend Charles, whom I first met in Hawaii, is a long-time bike touring advocate(http://www.bikepaths.org/ is his website) & offered to tour with me. Charles has been living in Cambodia & agreed to meet me in Chiang Mai & do a long trip through Thailand, all the way to Phnom Penh.


Our first task was to buy a bike in CM for myself(Charles brought his unique low-riding recumbent(seated) to tour with...it gets lots of stares & shouts from locals as they have never seen one....I was just going to buy a used bike(as I plan to leave/give it to friends of Charles in Cambodia) but at our first shop decided a Marin/USA 'Quake 5.0(made in Taiwan!) mountain bike was too good a deal at 10,000baht(about 300$us) to pass up....We had a rack put on it and I loaded my heavy backpack AND guitar strapped on the back and were ready to ride!


Day 1 (Chiang Mai to Lampang) 100plus km








We got a late start(9:30) but finally got out of CM onto Hwy 11 heading south...My first recollection of that day is a car overturned on the highway(bikes are safer!)..Eventually it started to rain(monsoon season) & I quickly covered my gear & myself with a poncho...We soon hit our first large hill & I overtook Charles(the recumbent bike is slow going uphill).....We soon proceeded to make our first touring riding 'buddy' mistake as I rode into a gravel driveway to a store for water(I left the road) & Charles biked past me when my back was turned....I thought he was still behind(& he thought I was ahead) so I went ahead a bit & waited..& waited....eventually it dawned on me he was ahead so I biked hard up a long,huge hill /mountain & soon found Chas taking a snooze under a shed....I wore myself out with the exersion but we still had many kilometers to go to Lampang...I let Chas take the lead & struggled with poorly situated gear(my guitar strapped to the side) creating a wind drag in the continuous rain...Around darkness we made it into Lampang & a cheap hotel(100baht/3$us) with a bed.shower, & a fan which I used to dry my gear by hanging it on anything I could find in the room!...


Day 2 Lampang to Wang Chin 70km





I decided I was carrying too much gear so left 2 shirts & towel for the cleaning guy & had Chas carry my small(but bulky) mosquito net...I also situated my guitar on top of my backpack so the weight is more evenly distributed(next time I will travel with side paniers/bags that most touring folks use!)...From my grungy hotel room(dirty walls,etc) balcony it was a nice sight to see literally hundreds of bikers of all ages biking through town on a Saturday morning(the traffic was stopped by police so it must be a special event)...We eventually got riding on our bikes too & Chas & I had our first big conflict...He had shared earlier that he had got lost for two hours leaving Lampang riding in circles on a previous trip & when we got lost looking for the 'backroad' in our first 10 minutes I insisted we just take hwy 11...The rookie(me) got my way & I'm glad I did as we soon realized it was a very special bike day as the 'Tour of Thailand' bike racing tour was doing a big bike race(250km) & the pack soon zoomed past us...I got to chat for awhile(& take a nice picture) of the guy in the rear while biking!...While the road racing bikers turned left back up to Chiang Mai we turned right up over the hill/mountain heading south...Thank goodness, there were coconut vendors before the hill to quench the thirst from the hot Sun!...We had a brutal uphill climb up a large, long mountain & soon I was way ahead of Chas. We had agreed to take a back road to Wang Chin and I remember passing one little side road & thinking that could not be our turn. I keep going & soon reached the summit & decided to go down instead of waiting for my riding buddy. It was a steep & fast downhill & I had a terrible feeling I had passed the turn already( & did not have the energy to climb the hill again!) I gave a shout of relief on reaching the bottom & seeing the sign to turn to Wang Chin! I stopped & had a soy milk & the kind kids at the 'bus stop/station' let me check my email on their computer. Chas eventually rode downhill too & we turned onto a smaller two-lane 'back road'...About 10 km down the road we stopped at a 'hot springs' where unfortunately the springs were too to do anything but boil eggs(basket & eggs provided!) We did get a nice papaya salad there though & left to make it to Wang Chin before dark. Just before Wang Chin there was a man who spoke English & offered his uncompleted house for us to stay at but without water to shower we politely declined. We agreed I would take the lead on finding lodging & our only options were to stay at the Buddhist Wat/Monastery(with no bed) or the local nice hotel on the River...We pulled in at dark as the friendly owner was roasting corn & potatoes on a fire with her family...She only charged us 300baht for an awesome room...only problem was there was one bed but they had extra bedding/mattress so Chas voluntered for the floor....We took nice hot showers & afterwards I let the teenage kids play my guitar by the fire(the English speaking owner had left) and we went back across the river into town to try to find vegetarian food(the 'corn' grill was kind of small for two extra folks!)...We stopped at a friendly restaurant(only two were open) & I ordered some hot soup which unfortunately had 'pork'(pig flesh) in it...That is a problem being a vegetarian & traveling in a country & not knowing the language...I made the mistake of drinking the broth which ended up giving me a powerful 'cleanse'!



Day 3 Wang Chin to Sawankhalok 90plus km (hwy 1125 to 101)



I had a powerful dream which awoke me at 4am but went back to sleep & we got another late start(the earlier start the less the Sun/heat)...One of the nice things about traveling on smaller highways is that you have more trees to shade you from the brutal Sun...I wear a baseball cap under my helmet to shade my face & change my white t-shirt to a long sleeve & have sunscreen to protect my skin...We had a nice riding day along hwy 1125 passing rice fields & small villages...Occasionally there are stands of locals selling produce or fruit & we stopped at one.(see pics) I have a craving for delicious dragonfruit & they were also selling hot corn-on-the-cob! Quite a deal at 10 baht a bag..(also bought bananas & an apple) One of the guys wanted us to marry his teenage daughter(or sister?) which brought giggles from everyone but which we politely declined (it annoys Chas as he gets that all the time & he feels it insults the girls) We stopped for a late afternoon papaya salad in the town of Si Satchanalai but decided to keep going another 30 km to Sawankhalok. We reached there around dark & found another nice, friendly hotel for 260 baht(with 2 beds!) The town had an internet shop which I used to check email & Chas used to download his(he is traveling with a small computer) Chas left the shop early & when I returned to the hotel I decided to check out the hotel restaurant & order some food. There were also 3 people sitting beside me & found out they were the karoke 'entertainment' It was raining so the local crowd never showed so I encouraged them to play for me/themselves so I turned down the TV & he got on the keyboards & the women sang a few songs. It was a good time but soon the place closed early & we said our goodbyes & I went upstairs to pass out!



Day 4 Sawankhalok to Phitsanulok 100plus km Hwy 101 to hwy 12



We got an earlier start today & checked our email & got some fruit before leaving town. I decided to wear my (only) black sweatpants as I had small sun blister on one of my legs.On the outskirts we stopped at a friendly bike store who offered us water & we got to sign his guestbook. Unfortunately he did not have a mirror( to keep me from turning my head all the time to look behind me) or a kickstand (the poor metal quality one I bought in CM broke the first day!) After 3 days of hard riding I'm getting in good riding shape & Chas & I cruised quite brisk on the flat 101(he says we cruise at 22km/hr)...We cruised so fast we missed two of our turn-offs for shortcuts to Phitsanulk!(plus the road signs are in Thai!) One thing we didn't miss is a massive spraying of some type of insecticide that guys with big blowers on their backs spray walking down the side of the road(I actually gave them a wide berth but still got a small dose) Even in cities they spray this stuff with huge white clouds following in their wake!

We eventually made it to the 4-lane of Hwy. 12 & decided to skip the famous ruins/town of Sukhothai & head east. We made a nice stop about 15km down the road at a very nice bar/restaurant owned by Belgium guy who has been living in the Kingdom for 26 years...We continued cruising & had an even faster pace as I rocked out to some rock & roll Chas has uploaded to my mp3-player..We rolled into the large town of Phitsanulok & crossed the river & found another nice hotel for only 300baht(7th/top floor with nice view of the town & mountains)..even has TV with BBC news & Fox 'news'( what propaganda crap!) I got a nice 'pad thai' meal( Chas got a salad) & then I went to get a Thai massage at one of the three massage places across from the biggest hotel in the city. She was small but strong & gave a great massage to my sore leg muscles. We are staying an extra day here (I am typing this on the 5th day with kids around me playing video games at a local internet shop) I'm going to get another massage(200baht here/150 baht usually) as we will soon be going over LARGE mountains on the way southeast(we are avoiding Bangkok area) to Cambodia...The journey continues...