Day 3 - 76.8km

Though enjoyable I am very glad that day is over. Near 80 km in 40 degree heat and loads of humidity would test the strongest of men let alone a skinny pasty Irish guy who has not cycled over 40 km in about 10 months. 3 1/2 hours and 8 litres of water later I arrived in Lopuri only to realise that without travelling with my trusty Lonely Planet, I have not the faintest of ideas where to stay. Luckily with my 6 words of thai and some dodgy hand gestures I found my way to a pretty good, cheap hotel where I proceeded to sit under a cold shower for 15 minutes..........bliss. After lying naked under a fan and having a pretty good chicken's foot and some other random meat curry from the market I feel human again. Bed for me now and I look forward to the excruciating barse pain of tomorrow morning which I suppose I deserve after not wearing a shami today, oh well you live and you learn.

Day 2 - 29km

Though my technological skills are slowly increasing it has not yet mastered rotating pictures so please excuse the photo, if anyone knows how to do it please drop me a mail.
Today was spent going around all the different Wats in the surrounding area of Ayuttayah which were absolutely stunning as you can see.
The main joy of my day was the brilliance of my bike, though I liked it from day 1 today confirmed my hopes, it just needs the slightest bit of pressure to maintain a comfortable 20-25km an hour, long may it last. Unfortunately I am yet to find a suitable name for it so all suggestions welcome.
Tomorrow will be the first real test for it(and me) as I will be cycling about 70 km north to a town called Lopburi so wish me luck.

Day 1 - 15km

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Hello to one and all, this handsome young man you see before you is me outside my guest house in Bangkok, hung over and very nervous about the next 18 months of my life, more pressing on my mind is how the hell I was going to negotiate the Bangkok traffic and go the 8km cross town to the Central station.

It was the first time that I had ridden my bike laden with the 20kg of my side backs which did not add to my self confidence, but after sweating my bodyweight in the 40 degree heat and getting some friendly encouragement from the only other cyclist I met on the road I made it in one piece.

I can hear you saying... I thought he was going to cycle the whole way and what a cheat, though I felt a bit of a coward to stumble at the first hurdle but seeing the Bangkok traffic and knowing I would have to brave the maze of streets to get out to my proposed first stop Ayuttayah, 60km north of central Bangkok, I went for the safe option.

Just a step back for those who do not know what my proposed plan is. I have decided to cycle from Bangkok to Dublin over the next 18 months, but as we have already seen I can not claim this so it will have to be Ayuttayah to Dublin, which does not have the same ring to it but there you go. My proposed route is through Thailand, Laos, China, Tibet, Nepal, India(where I will meet my friend Ciaran in Delhi in November), Pakistan, Iran, Turkey then through Europe. I will be hopefully posting some good stories and photos to keep people in touch on this website so feel free to send me encouraging cliches like "Come on Will" and "I believe you can do it". All for now.