After a couple of days spent in Bangkok I eventually decide I can’t postpone departure any longer so in the morning I take my bike to the nearby train station. Yes, it’s the easy way, but I already had a look at a map of Bangkok and just the thought of finding a half pleasurable way of escaping that humid chaos of cars and tuk tuks that define Bangkok gave me a headache. Sure, there’s the highway but spending most of a day riding a highway just didn’t appeal when I knew I could put myself and the bike on the train. So 15 Bath bought me a ticket but it cost another 90 Bath to have my bike with me.

The train is 3^nd class and doesn’t move much faster than I could have done on my bicycle. After two and a half hours of travel I have made it to 85 km north of Bangkok, where I get off in Ayutthaya. I have been here before, so being familiar with the city’s layout I zip right out of the train, crosses the bridge over the river – actually the city is connected to to Bangkok via the river Chao Phraya – to the old part of town and in less than ten minutes I’m installed in a guesthouse. Eventually, I meet to other cyclists, just arrived from Bangkok. They had been riding the highway and said it was just fine. Oh well!

Ayutthaya is the first of a number of ancient cities with a glorious past on my route, all known for their ruins of temples – we are of course talking UNESCO classified stuff here… Next up is Lopburi, where I spent a couple of days in good company with some nice people and monkeys (Lopburi is famous for its monkeys). From Lopburi I went to Uthai Thani. Here I made the dubious decision to stay away from the main roads and instead explore the back roads. A miscalculation of distances on my part meant an improvised stop in Pat Yao some 80 km up the road – I think my map should rather be called a sketch or maybe I need to work on my map reading skills. From Pat Yao it was another 130 km to Kamphaeng Phet. That was a long, warm day on the bike figting a head wind in not so inspiring territory. Anyway, Kampaeng Phet is where I am know and just have explored some of its lesser known ruins. I will save the history lesson for later and possibly do a write up on all cities at some point. Now the road is calling!

It’s been a while since I have been on the road. But finally, time’s up and on this day I put my touring bike with all my stuff on the train. Ahead of me is a few months touring in South East Asia. First, I need to get to Copenhagen Airport where an Aeroflot plane awaits to take me to Moscow and then Bangkok. In the train I am hit with a sudden moment of inspiration as I decide that it would be fitting to do at least some riding in Denmark as part of the trip. I’m familiar with the road to get there, I know it’s about 20 km and most of it is actually a nice ride. Actually, it should not take much longer than the train.

I make a stop to take a few pictures. It is cold as in a deep freezer and it and of course it turns out I have a headwin. All things add up, so it takes a bit longer than I predicted. I even manage to make a wrong turn sending me a couple of km in the wrong direction – and how am I going to find my way in Asia with signs in strange languages I don’t read?

It’s therefore with less time, than I could have hoped for, I finally show up in the airport and occupy a space in front of Aerflot’s counter where I furiously begins dismantling my bicycle before I wrap it up in various protective materials. Nobody seems to care much, in fact the Aeroflot staff just notices my progress. When it’s paying time, the Russian hammer falls hard on my head – the charge for bringing my bicycle is almost half of my ticket. I mutter that I swear to never support anything Russian again. If the huge amount of money I had to pay for my bicycle got me hoping that the staff handling the luggage would actually treat it with care … well, think again. The guy in the odd size booth is obviously in a bad mood or just need to show who’s the king of the territory. Initially he declines to deal with my bicycle as it is to big to fit in the x-ray. I have to explain that I checked that the size confirm to airline standards and that I have had the same bicycle with me before where they didn’t feel the need to make a fuss about it. In fact, my bicycle have been x-rayed more often than I ever had. Guy grunts, x-rays my bicycle (no problem, passes right through) before he walks off with it, while I forget any hope about special treatment and reduces my ambitions from “received with no serious scratches” to “just being delivered in one piece.” Now, I only have to go through the security check and as it is clearly my lucky day, I am pulled aside and asked if I could please empty the content of my bag and explain the use of every gizmo in my bag (filled with photography stuff). That done, I have 20 minutes to run through the commercial hell that constitutes the average airport. I am finally off to Moscow.

In the connecting flight from Moscow I get company by a Russian fellow who have clearly just had a vodka or ten as he’s clearly in a splendid mood. As soon as he is seated his head drop forwards and he falls into a deep sleep. The next couple of hours he spend in this position while leaking saliva down his shirt, much to the amusement of not only me but also the other travelers who find this about as amusing as the movies on display.

In Bangkok’s airport I find my bicycle waiting for me and put up the same show only this time in reverse. Putting everything together before I decide to put the bike on a bus with the assistance of the driver, who happens to be in a terrific mood. I go straight for Chinatown where I find a hotel closely located to the main train station.

To the airport. Last ride on Danish soil for a while.

Having examined the temple ruins in and around Chiang Saen it was time to move on – following a good night’s sleep in what is possibly the cheapest place I have stayed yet: A small hostel which name escapes me now. Prize for the night: 99 Bath + a 1 Bath donation to the place’s dvd-collection. The plaze was new and has my recommendation.

As I approach Mae Sae I decide to ignore the sign for Chiang Rai (telling me I still have some 60 km to go) and turn into the small border town instead with the intiontion to have lunch and a look around before I move on. I have lunch, but the looking around is so and so – I don’t care to negotiate the traffic. The border crossing to Burma/Myanmar seems to have made Mae Sae a rather busy place. As I move on towards Chiang Rai I have a good chat with a local guy who drives an interesting vehicle:

I met this Thai guy outside Mae Sae. Notice his conversion of an old bicycle!

On the road I see several signs advertising local tribe villages – sponsored by Coca Cola. Chiang Rai is a popular destination with travellers who have a couple of days to see the “real Thailand”, so busloads of tourists visit these villages.

In Chiang Rai I pick the first hotel I see. It’s in an uninspiring location just off the main road, but brand new and good value. Apart from visits to tribe villages the main attraction of Chiang Rai is temples. By now, I have visited my share of temples, but there is one, rather unique, just outside Chiang Rai that I want to visit. Local artist Chaloemchai Khositphiphat is the man behind the controversial Wat Rong Khun, or White Temple. Building bagan in 1998 and is still in proces. Unlike other temples, Rong Khun is kept completely in white, to signify the purity of Lord Buddha. Throw in tons of sparkling glass mosaics and the immediate result is a building that seems to come straight from a fairy tale. Entering the temple you are greeting with a “pool of despair” and inside is a wall decoration depiction the “fall of the West” or something like that: Twin Towers are being destroyed, while Superman and other cartoon charaters fight UFO’s in outher space. I don’t know the intentions behind this depiction, and unfortunately I didn’t have the guts to inquire the artist himself, when I had the chance. I saw him sitting around, recognizing because there were full size posters of him around as well.

Wat Rong Khun or the White Temple. Chiang Rai, Thailand

Donations are welcome in the "Pool of despair" in Wat Rong Khun.

I have some Kip to spend, so end up staying two days in Huai Xai. This unfortunately means I’m overstaying my Lao visa with one day, so I expect there will be a fine to pay. “10 US dollar!” the leech in uniform asks for. The guy must be psychic – it was the exact amount I had left in my pockets. I find it rather stiff, but with people lining up behind me I don’t care to dispute the amount, but do my best to look dissatisfied. I cross the Mekong river in a long tail boat, get a 15 day visa on the Thai side – and make a mental note to remember I shall now ride in the other side of the road again. I notice that Chiang Kong has a bicycle museum – now there’s a surprise – and start riding towards Chiang Saen. My legs are feeling good – damned, proper form is finally showing after 4 months of cycling and at the very end of the trip … and too late to make the Tour de France selection . My butt have been feeling a bit sore, though, after many hours on bumpy roads in Laos, so my aim is to go to Chiang Rai where it will get a days rest before I continue to Chiang Mai.

Rather than going straight towards Chiang Rai I have decided to spend an extra day going to Thailand’s northern most point, Mae Sai, at the Burmese border, and with en route visits to the small town of Chiang Saen and close by The Golden Triangle before I go to Chiang Rai, where my sore butt will get a few days rest.

Coming from Laos, Thailand appears almost as perverse display of money: Newer cars, people flashing fancy cell phones and laptops, motor cycles and even carbon racing bikes. I appreciate the return of air conditioned 7-elevens with ice cube dispensers (what a terrific invention – very handy for the bicycle tourer), chocolate milk and cheap DIY coffee.

I will let the pictures do the rest of the talking:

Chiang Saen's main attractions are a number of temple ruins in different states of derelict. I like the way the information boards invariably says: "This temple is no longer in use" even if there's only a pile of bricks left. Photo: Joel Schumann, 2010

The Golden Triangle, a term used to describe an opium producing area in Burma, Laos and Thailand. For the benefit of the tourist industry the term now coins the precise point where the 3 countries borders. Photo: Joel Schumann, 2010

They have an opium museum, but not a single poppy field! Photo: Joel Schumann, 2010

Unfortunately they have adopted the bad habit of bad road maintenance from Laos. Photo: Joel Schumann, 2010

... but at least they are working hard to do something about it - a worker is taking a nap! Photo: Joel Schumann, 2010

Only a few years ago the road from Vieng Phoukha to Huai Xai, at the border to Thailand, was nothing but a track that was impassable in the rainy season. It is, however, a ride of 120 km so I hope the best but fear the worst. For a long time the road is fine. Then asphalt begin to crumble away again … For some 10 km the road is substandard. People are clearly working on this stretch of road as well. I see their tools, tents and materials but only once do I see a team of workers actually doing something that could be classified as “working.” Or rather, two guys were doing something while two other guys where power napping. This just seems a common pattern. People have physical hard, manual work that I don’t envy them, but usually when I see men they are leaning against a shovel or sleeping under an something that provides shade. It is my impression that Lao women works quite of a lot harder than their men do – perhaps if they hired more women to maintain the roads they would see things happen. Actually, I do see women workers at construction sites … employers must have realized the same potential in the Lao women.

Oh, and while we are at it. If they replaced half of the male members of the Lao government with women, things might change to the better on the political front as well.

But I’m digressing. Back on the road it starts raining quite hard. I encounter a problem I have been spared so far: I seriously need to go to the toilet. There’s unfortunately little hope I will encounter a toilet any time soon. In the end, I see no other choice than to pull over and do what I have to do at the roadside. So into the bush I go loaded with toilet paper. The rain is still pouring down and far away I hear thunder. Squatting butt naked in the bush, I reflect on how this is perhaps not the most glorious moment of my life. At least the lightning is too far away to put me within striking range. That would sure bring me a short burst of fame: Bike tourer killed by lightning in Laos – found dead with pants around his angles. Then again, perhaps you cannot call yourself a proper tourer if you can’t share stories of how you shat at the roadside. With that problem solved I move on (fingers washed with soap and all!) And no, there are no pictures  to share of this event!

The last 30 km is on a flat road so for the first time in a long time I’m able to maintain a constant speed above 20 km/h. I reach Huay Xai just before dusk when everybody is engaged in activities like playing petanque, football or badminton, taking a shower or just sitting together chatting. A favorite time of the day.

A small village in Laos somewhere on the road from Vieng Phoukha and Huay Xai. Photo: Joel Schumann, 2010

It turned out a decent day on the bike after all. If you are planning going this way on a bicycle be aware that as far as I can tell there are no guesthouses, and in general few places to by food and water. Eventually they will get the road sorted, I guess, which will make it easier and quicker to pass.