1,000 Km on River Kwai

Well today I crossed the first 1000Km (1033Km to be extact).

I'm currently in Kanchanaburi, the famous site on the river Kwai. Most of you may know the bridge from either the book or the movie 'The bridge on river kwai'. The existing bridge is partially reconstructed, and original two wooden bridges were destroyed by the allies or collapsed due to purposely poor construction. Current accommodation right on river Kwai (on a pontoon) for about $2 cnd a night, the north is very cheap, almost everything is half price when you compare it to the south. I might hang around here for two nights as I would like to see Sai Yok Noi waterfall and Erawan National Park.

Overall the last few days were a bit boring as most of the riding was on a busy highway 4, which is the main and only highway linking the south of the country to BKK. Some beautiful small towns with Thai and Khmer inspired architecture. It was interesting to see how slowly Mosques from the south were replaced by Wats in traditional Thai style and how now Khmer architecture is slowly coming into play. As well European touch can be observed in some towns.

So first 1000 km behind me and so far it was been great, usual pains but I should be able to manage. It took 11 days with 2 rest days and one sick day. I should be averaging about 90km a day or so. The second leg to Chang Mai is about 900km, but it will include some mountain passes of about 1500-2200 meters, so it will be fun (right...). After that I would like to take a 'two week vacation' away from cycling to relax and do some trekking in the national parks around Chang Mai and Pai.

Cheers for now and all the best.
Rob

Rolling, rolling, rolling

Life on the road has been very good so far, yes the usual quizzical pains which appear to come out of nowhere and the dogs are taking a special interest at me. I think once I get into Cambodia I’ll purchase some hand grenades for the special occasions when a pack of dogs is on your tail, just kidding, I’ll go for the good old AK-47.

I rode about 800km and I’m about 200km south of Bangkok in Hua Hin, a bit touristy but when you had one proper conversation in English within the last 9 days, it call for a bit of talking. Quite a few old man with young Thai ladies in here, hmmm, I think true love really exists in Thailand, yeah right. You tend to overlook those things in here and nobody really talks about it. I have nice room, ok I splurged after last night in a lovely hotel filled with spiders and a nice roach. Mosquito net comes in hand in these situations. But some f**ker bit me four times on the knee, it appears to be going away slowly. Today’s room is expensive at about $13cnd a night, haha, the usual ‘Thai décor’ which is found in most dingy hotels is replaced with white tiles at this occasion.

Oh, the Thai people, met a 58 year old woman who advised me to go to a touristy place, find a Thai wife, move here and open up a business. She insisted that I go to Pattaya as the women there are cheaper. Go figure, she was quite serious about the whole ordeal. Then you have the monks, it’s actually quite cool when your ride at 6 am, this is when the monks go out to collect food from people. They give me the best ‘What the f**k’ looks, I guess that’s when they get on their cell phones to call their fellow monks to say ‘Hey, I just saw a crazy farang (foreigner) on a f**ken bicycle!!!!’’.

Two days ago I went the wrong way out of town and did an extra 30km, bad day, a lot of hills and yes, the last time a mentioned rain, the next day it rain while on the bike for a while. It never fails. I’m glad to be heading up north, as the traffic before bkk is getting a bit heavy.

Went to an amazing monkey temple yesterday and hired a ‘body guard’ for 60 cents, 10 year old kid trying to make some money. He was quite funny, chasing monkeys away and being quite serious about his job, I taught him some English and he taught me some Thai. Quite a few kids around 8-10 years are working here, mostly helping their parents at restaurants, women are working as construction workers, I guess anybody who has to hands is doing anything possible to survive.

Ok, enough writing, gotta eat.

Cheers.

Dead snakes, dogs, heat and fun!

Last two days I pushed the 100Km barrier, for both logistical reasons as well as personal. It feels good to nail the 100 mark, but you feel your ass going numb while you're at it. The pains you get, which you did not know existed, joy. Total 436Km.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. Riding on a small highway close to the Gulf of Thailand, little traffic and friendly locals along the way. People are so nice, they offer free food, water, money and sometimes thier daughters. That's when I have to explain that there's no space on the bike, why did I take the extra gear, stupid!!!

Moment of observation.
When the locals see you they either:
A. Rub thier eyes
B. Smile and say Hello
C. Look at you as "What the f**k is he doing here"
D. Or the usual 'Farang','Yo' or 'Yo Farang'
p.s. Mostly they smile.

The scenery was amazing with rice paddies in the foreground and mountains in the background, with excellent roads, needles to say, it was one of the days to remember. No rain while riding, the monsoon appears to be over, which is an excellent sign. Wait, as soon as I write this, the rain will come down for the next week. haha.
No flats yet, just messed up gears which I fixed an hour ago.

The great food in the south has been reduced to 'Kow Pot', rice and seafood or some surprise Thai specialty. Ususally good but the flies are also fighting for your dinner. I really want a hamburger once a while, hmmm burger! Prices of accommodations went down to about $4-$5 cnd a night, food and beer is cheap.

Number of dogs that have chased me, about 10, I either outrun them or yell at them and they go away. They only seem to bark at white people, hmmm. A lot of dead snakes on the road and some dead dogs as well.

Ok, cheers for now.
Robert

P.S. Sorry for all the spelling mistakes, the Thai spell check is not a good tools for English language.

Back on the road again...

After 8 days of successfuly killing my brain cells in a lovely island named Ko Lanta, I decided to start riding. My conditioning consited of a two hour bike ride. In my defence it rained for about 3 days, I had two recovery days and the rest of the days, well... you get the picture.

Went on an amazing boat ride to four islands, one had a cave where you swim into and out onto an incredible beach inside the island. Tried snorkeling and I'm hooked on it, amazing colours, fish and the unsual world beneath the waves is quite breathtaking.

As well, the food is to die for. I never had the same dish and spicy thai curry with seafood is amazing. Average price per meal is between .50-$2cnd, depending on the restaurant.

The first two days of riding have been great and this is unusual as mostly something happens on the first day. The climate is similar to costa rican, but the roads are world class. Wide shoulder for motorcycles and bicycles, not too many hills right now. I'm up at 6 am, but I need to get up eariler than that, so much for vacation sleap ins. Only one dog chased me as most thai dogs are to lazy to move and there are a lot of them, one snake and some giant roaches.

Being the only tourist in a small town, has its advantages. I just got a lift from a cop to an internet cafe and a lift to the market from a local. The people are just amazing, smilling and willing to help you in any way possible. I'm working on my basic Thai, however, the language takes about 5-7 years to learn. Suprisingly,
accomodation costs went up in small town, no worries, I crash for free for 7 nights with a friend.

You get to meet so many people in more popular tourist places that ever since I got to Thailand, last two days I have spent alone. I have to wait for my cycling partners to show up. Actually, I'm meeting someone in two weeks to spend some time together and then more people a week later.

Sorry for the delay of this post. Will try better in the future.

Stay in touch.
Robert

Off to paradise...

Hey All,

Well after 5 interesting days is BKK, it is time to move on to more quiet and relaxing times.
Believe it or not, Bangkok can be a stressful place sometimes (I know, bitch-bitch-bitch).

After surviving various scams and constant haggling over prices, you actually haggle over everything except food. Went to a weekend market, man, I have never seen a market so huge. There are so many shops and everything is cheap. P.S. I will go back there in a few months and will mail a package full of stuff back home. We were interested in T-Shirts, so I got a university mascot t-shits, with a 'Fuck 'Em Bucky' motto, and Alex got a 'My daughter wears combat boots'. Ha? Yeah that's the point!

As well, Toronto looks like a small village when you compare it to Bangkok. The size of the city is really staggering. Traffic is an astounding achievement to comprehend! The drivers, hmm, I think EA Sports should create a video game named 'Driving in Bangkok in a tuk-tuk'. Every centimeter of space is fought for, but somehow there hardly are any accidents. Go figure, occasionally a dog gets hit, you hear about three of those a day.

Forget about monks chanting, they're to busy talking on cell phones, drinking pepsi and blasting music!

Ok, got to get ready for a nice 14 hour bus ride. Yikes, this should be fun, by the way it costs 5cnd dollars.

Adios Amigos.