As I near the end of my Southeast Asia bike trip, I’ve finally begun writing about the beginning of it.  Eventually, I hope to be caught up… but for now I hope you enjoy these little stories from when I first got on a bike!

 How can I describe those first few heady days of biking? I’m hopelessly naive about my timeframe, sunburnt, my knees, thighs, and BUM are endlessly sore, terrified to deviate from My Pumpy’s biking guide, and most importantly, excited again about travel. I’m happy to be off the bus, biking through rice paddies and past exquisitely decorated monasteries, while farmers, their faces protected from the sun with T-shirts functioning as masks, slowly overtake me on tractors. Where I go is entirely up to me.

 Thailand is, of course, a very good place to start a trip like this. It’s easy and inexpensive. It’s Western, with paved roads and aircon and HBO in the guesthouses. Internet is available everywhere, although you’ll be sharing the cafes with crowds of gaming boys. The roads are flat, flat, flat, at least near Bangkok. And there are lots of cheap Thai massage places for those aching legs of mine - although the hour-long kneading of sore muscles with bony Thai fingers, hands, and elbows brings its own pain.

Pain is my companion on this leg. I had no training and no experience and this rears its ugly head in the first few days on the road. In Nakhon Sawan I snuck a look at my backside in the mirror, and was shocked to see the red I expected turning a bright purple, black, and blue! Ah, the glamors of life on the road!

Just a few days in, I’m becoming used to that awed look on people’s faces when I tell them my plans. “How far are you biking?” “Wow! You’re so [brave, adventurous, crazy…]!” Still, already I can tell that it’s more a matter of overcoming inertia than any grand competence on my part. The real challenge is the loneliness and boredom, and listening to myself think for six or more hours of biking a day. After several days of boring solo conversations with myself about the heat, the road conditions, and my cycling speed, I’m sad to discover that I’m just not that interesting of a person!

***

I start in Bangkok. I’d spent a few weeks in the area BC (before cycling) and actually quite enjoyed my time there. After India, it felt clean and calm. People are friendly, there are lots of fun things to see and do, and just walking down random streets can bring surprises: high school costume parties, badminton games, or just two ladyboys gossiping in a corner. I liked the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho far more than expected, loved my early morning spent on the water at the nearby Damnoen Saduak floating market, and shopped for hours at the entertaining Chatuchat Market. Alas, without success, as the market that sells everything doesn’t have any bike helmet vendors! As for Khao San Road, well… perhaps no city is perfect.

 To leave Bangkok, I opted to take the train a few kilometers and avoid the traffic. 15 baht (40 cents) for me, 100 baht (3 USD) for my bike. Ouch! Salt is rubbed in the wound with a two hour delay on the rails, so my shortcut ends up taking far more time than just biking would have… as a result I arrive in Ayuthaya as the sun is setting - too late to do any sightseeing. I’ve heard it’s a beautiful set of ruins, but I leave early the next morning, instead opting to spend my time and money in Sukhothai.

I try to take side roads and avoid highways and speeding trucks, but even on the smaller roads the traffic is consistent. Still, the way to Sukhothai is flat and well-paved, with plenty of noodle shops and wooden restaurants advertising their wares with Fanta signs and glass counters displaying cucumbers and tomatoes. On my third day of biking, lucky me, I get my first puncture! Having no clue how to fix it, I spend several worried minutes at the side of the road trying to hail a bus before realizing that a few hundred meters away, just past a bend in a road, a gas station awaits. From there I’m able to hitch a ride on a pickup truck to my planned destination and the family driving even sticks around to make sure my tire gets fixed - and pays for it!

 I do eventually reach Sukhothai, my first planned tourist stop. The ruins stretch out over a fairly large area and are located about 12km from the town. My LP “On a Shoestring” highly recommends biking it, and as I have a bike already, this seems a perfect way to get around. The ride out is pleasant, except for a nagging knee pain that is in no hurry to disappear. Once in the park, it is obvious that everyone else has also read the Lonely Planet, and piles of cheap rental bikes stand guard outside each temple entryway. The Indian influence on the architecture is quite strong, and I’m reminded of the unpleasantries of my time spent in India (BC, or before cycling). Still, I mostly enjoy the ruins - especially the ones a bit off the beaten track. My favorite is the rather hidden and extremely empty Wat Chang Lom, or elephant temple.

By the end of the day, I’ve cycled 40km and my knee pain is worse. I make the executive decision to extend my offdays in town and let my body recover from the heavy shock of even just a few days of long-distance cycling. Fortunately, there is a free book exchange at my guesthouse. I spend most of the next few days reading my way through the shelf, although I do come out one evening to see the local Chinese New Year celebration.

After a few days recuperating, I’m back on the bike on the long trip to Utteradit. The road seems to shift uphill, and the terrain becomes more wooded. While the trees along the road provide nice shade, my difficulties with the smallish rise and fall of the road don’t bode well for the mountains en route to Chiang Mai! I coast down the hills and dread each tiny increase in elevation, and find myself shifting very uncomfortably in the saddle as the sun moves lower in the sky. I only just beat the sunset to Utteradit - worryingly as the next 120 km is both more distance AND several difficult climbs on the road to Lampang. Perhaps I can break the ride into two parts? Take a train or bus part of the way? Or maybe just skip the ride entirely and take a bus all the way to Chiang Mai…

 Utteradit is a very genuine little non-touristy city. I find a banana pancake stall that I fall a little in love with, make conversation about the region with local Thais over noodle soup, and eventually make my way to the train station. Yes, my priorities were in that order - dessert, dinner, and finally transport. My attempt at intelligence-gathering leaves me no wiser as to a course of action: taking a train to Chiang Mai is expensive, long and requires a very early morning departure, and there are no guesthouses between Utteradit and Lampang. However, apparently several lovely waterfalls are just a short distance from the city and would make a good day trip. I give myself another offday to see some of the surrounding region, figure out my plans, and enjoy another night of banana pancake bliss.

Hmm, for some reason my planned schedule is looking rather unreachable at the moment!

Around Utteradit are several villages, some with silk-making demonstrations aimed at tourists. These seem a bit optimistic, as I haven’t seen any other travellers since leaving Sukhothai. I head in the direction of the touted waterfall, but am unable to find the right turnoff, despite the many signs apparently marking it out. Ah well, this isn’t a big disappointment as I find waterfalls secretly boring. Just getting out on a little ride and seeing the villages is exciting enough.

 I decide to head towards Lampang by bicycle the next morning. Yes, the climbs might kill me, but perhaps I can cycle part of the way and then catch a bus - thus feeling useful and adventurous without actually needing to do much actual work. Den Chai, 50km into the 120km leg, has both a train and bus station and seems to lie before most of the major elevation gain. The road out of Utteradit is under heavy construction, but otherwise, no problems until… my first real climb of the trip!

Oh boy.

Well, the hill just seems to go on and on and on. It is only a few kilometers long (perhaps 5 at the most) but as I feared, I’m huffing and puffing and contemplating riding off the edge after just a few kilometers. My general out-of-shapeness and lack of biking experience probably contribute to the difficulties, but I think the major culprit is a sun-addled brain, as I forget everything I know when I’m starting the climb and, for some crazy reason, decide that shifting gears is a sign of weakness and I should try and bike it in the highest gear I possibly can. Brilliant. That does not work out so well, and eventually, I dismount and start walking up, fully expecting each bend in the road to reward me with the end of the mountain.

 Yes, that was an unpleasant morning, and I decide hills are not for me. Fortunately, I do eventually reach the end, and find a small restaurant waiting at the top. Mmm, time for some pad thai, Fanta, water, and most importantly, a break from walking my bike up the hill!

Downhill, of course, is another story. Perhaps I do like hills after all! I miraculously cruise into Den Chai around noon (something like four hours after leaving in the morning) and grab the last seat on a bus waiting for Chiang Mai. Relaxing, I enjoy the free water, chocolate cookies, and Thai movie, feeling I deserve a break after the most difficult morning of the trip to date.

Chiang Mai was a city I’d long wanted to visit. Mostly, of course, to take a cheesy elephant ride. I know they’re horrible and exploitative and and only further the problems of elephant kidnapping and trafficking. In my defense, however, a Facebook meme “Bucket List” was around about this time, and an elephant ride was one of the categories.  How could I resist? I booked a 2 day trekking tour that included such extras as white-water rafting, non-touristy ethnic minority village visits, and, of course, and elephant ride! I also signed up for a half-day cooking course and treated myself to a Thai massage.

 The cooking course was delicious, featuring pad thai, green curry chicken, spring rolls, and a disappointingly healthy banana pancake that bore little resemble to the fat-drenched ones I’d developed an affinity to. The trek had ups and downs, with the elephants appearing to be reasonably well-treated, but the non-touristy village visits a bit of a bust (as we only stopped at one instead of the promised four, and it was non-touristy to the extreme, with no sign at all that it was anything other than a normal village and no water for sale.) Ah well, the Thai massage was good!