We left our cabin in the paddy fields at dawn and had a lovely cycle though small lanes, with ever changing scenery from Sugar Cane to strange crops we had no idea about but they looked about as worn out as we were by noon when it got really hot.
We were within about 10km of our visit for the day and had found it really easy going, but all of a sudden it just became like cycling through treacle and it was so much effort, all because the temperature had risen to the high 30’s.
It takes almost twice a much energy to cycle at 35C as it does at 20C, all of the extra energy is just to try to keep you cool, and your heart rate increases even on flat easy wind free cycles. Add a hill, even a miniscule one, and you really feel it. That’s why we try to get all done by about noon, but the last few days it’s forecast to be highs of 37C and so it gets hotter earlier. Cooler weather coming though.
Having cycled down a road full of monkeys all sitting on the shoulder watching the cars cruise past giving them a surprise to see a tandem, we reached our cave visit..
The cave is enormous and has more stalagtites in than we’ve seen anywhere else ever. They’re are thousands along the walk through the cave, ducking under the stalagtites and naturally there’s no hard hats required. It’s also very very humid and warm in there which shocked us, being used to going into cold caves in Europe. It was beautiful though and we loved it.
When we visited the Khmer palace a few days ago we met a Spanish guy on a moped. We then saw him the next day at the Giant Monkey tree and of course he turned up again today at the cave..we felt he was a rather sad person and told us his mum had sent him away telling him to ‘find himself’ …he was certainly doing a good job of finding us !
The next couple of days we headed back to the coast… the landscape got more tropical with palm trees and sugar cane everywhere. We had some fabulous cycles through deserted estates on tiny lanes listening to the wind in the palms and the birds cheaping away. Absolute cycling heaven, especially when you cross the main road to find an air conditioned coffee shop to have a smoothie to cool down in.
All these estates are meticulously managed. The palms are grown in neat lines and the sugar cane towers above you and much of it was being cut by hand – what a back breaking job in these conditions, even so, the people cutting it always waved and grinned at us.
We learnt many years ago that leather sandals and cycle touring make for stinky bedfellows. Thats why we (and many other slow long distance cycle tourers) cycle in croc sandals. They are airy, easy to wash at the end of each day and never smell and a few years ago I was fortunate enough to snag a rare pair of crocs sandal sandals. They look like normal sandals but are all rubber. They don’t make them anymore so when mine broke I had a heart attack!
I like buying shoes as much as having a tooth pulled! So out came Google maps and I searched for Cobbler! These sandals have done many tours, and their tread wore off them so badly they used to aquaplane on any amount of water, I took them down to our local Simpsons at home and the guy there resoled them much to Linda’s disgust.
So when they broke here I was devasted. As luck would have it our route took us past a cobbler and I hopped in and he took about 10 seconds to punch a new strap hole, and stitch up a tear for around 50p and I was good as new! Even more to Linda’s disgust..
After our repair we left the farm areas and then followed rivers and canals for the final stretch down to the sea, passing an enormous Buddha on a hill and actually cycling all the way around it to avoid the main road, arriving at Mae Klong to see the famous train market.
There’s been a market here for centuries and when the railway was built they built it straight through the market, who simply adapted to the lines and carried on either side of the tracks.
It’s now a massive tourist attraction and we got off our ferry over the Mae Klong river and cycled a hundred meters to see it. There were no trains due at that time so we were able to have a good look with Tilly before heading off to our hotel to have a shower and come back for the next trains departure.
We snagged a prime seat in a cafe and watched in wonder as all the stall holders folded their shades and stalls back as the train crept past, inches away. No sooner had it gone than the market was in full swing again and within minutes all the tourists had headed back to their coaches and it was back to us and the locals.
We’ve not had any rain really since we arrived, so we were shocked the next morning to set off and within minutes find huge areas of floods. Our roads were slowly being inundated and you could watch the water creeping across in the end leaving us no alternatives other than to cycle through it all.
The floods got much worse as we cycled on to Ban Lean. As we cycled over bridges the rivers were flowing the wrong way as the tide was high and the water couldn’t get out. Hence all the flooding.
We had to detour one stretch as the road was a gravel road and in places came up to our knees, too deep for Tilly’s Rohloff hub. …and in any case cycling through deep water on tarmac is one thing, doing it on gravel with pot holes is just asking for an early bath.
We asked locals if we could get through sections and were told no, but as the locals managed to get mopeds through in places we just followed them and the water came up to the bottom of our panniers with our feet going under water at each stroke. Keep calm and pedal on.
Throughout all this, the locals were still cooking at their stalls knee deep in water whilst their homes were under water and still they managed big grins and waves (of the hand variety)…and with it being the first day of the Chinese New Year celebrations, firecrackers we’re going off all day making us nearly jump out of our skins they were so loud..
Our scenery is constantly changing and the coastal area here is full of salt pans. These generate huge amounts of salt and and gangs of around 100 people harvested the piles using bamboo rods over their shoulders with baskets on each end. Hard, hot work, but still we got waved at.
Being back at the coast we decided a day off was in order, so booked into a resort that got reviews of ‘nothing much to do’ – our kind of place and had a fab room at a beautifully quiet beach front hotel which had a restaurant on the beach which didn’t insist on playing thumpy music and you could sit, eat and drink listening to the waves. Heaven.
We then booked another night…. And another, before forcing ourselves to move on from this tropical paradise.
It wasn’t just us doing the “oh, go on then we’ll have another night” malarkey. A northern couple, Jim and Elaine, did exactly the same thing and he was also out here cycling, though was having a few weeks off whilst his wife joined him for the R&R section of his tour. He’d been cycling with a mate who had been cycling around the world on a Brompton to prove it can be done. But apparently it can’t! He’d given up with the Brompton after multiple breakdowns and long waits for replacement parts and had moved on to his touring bike instead. He’s somewhere ahead of us now, and like everyone else, it will stay that way as they all cycle further than we do and don’t seem as easily distracted by “oooo, look at that lovely quiet beach hotel” as we are.
We are now in a mega touristy area with Cha Am and Hoi Hin as the epicentres. Our idealistic hotel had been just north of this zone and somehow we managed to pick our next hotel in a quiet dead end seafront road away from the cannabis bars, Guinness and Massage parlours. Another lovely stay before cycling through Hoi Hin where westerners almost outnumber locals and the Thailand female ‘elderly care’ industry is thriving. There’s are thousands of older men, many almost hobbling around with their partners of 50 years junior and to us, they look just like it’s a day out with their carer..
The bars and pot smells abound and the girls sit outside the massage parlours dolled up to the nines with Linda yelling ‘left’ or ‘right’ every few metres, for me to take a gander. Some of these ladies should be competing for Miss Thailand and not massaging some ugly old western bloke who could be her great grandfather for a few Baht. We didn’t particularly like the place, but did manage to stop at a lovely bakery and got proper home made Xmas mince pies and cheese straws, as well as wholemeal bread and scones, a real treat.
We even managed to find somewhere to get a veggie burger and chips – the first one we’ve seen all trip. Yummy!
We plodded on through and are now hopefully out of the Bangkok holiday / westerner retirement zone and onto quieter waters and beaches for the next leg of our journey south…..
The salt area looks fascinating 👌