Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Getting to Bangkok

After crossing the border at Vientiane we cycled towards Bangkok. The roads in Thailand are in great shape for road bikes and the air quality was more suited for any form of highly aerobic transportation.

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We made our way from the border to Udon Thani. The city was definitely busier than Laos and was a preview of what was coming.

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We found this dinosaur museum in the middle of nowhere. We decided not to pay the entrance fee as it appeared not a single sign was in English.

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Now that is a cool sidecar!

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We randomly found the Seven Day Resort while cycling in the middle of nowhere. The day was getting really hot so we decided to stay.


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We got our own private villa and dinner for less than a dinner deal at Chili’s.

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Our next destination was the city, Chaiyapum.  Our restaurant there had such delectables as shown above.

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We knew we had arrived at a fancy hotel when the silverware was wrapped. Nevermind the fact that it is wrapped in toilet paper. 

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As we got closer to Bangkok the roads got busier and the shoulders narrow. Combined with 93F/34C and high humidity weather we decided it was safer and best to take a luxurious double decker bus. With our second level/front window view we could see we made the right decision.

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So this was the last ride we took. It was an insane 10 km from the bus station to the hotel.  We stopped at the Queen’s garden to smell the roses (and for a map check) as it was the craziest biking we had ever done: cars, 100’s of scooters, pedestrians, traffic, tuk tuks, and road construction.  A few hours after we arrived at the hotel we would sell our bikes to eager buyers on Craigslist and our biking adventure came to its end.
We rode a total of 1100 km/684 mi and climbed 9134 m/30,000 ft in Thailand and Laos. That is as much climbing as an average jetliner does for a cross country flight. Best of all we had a great time and a great adventure.

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