I'm reunited with my bike and am loving it! I have a renewed sense or vigour and enthusiasm for it, I don't have any deadlines with visa expiries, or onward flights or anything- I can just relax and explore, and thats what I've been doing. I took the train from Bangkok ( no way I was trying to cycle out of that city it's mental) to Hua Hin a small town on the coast, seemed to be a Thai holiday destination. There was the standard scattering of sex pat Europeans who lowered the tone of the place- sadly Thailand seems unable to get away from this type of tourist. I walked around ate loads of food from the street Market, had a long walk down the sandy beach- got hassled by the guys on horses trying to get me to have a ride on the beach- clearly the horses were a little wild- don't want to take any unnecessary risk now do I?!
The following morning I set off on what turned into the longest ride I've done so far. I only have a road map for this part of Thailand 1:1000000 scale if anyone cares- I do because it's not good enough! Again the distances were wrong ( checked them on gps after) and the roads were not shown due to the scale! Anyway I had a shaky start, I've been feeling a bit ill lately really sicky feeling, think it's the Thai water (no chance of being preggers before any of you lower the tone). I had to make an emergency stop in after about an hour on the road, didn't get going again for 2hrs! By that time it was midday and hot! Despite that I got into my stride and had soon (couple of hrs) passed signs for my planned destination- no town here tho! Little to my knowledge the town and the province had the same name, so the signs initially stated 60k to my planned destination -the provincial boundary, they then changed to a further additional 30k the actual town! With no option I pressed on, I finally arrived at the lovely fishing town of Prachuap Khiri Khan. Fortunately the first place I rolled in to was a lovely cheap B&B type place. I was truly exhausted! Not cycled for 3weeks, bad start, extreme heat and 90k!
On the days I cycle it's almost impossible to eat enough, it's difficult. I have to drink so much water to be anything like hydrated enough around 5L a day, and with that much water inside I struggle to eat- I know almost unheard of for greedy guts me! But I'm struggling along with the heroic assistance of my good friend Milo- the sports recovery drink of all the top athletes (chocolate milk for those who don't know), I've developed a carton a day habit often more. Its going to be tough to cut all this sugar out when I get back!
The following day I was still totally wiped out and dehydrated, so stayed put in the nice B&B for another night. Mainly I sat in a cafe drinking coffee, reading my book, listening to the sea- felt very continental!
I set off early the next day on the bike for 'destination unknown' it's too far to the next town, so just take it as it comes mentality. Why have I not taken this approach before? I had the best days cycle I've had since starting out! It was amazing, got lost, ended up in the middle of a military base being ordered to leave, found a beautiful national park, pineapple plantation, deserted White sandy beaches, oh and lots of wild dogs! I didn't do that many miles only about 65k, but it was great fun! Ended up in a little bungalow overlooking the sea for a budget blowing £14 a night- worth it tho for the hammock on the sea front, and the breakfast!