Trip SummaryWhether you are in the center or way out in the burbs near the airport, it is hard not to be struck by coexistence of the old and new worlds in Bangkok. We are spending our last night and day out near the Suvarnabhumi Airport in order to avoid some of the transportation chaos caused by the protests in the center. Wherever you are in the world, hotels ...
Trip SummaryRuth:Instead of spending our last few days in Bangkok we have taken a side trip to Khao Yai National Park. It is a spectacular place and one we will definitely return to when we have more time.Photo courtesy of Wikipedia, but we did see four Great Horned Bills in a single tree and through the binoculars they looked just like this.Yesterday as we cycled ...
Trip SummaryWe are now in our last week and have to make some tracks toward the airport. Today we are spending 7 hours on a train heading south before we take our last excursion to Khao Yai National Park. We are stopping tonight part way down at Lopburi so we can have one more peek at the monkey infested temples before heading further down the ...
Trip SummaryRuth: Somewhere at around the 35km mark I realized I was pedaling. Our ride down from the National Park was wonderful even if I cost us both a set of brake pads. We stayed up high on a ridge for 11 kms before plunging down to the valley below. The remaining distance into Phrae was either flat or slightly downhill, making for a fast ...
Trip SummaryWe are staying at Khun Sathan Homestay at 1377 meters at the National Park of the same name. Our hosts are a Hmong family who have welcomed us as honoured guests. The spreads of food that they have prepared for us are large even for calorie deficient cyclists!We have a very rustic bungalow that is more like camping than anything else. We will have ...
Ruth: This morning we visited Wat Phumin, Northern Thailand's Sistine Chapel. The temple was built in 1596, but it was during it's restoration in the late 19th century that Thai Lue artists painted the now famous murals. These murals are noteworthy not only for their Buddhist content and their depictions of daily life but also for their political and social commentary from the Thai Lue ...
Gordon: We booked a night at the Phu Lang Ka resort only because it was the sole accommodation we could find at a convenient distance from where we stayed the previous night. The few comments on the internet were not encouraging: "time has not been kind to this resort", "costs 50 percent more than comparable resorts", and "difficult to find staff to provide food or ...
After 1,000 kms of cycling in Thailand it is time to make the case for why this might be just the best place on earth to cycle.1. PeopleThis is of course well known, but Thai people are lovely and this really is the land of smiles. Whether you are in Bangkok or the tiniest village, Thais are there to help whenever you need it. One ...
Today we have been cycling through the infamous Golden Triangle. This was the name given to a region encompassing a portion of Burma, Laos and Thailand during the the American War on Drugs.It has now been appropriated by the town of Sop Ruak to designate the point where the three countries come together. The opium fields in Thailand are all but gone, although across the ...
Ruth: No amount of flattery from Gordon will talk me up another mountain road like the road in and out of Mae Salong. I did make it without bailing and taking a $2 ride up but oh my $#€%!! Today was not as difficult as yesterday, but still we were racing down into the valleys only to climb all the way up the other side ...