Geoff Jones

Samutsongkhram to Hua Hin on Geoff’s SE Asia bike ride

Posted on March 10, 2014January 7, 2017

I departed once again with the dawn, However, due to the absence of bridges I had to do 10 miles to cross the river a distance gained of less than 1 mile 🙁

Today I was finally travelling South again. however, that’s where the hot wind was coming from too, making life doubly difficult for me 🙁 Also I met the worst stupidity of the Thai road system. When joining the main 35 road (akin to the M6, M1) there is no flyover to get you onto the other side. They expect you to cross the three lanes of the ‘wrong’ carriageway and make a U turn in the designated place! OK if you are a car but on a push bike the very definition of hell as when you have finally got to the meridian you are of cause in the ‘fast’ lane of the other carriageway!, now I know why so many folks travel the ‘wrong way” on their mopeds etc. I guess there really is a steel & cement shortage here.

I was stuck on the very busy 35 road most of the day, although I did find a few detours especially to the rather magnificent Gold Temple at Huai Rong

I made numerous stops for smoothies, water & nourishment but also to escape into an AC room to cool off 🙂 I managed to get the guys at the Tesco car cleaning place to pump up my tyres up and oil the chain & pedals, although why this country hasn’t heard of small oil cans etc is a mystery to me, they used a 1 litre bottle & splashed it in the general direction of the said items 🙁 But it worked the pedals no longer creak & moan with the chain much smoother too.

I finally gave up after 77.5 miles for the inappropriately named White Sand Hotel, but a good location all the same, albeit very expensive at £42 🙁

Here is the Strava:

Todays pics are here

Geoff’s SE Asia bike tour – Bangkok to Samutsongkhram

Back on the road at the crack of dawn, very pleasurable too, even the 12 lane highways out of Bangkok were good fun, apart from when 3 lanes peel of to the left and I needed to be going straight on but, as you can tell, I survived.

Later on I decided to do some exploring all was OK until I came to a section where the road stopped 🙁 looking at OSM I could see it restarted again a couple of miles further along the railway track I could also a track where other folks had had the same idea so I went for a bit of off roading, where the missing road bridge was someone had thoughtfully put planks on the sleepers so you could use the railway bridge – good fun until I noticed a train in the distance 🙂 The remainder was through delightful villages & around Buddhist temples.

I made the 61 miles it to the previously booked Baansuanphidchamika so called resort , although it’s just a group of chalets, a bit more deluxe than the ones from my childhood at Butlins in Skeggie but chalets all the same.

The great thing about this place is that the floating market at Amphawa is literally a hundred metres down the road, so I gave Sally a little tour on Facetime, which works incredibly well on 3G, and then returned this evening for a gorgeous fresh fish & rice.

The new iPhone holder worked very well, once I had discovered thE two lugs that stop it sliding out! The big plus is that I can leave it plugged into the charger so I arrived with 100% charge the minus (as always) is that my sweaty hands and head stop the finger action working 🙁 but no overheating today!

Here as usual is the Strava:

and the pictures of the day are here

Bangkok booty

Posted on March 8, 2014May 28, 2019
1 Comment on Bangkok booty

After, for me, a record breaking 4 nights at the ultra deluxe Windsor Suites Hotel I’m moving south towards Singapore tomorrow.

The long delay was due to V.Siam Optical waiting for my replacement prescription glasses which after 4 days duly arrived today, not particularly cheap at £163 for varifocal adaptive glasses but wow are they lightweight in a titanium frame & ultrathin plastic with Crizal Alize coating. Suddenly I can see again 🙂 Must remember after snoozing that I still have them on!

My other ‘major’ purchase was a new bike mount for my iPhone. The Topeak performs well in wetter cooler climes. However, here it acts as a mini cloche causing the iPhone to overheat and switch off, even with no direct sunlight, 🙁 not so good for navigation.

In Loft they had a Capdace Uniconcept Asia Ltd Racer Bike mount holder, HR00-BC01 for £13 which would be useless in the wet but maybe good in the dry as the iPhone is exposed to the wind directly, all it needs now is a little brolly for shade so I can read it in the sun.

I also had one of the tailors here, Zerutti, modify my beloved Chinese blue silk sleeping bag so it now has a bright red silk pillow holder for when I return to my down market establishments that have no sheets..

Other than that I haven’t bought anything here, except a few too many Starbucks Frappuccinos 🙁 In fact Bangkok is not really my type of place although I did get a decentish massage at the hotel today (although they need to buy their oils from Sally) and just maybe my left heel fasciitis has eased of a little.

Tomorrow I’m booked into Baansuanphidchamika in Amphawa so I should get to see the floating markets etc.

River Kwai one day trekking tour

Yesterday was another of my tourist days. Very tiring too, we covered 270 miles via minibus, train, boat & elephant 🙂 but no biking.

Our first stop was Kancchanaburi military cemetery dedicated to the 6,981 folks killed whilst building this part of The so called “Death Railway” a startlingly high number from Cambridge who were part of of The Fen Tigers as The Cambridgeshire Battalion was nicknamed , more details can be found here and here Apparently 24 Officers and 760 Other Ranks killed in action or died as prisoners of war in the hands of the Japanese. All terribly sad since one of the survivors worked at The Cavendish so I got to know him quite well and his intense loathing for the Japanese.

We toured the museum which was a bit higgledy piggledy but interesting especially, for the old train spotter in me, that one of the engine’s used by the Japanese on the line was built in England in 1921. We then took the train for 100 minutes crossing the famous bridge over the fast flowing Kwai (actually Khwae Yai) river and the amazingly close shave with the cliff face at Tham Krasae.

Then it was onto a lovely lunch at Kitti Rafts restaurant on the river Khwae Noi followed by a high power bomb up the river, you should see the Thai idea for an outboard motor 🙂 then a leisurely drift back on a bamboo raft.

After the river excitement it was a sedate ride on a 42 year old elephant, must say I prefer the bike! it’s decidedly very wobbly up there. After this we paid a quick visit to the Sai Yok Noi waterfall which was OK but not in full flood mode.

13 hours later we arrived back in Bangkok. The tour was booked with R.A. Travel Agency and given the full on day was good value at the equivalent of £36 but please guys cut out the buses with blackened glass, we are tourists wanting to see out not the president wanting no one to see us!

Here is the route we took:The 150 photos of the day are here