Burning across Thailand

Electrical storms delayed my departure from Bangkok by a day. The sky was still grey, with intermittent drizzle, as I sought my way out, heading north and finding a highway going my way. Then a narrow road which tracked a canal. Arriving lateish, I saw very little of Ayutthaya that day. The next morning I came across the ruins of what had been perhaps the foremost city in the East for several centuries on my way to the Post Office (as one does!) - it had occurred to me that in the tropical climate I'd be in from now a lot of my gear was surplus. So I left town 5 kg lighter; when I'd flown from Kathmandu my hold luggage had weighed 44 kg, and that with much of my heavier stuff in my carry-on luggage.

I set off toward a highway that seemed to go went where I wanted, riding quiet, narrow roads through rice paddies. I passed a habitat of flying fox bats too, but they're, you know, nocturnal. I made my destination by day's end. In the morning I supplied at the local vegetarian restaurant and took the highway, a sextuple carriageway eastward.

The highway made for smooth going, but was noisy, busy and dull in terms of sights. However, I had little desire to prolong my riding time in the hottest months of a very hot country, so I stuck with it. I found a branch of the Loving Hut vegan restaurant chain and stopped in. When I gave a modest donation, they defeated it with a large packet of nuts, seeds and fruit of much greater value for me in return.

I stopped for the day at a temple, and after a great deal of language barrier the resident monks let me stay. The next morning was a special day, occurring twice each lunar cycle, where the local villagers gave alms and the monks chanted and presumably bestowed blessings. The monks were great, but I learned that there were fewer and fewer young people seeking the monastic life - it's still normal for Thai adolescents to spend several months living as monks, but fewer are taking up the robes and bowl on a more permanent basis.

The heat really started that day. It would begin to get hot around 9 am and was suffocating to ride in from noon till about 5 pm. The combination of sweat plus shade seemed to work, if frequent enough. Otherwise I often felt light-headed, but avoided passing out. This heat was a factor in my bypassing the many national parks that I passed as I made my way deeper into northeastern Thailand.

Six days after leaving Bangkok, I arrived in the town of Nong Khai, which sits on the Mekong river at the Laotian border. The heat did not abate, but at least now I wasn't cycling in it. As usual, I took things very easy but did some token tourism on the side, visiting the impressive Sala Keoku sculpture park. The sculptures, in concrete and some 25 m high, were quite otherworldly. I had Thai massage, on offer for 120 baht (US$4) per hour, a couple of times too. It was pleasant but didn't seem to help with the carpal tunnel I seemed to be suffering.

After five days or so I set off for the 'Friendship Bridge' that is the local crossing to Laos. I was pleased to find that despite all the signage to the contrary, cycling across is permitted (at least sometimes). The officials in the last booth on the Thai side simply waved me on with a smile. I didn't wait around for confirmation from their superiors! Others have cycled across too, so perhaps a welcome change in policy is underway.

And then... hello, what's this? The Hammer and Sickle flag, now the preserve of several 'Market Communist' nations and the odd dictatorship or two. This might be interesting...