Day 27 - 31 - 126km

After a perfect two day cycle from Chiang Rai to Chang Saen and then to Chang Khong along the hilly roads hugging the shores of the Mekong. There is nothing quite like cycling in the morning mists sweeping from the Mekong and being serenaded by the gibbons in the surrouding jungle, it makes you feel very far away from the N11. These were my last few kilometres in Thailand and though I would not like to say my best they certainly reminded me of how much I enjoyed the past 5 weeks touring through this beautiful country.

After a night in Chang Khong I took a boat across the river and in doing so entered in to Laos. From here I decided to take the "slow boat" down the Mekong to the world heritage town of Luang Probang. Throwing my bike on the roof of the river barge and paying an extortionate amount for this privilage I embarked upon the two day and 15 hour journey down the Mekong. This, as I had hoped, was a stunning journey through gorges, jungle lined mountains and small fishing villages, by the time I arrived in Luang Probang yesterday evening I was quite sad to be saying goodbye to that leg of my journey. That feeling was soon overshadowed by the beauty of this very touristic town, decaying 19th century French architecture splashed with a large amount of intricately detailed golden temples and wats and all lined by tall palm trees, quite unlike anything I have ever seen.

This morning from the vantage of a golden temple on a hill, I watched the rising sun peel its way slowly over the surrounding jungled mountains and clear the valleys bellow of their shroud of mist. After strolling through the bustling morning market and munching on some succulent ripe mango I breakfasted on noodle soup (which unbelievably is better then in Thailand), baguette and wonderfully thick, strong local coffee. Why yes I thought to myself, it is very good to be in Laos.

Change of Plan

After huffing and puffing, humming and hawing, deciding and redeciding I have finally come to the conclusion that me, my bike and the climate are not fit for my proposed route.
Due to monsoon season starting in a couple of weeks the roads from Kunming to Lhasa are subject to close for weeks at a time due to landslides. If for some by some chance I get to Lhasa unscathed the friendship highway between Lhasa and Kathmandu again due to too much water is not pasable untill late September, with my visa finshing at 20th August and extensions hard to get its another spanner in the works.
I am nearly sure my bike would have trouble as I have been informed by other tourers that you need a mountain bike for the friendship highway and the amount of new gear I would need to buy for the climate would not be cheap.
Although these are all viable excuses, excuses are what they are and with a bit of grit and determination I am sure I could overcome them, but I dont feel confident sneaking passed police in the dead of night to get in to closed areas of China and to deal with the factors above mentioned.
So my new route will bring me across to Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and then back to Bangkok where at the end of August I will fly to Kathmandu and then continue with my proposed route. I should change the name of the blogpage to wills odd way round.

Day 20 - 26 - 197km

After thoroughly enjoying Songkram for three days in Chiang Mai and then spending another three days to recover from that maybe all too thorough enjoyment, I got that very familiar itch in my feet and decided it was time to go.

So in the wee hours of Friday morning I snook out of my guest house and hit the road once more. After twenty kilometres the realistion that partying and touring cycling are not a match made in heaven which is fortunate for my wallet which took a pounding this past week. After thirty kilometres all the excesses of the past week had been sweated out and I was beginning to enjoy the mountainous first stage towards Chiang Rai, winding flawless roads with two different national parks either side of me was the perfect return to the saddle. After 82km my legs had had quite enough so the sight of a roadside hotel was appreciated and at the low low price of 1.20 I said thank you very much. After passing a very boring afternoon, the road being the highlight of the town, I fell in to a deep sleep by 8.

Knowing I had 104km to go to Chiang Rai, I embarked at 5 this morning and had a very eventless cycle all the way there. It was long and hot but reletively flat and passed the greenest parts of the country I have seen so far. Taking it at a leisurely pace stopping at a few great eateries I arrived in the town at about 12. Thanks to it not being as small as I had hoped and taking alot of wrong turns I cycled for 1hour and 15kms around the town trying to find a good guest house, eventually having to give in and print a map from the internet. Moral of the story...........swallow my pride and buy a lonely planet.

Going to explore town tomorow, even though I am nearly sure I cycled passed everything today, and then probably head up towards the Laos border on Monday morning.

Day 16,17,18,19 - 142km

The 102km cycle from Mae Saliang to Hot was the best trip to date. If you had asked me 2 1/2 hours in to it you probably would have not found me so happy by it, the day started with a 25km climb which took me the above stated time. After this there was a fast enough up and down bendy road along the top of ridges, 35km from Hot all the sweaty, painfull climbs of the past week were paid back to me in kind with one of the longest descents I have ever done on a beautifully asphalted windy tree lined mountain road, I hardly had to apply pressure to the pedals for the full 35km , there is no better feeling then seeing those kilometre markers fly by you.

Another reason this cycle and all the ones of the past four days have been so great is that it is Songkram (Thai New Year), which is celebrated for a full week by water fights and alot of drinking, so through every town and village you pass you have children and adults cheering and throughing buckets of water over you. Never in my life could this of been more welcomed then in this past week, I feel like a competitor in the Tour de France with my hoards of adoring fans wanting to help me by cooling me off and cheering me on.

This weekend is the height of the celebrations, and nowhere in the country is it celebrated more then in Chiang Mai, so being less then 100km away I thought it would be rude not to make an appearance, so I cycled the 40km to the motor way (getting drenched through) stuck out my thumb and like magic a car stopped straight away, if anyone out there is thinking of travelling Thailand I highly recommend hitch-hiking it is so easy, but maybe not during Songkram as being hit by water while travelling 140kmph is damn sore . I was left just outside Chiang Mai where I cycled the 6km in to the centre through stand still traffic of people on the top of cars, back of youts, pickups, mopeds, bikes, people on the side of the road all having one big water fight, with ice water, flour water, red dyed water, canal water, beer, basically anything liquid they could get there hands on, cracking fun.

So I shall be staying here till the end of the festivities on Tuesday and beyond as I meet a friend from Peru here on the same day so this blog page, me and my bike will have a bit of a rest untill I hit the road again towards the end of the week.

Day 13,14,15 - 157km

This was the view I had over the Moen river to help me digest my breakfast of peanuts and sugared rice biscuits this morning at 7 a couple of hours in to my day of hill climbing.
I have just finished an incredible three days cycling from Mae Sot to Mae Saliang where I have just arrived. Absolutely stunning landscape, great little hill tribe villages to have a bite to eat in and "rustic" guesthouses, where in last nights case you sleep on a mat on the floor with the rest of the friends and family for 1 euro a night. This was not a problem in the slightest as it was run by a friendly Burmese guy who spoke great English and we went in to depth about the state of his native land and the likes, interesting stuff, even more so considering this was my first english coversation in two weeks, couple this with his great version of "Brown eyed Girl" on his out of tune guitar and you have got yourself a making for a good evening.
Today unfortunately I was unable to do the 90km from Mae Salit to here due to lack of places to refuel and the near vertical climbs that faced me, so I stuck out a thumb and hitched the remaining 35km in to town in the back of a pick up, I feel a little guilty but it was the right thing to do, my legs after the last few days could bring me no further.
So it is a well desrved Thai massage, couple of days rest and maybe if I am lucky a bit of English speaking company as this place seems quite touristy before I head off on the 200km to Chiang Mai.

Day 11,12 - 87km

The mountains around Mae Sot and the Burmese border are full of lush green forests, chrystal rivers that ebb and flow down through huge waterfalls, where one can raft and canyon and in the evening can watch the sun go down through perfect clear mountain visibility with a cool beer chiang one's hand. Unfortunately for me this is true for nine months of the year, the other three months of the year, the very aptly named hot season, the whole area is flash burned to promote growth for the coming year which means for me a visibility of about 500 metres and a constant stinging of the eyes, its like being back in Bangkok.
Yesterdays cycle could well of been the hardest in my life, 87km in 8 hours, not a great average speed! A few stats for you cycle buffs out there, my fastest speed yesterday was 64kmph and my average speed on steep climbs was a demoralising 7.8kmph, for 9km I clung on to the back of a truck who just about went faster then me at 9.2kmph on steep climbs, but being behind trucks fumes for that long finally got ther better of me so I let go to refuel, I regretted that 10 minutes later on the next climb. The day finished sweetly though as I arrived in my guesthouse to find a Thai family about to start eating who promptly invited me to join them, and what a feast to be had washed down by ice cool beer and a mix mash of broken english chatter and a lot of misunderstood laughter then to bed where I slept for 13 hours straight.
Today was decision time to stay on my proposed course and battle through the smoke and hope for a clearing or return to the plains and head to Chiang Mai the easy way, after humming and hawing over my map I decided to take it slow in the mountains as the other route is mainly highways. To celebrate this conclusion I went 10 km to the burmese boarder to maybe go there for the day and get another stamp on the old passport, but no such luck the "friendship bridge", which was not actually that friendly, was closed due to a Thai soldier getting shot on the boarder during the week, another time maybe.
So onwards and upwards to Mae Salit, where hopefully gale force winds are brewing to clear this wretched smoke away.

Day 8,9,10 - 198km

This was the best place yet to have my morning noodle soup, served by a toothless old guy who insisted on jabbering away to me in thai while I tried my best to put on an understanding face, with noodles dripping down my face(still have not mastered the chop stick)
This rest stop was two hours in to my biggest day yet of 128km from Nakwon Sawon to Huamhaen Phet, and lets just say I will be a happy man if that stays my longest day.
I decided a rest day was in order and luckily found a great guest house. The owner of which brought me out to the family farm in the national park yesterday evening. While an incredible electrical storm was going on around us we all ate and drank alot of beer and whiskey and once again the local toothless drunk took it upon himself to entertain me with some very funny jokes and anecdotes (I have on good authority) in Thai, it must be my smell that attracts them. Anyway it all added up to be my best night in Thailand to date, so if anyone out there finds themselves in Humphaen Phet stay in the Three J Guest House, there is my promised plug for Mr. Sharim.
This morning after waking up with a little bit of a groggy head I had a pleasant 70km cycle along backroads to Tak which gave me a little hint of what the next stage of my cycle is to entail..............mountains and lots of them. Any notions over the past week that I was suprisingly fit were dashed on my first 5 minute climb in Thailand and with a vertical ascent of over 1000 metres on the cards tomorow on the 80km road to Mae Sot I am a tad nervous but excited at the same time, after a week of cycling across mile upon mile of paddy fields I feel it is time for a change in scenery.

Day 5,6,7 - 234km

This is the beautiful sunrise I had to spur me on this morning at the start of my first hundred km day, 112 to be exact, and that was about the point that mister sun was at his kindest to me, from then on in he turned nasty, and when I arrived 7 hours later in Nakwon Sawon he had turned the temperature to 41 degrees the evil bastard, my forearms look, well, as red as the tip of my nose, who would of guessed 2 euro Thai factor thirty sun cream would not be the sun defending giant I might of hoped?

That is the end of my grumbling. The last four days I have spent slowly getting accustomed to life on the road again because after Australia it was going to be hard for example no more eating sirloin steak, with burlondaise sauce, garlic pomme puree and asparagus tips for lunch every day and then strolling back by the beach to sleep in my double bed in my huge room, yes siree Cogee treated me alright........anyway enough of that. Today was a great day to teach me again why I love to travel, and in particular why the choice of taking my bike was well informed because believe you me I have had my doubts of late.

Having not had a conversation in English(hence none at all) since leaving Bangkok 6 days ago it has not been easy, especially for a sociable fellow like myself, but thankfully I could not be in a friendlier country where people will always have a smile for you and help you with whatever they can, the food is great, the landscape beautiful the roads are in better condition then anywhere in the world I have been and I have had a southerly wind up my ass since I have started urging me towards Chiang Mai. I honestly believe that this is the best country in the world for me or for anyone to start cycle touring, apart from the fact that I do expect to have an imaginary friend by the end of the week if I dont get some interaction, and at 24 I am nearly sure that is not a good thing! Another hundred plus day to Kamphaeng Phet tomorow so wish me luck.