We thoroughly enjoyed Bangkok, it’s a very western city and you can easily live a completely western life there from Marks and Spencers food and clothes to numerous really high class restaurants. English is widely spoken and virtually ubiquitous in shops and menus and it’s a very easy introduction to SE Asia.
Getting out of it on a bicycle however is not like the west. The city is like a bicycle wheel with huge roads forming the spokes out from the city and very few places to cross these 4 and 6 lane spokes. You end up either going on the main road with the other 6 lanes of traffic which at rush hour is at best a crawl, or you do a Jonny and wind your way like a drunken Etch a sketch drawing out, using small side roads, footpaths, parks and the occasional cycle path.
There’s coffee shops a plenty and we found the most expensive one in Thailand we think £10 for 2 iced coffees and 2 cakes. I know that’s not expensive really but its the same as we are paying for some of our hotels in the next few nights – but the coffee was excellent and the cakes home made too. Plus they had bike parking for Tilly and kept an eye on her for us whilst we hid in the air con upstairs to enjoy our drinks. And obviously went out to take photos of her, which I’d imagine may now grace their website! Tilly’s fame knows no end!
We actually had a fab ride out, went though a gorgeous park with a dedicated cycle route, pushed down tiny paths through shanty towns, criss crossed the main spoke heading our way out of the city and eventually landed on the cycle route along the canal, compete with a few steps and some bridges that we simply couldn’t get over without taking the panniers off. They were almost vertical and the angle of the crest was so steep we grounded the chainring at the top. But the route itself was lovely. They look after the river with frequent bamboo open rectangles the size of a tennis court to trap rubbish and even a ferry based waste collection service running along the river, rather than the streets.
The houses are often seemingly perched in no mans land between the river bank and the water, or even above the water. They can be grand or made from old doors and corrugated sheets, but the always seem to have a guy sleeping on a bed in the doorway!
We stopped to watch the fish being fed at the Riverside temples, the fights to get the food were spectacular and the river heaved with fish and then on this really nice path built over the river, eventually the handrails disappeared and you just had water either side.
As you may recall Linda’s not keen on edges and double edges are even worse so we got off and walked. The path up to here had been well maintained and it appeared that new piers had been built for a river ferry but we’re not open yet, but once the handrail vanished the path became in places dangerous, with planks across gaps and many ups and downs where the concrete pillars holding the path above the river had collapsed. We were glad to get off it!
But it’s was a lovely days cycle and as we neared the airport we ended up on a long dedicated cycle route, which sadly had lots of cracks and sags in it, but did keep us off the roads and nicely protected.
It’s been a hot start to the tour, with temps creating 37C day one and it always being quite humid. Oddly it doesn’t feel too bad, but the exertion cycling makes it hard to stay cool and we both had to stop for frequent rests and air con breaks and twice because we’d got mild heat stroke and were feeling faint. Wimps!
But we’ve loved the day, finished at a fab hotel with a swim up bar and happy hour and I then promptly fell over in the children’s pool – before I’d had a beer!
The next morning we were up bright and early… Who are we kidding! We had a leisurely breakfast by the river and then set off again to get out of Bangkok and branched off into the countryside after about 3km.
Almost immediately the conurbation ended and we were out if Bangkok! Peace and quiet, though the main road wasn’t exactly busy.
We ambled through lanes and then ended up at a forest, had to u turn and try another route and had a very nice morning cycling to an air con coffee shop that had fabulous iced chocolate! I think our routes are going to be planned via air con cafes and 7- Elevens. I can’t be outside for more than about 45 minutes without overheating. So we cycle for 9km and get out of the heat, cool down have a drink and then do it all again. Rinse and repeat for the next few weeks I suspect.
Falling over in the children’s pool – disgraceful behaviour!!!!!
It wasn’t so much ‘in’ the children’s pool as ‘into’ the children’s pool. Good job it was quite deep to cushion my fall!