Day three cycling through Thailand

#thailand #cycling #travel #adventure

After another early start, we set off directly from the hotel on our bikes to a chorus of aawwrgh…..as our backsides embraced the saddles for the first time that day. It didn’t get any easier as the day went on. Despite the padded shorts and copius amounts of bum butter, nothing can prepare your arse for that amount of time in the saddle in this heat, on these roads. Even the roadies among us are suffering. Many of us brought our own saddles, mine is doing its job well but even so, I’ve had more comfortable days.

As we headed out of town the scenery soon became much more lush and very swampy. It was also noticeable that many but by no means all, the houses were bigger and quite grand. I can only assume this was due to the plantations. Most of the trees were planted in lines, so it was really nice to occasionally see more natural areas.

So as well as the usual pockets of traffic chaos, we also had to watch out for snakes and crazy-arsed chickens on the road, along with the usual dogs wandering backwards and forwards, or simply lying in the middle of the road. We also saw lots more water buffalo and cows today. Travelling through the villages is a wonderful experience, the locals all wave and the kids shout hello. They seem quite bemused to see 18 foreigners on mountain bikes passing through.

We had a Thai picnic by a reservoir, which was really nice. Our guide had organised a local family to turn up and serve us lunch. It was lovely food. Many of the team went in for a dip before lunch. I elected to take the opportunity to sit in the shade and give my knee a rest. I’m having to wear a knee brace on my left knee at the moment, as I’m having a little issue with it, but despite that and the heat of wearing it, it seems to be holding up well I’m pleased to report.

On the way to the reservoir we passed a little shack of a house, set on its own. It made me chuckle, unfortunately I didn’t get a photo, but it had a very new looking Harley Davidson parked up outside. Priorities.

After lunch and another application of bum butter (in private :bloke), we set off again. We were approximately half way there. It has not been as hot today, only a mere 31 degrees but my word you feel the difference. We’ve also had a fairly strong headwind on some sections so we’ve been working hard at pulling together in teams. Honestly it really is turning in to the Tour de Thailand. I took the lead for a decent stretch yesterday, with a slightly slower group, in a headwind, I definitely felt that stretch for sure. The fast group were up ahead and there was no way we were catching them! It’s not a race I know but our guide offered up the opportunity for us to stretch our legs on the last two stages today and of course none of us are the least bit competitive. I last saw the bloke as he left the exit on the refreshment stop. I’d barely got my front wheel on the road before the lead guide had lead the fast guys off and out of sight. That’ll teach me for having that extra piece of watermelon instead of getting my gloves on!!

Our last, unscheduled, stop of the day, was for a delicious coconut ice cream with sticky rice. Our guide Ameen, had spotted a local lady and her young daughter selling ice cream from their motorbike/ sidecar/ ice cream cart/ mobile shop and thought it would be nice to make her day. We certainly seemed to, she was very smiley and her gorgeous daughter helped by putting the nuts on the top. She gave me a shy but beautiful smile when I bowed to say thank you. All the passing traffic slowed down to see what all the fuss was about. There was lots of tooting and waving going on.

Sadly, at the end of the last stage, news came in that our oldest member of the team David, had taken a tumble and was being taken off to hospital. Fortunately he arrived at the hotel shortly after we did, looking slightly battered and bruised, with a few stitches over his right eye, but otherwise fine. He’ll be sore in the morning I think.

We hadn’t realised that we would have to say goodbye to our bikes today, as well as our local guides. We were sorry to see them all go but unfortunately neither bikes nor guides, can cross the border and we will be crossing over into Cambodia in the morning, for the next stage of this adventure.

Dinner this evening was local street food, ordered by Google translate. Our guide had left us to our own devices, so off we went in search of some much needed nourishment. We were all starving. It has been another long day, 85km in the saddle, (some of us did 87km, as one of the guides got our group lost momentarily) and we are all pretty tired and very very sore! Honest to God, even sitting down in a chair hurts lol.