1. Thailand







18 July 2007, Ban Pue, Udonthani Province, Thailand
 

We started our bicycle trip yesterday out of Udonthani town, where we had arrived via train from Bangkok. We, that is my daughter Kirsten, her husband Jeff, both teachers from Canada, and her two daughters, Katja age 16 and Bettina age 11, travel on three bicycles, Bettina riding behind Jeff on a tandem bike.
 

Back in 1989/1990 I had myself traveled by bicycle along the Thai side of the Mekhong River starting at Ubon Ratchathani, passing through Udon and Nongkhai and on through Loei  towards and ending at Sukkothai. This trip now presented an opportunity to get to know the other side of the Mekhong.
 

We had decided to take it easy the first few days, so we had planned to do the stretch up to the Lao border at the FriendshipBridge, Nongkai in four days rather than one, taking some detours to the West and visiting a historic site near here.
 

Yesterday we ended up at Ban Naka only 15 km north of Udon town but using 35 km to do it, which included an unintended side trip of some 12 km because of the bad map we had. Well, the new resort at Ban Naka fulfilled all of the childrens’ expectations with a swimming pool and satellite TV.
 

At that resort, as well as in Udon town, one could see quite a few foreigners, “farangs”, with their Thai wives (or girl friends), who seem to have elected to live out their retirement years, although some of them are still rather young, in this flat and uninteresting countryside. Jeff mentioned, what do these people see in this place to spend their lives here? I answered, more likely than not, their Thai partners persuaded them to invest their savings in building a representative house in her village, and having spent most of their available funds, they are unable to move now elsewhere. I knew some of these myself. And now they are reduced to experience what other than village life they can in one of the few beer bars around the Srijeroen Complex Shopping centre.
 

Yesterday I started to get a bit saddle-sore shortly before we arrived at the resort, the thing one must expect during the first two to three days on a new long-distance trip. Again today, I felt my backside already after the first 10 km, but it seemed to be getting better again later. Am I over it already? The riding itself is OK still at my age (76 years old now), really not any different from when I took my long bicycle trips in earlier years. However, I am not riding as fast as the younger set, so ever so often they have to wait for me to catch up. But we did do 55 km in something less than three hours.
 

19 July 2007, Sri Chiang Mai
 
 

Here we are right opposite Vientiane on the other side of the Mekhong River. My odometer shows 80 km more than yesterday at arrival at the “resort” where we stayed. But this included two side trips. The first one this morning to town to buy some breakfast food. For the first time again, I had my typical Thai breakfast on the road, black coffee with Platongo, some sort of deep fried Thai doughnut, dipped in sugar.
 

The second side trip was into Phuprabat Historical Park, where they let us in for the Thai price of 30 baht per person. Double pricing has not arrived in this area yet! It is an interesting site. We walked some of the trails looking at prehistoric rock paintings and peculiar flat sedimentary rocks sitting up in the air on top of fragile underpinnings of rocks of a different composition, which have partially eroded.
 

Getting up into the park, which sits 100 m higher than the surrounding plain on top of a forested ridge gave m e a first taste what I shall be up against when we cross the mountains from Laos to Vietnam. It was hard work pushing up the bike the steeply sloping road, walking. Even so, I had to stop every 50 m or so to catch my breath and let my heart rate slow down. Too much baggage!

I had expected some tourist traffic at Sri Chiang Mai, but the place was just as sleepy as when I passed through here 18 years earlier in the opposite direction. The two places of accommodation which the 15 year old Lonely Planet guide, which I carried with me this time, mentioned were still there, but one was not open for business, only the hotel had a person in attendance when we arrived. Bettina asked me, I should check whether they had a swimming pool. I said yes, for sure, a very big one and led her through the building to the other side, where the Mekhong River flowed by majestically.
 

21 July 2007, Vientiane, Laos

 

Yesterday we did the 48 km along the river road into Nong Kai and today another 29 across the Friendship Bridge into Laos and on to Vientiane.

At Nongkai we found English menus at restaurants again, but the food in the place we ate was less than impressive, lots of MSG in my sweet and sour stir fried. However, we did have a view over the river from where we sat. The new river promenade, blocks of all the restaurants from the shore, but if you catch one built high enough, you still have the view if not direct access to promenade. Otherwise Nong Kai seemed a very quiet place. And so seems Vientiane. Udonthani seemed more lively. No problems at the border, pretty straight forward getting your “visa on arrival”. Everybody here takes Thai currency as well as US dollars. However, you are losing out on the exchange rate for the convenience of using baht. Looking forward to eating at the “Provencal” tonight, a real French restaurant.
 
 Next Chapter 2, Laos