Geoff Jones

Inveterate dabbler in business, travel, gadgets & life

Category: Biking South East Asia

Biking from Hanoi to Singapore through Cambodia, Thailand & Malayasia

Bhumibol Dam 600km Audax

Starting Temple for the Bhumibol Dam 600km Audax

Some folks may be wondering why I have landed up at Uthai Thani in Thailand the answer lies in an urge I’ve had to do a 600km Audax and also to keep warm without burning £20 notes. So when Wit Pimkanchanapong pasted this up I was intrigued: Here is a list of the 125 participants in this year’s event plus 10 write-ups (use Google Translate)  from previous years so a popular event! The route and Control Points can be found here

It starts on Friday at 8 pm (1 pm UK time) and I have 40 hours until midday on Sunday to complete it. Since the furthest, I’ve ever ridden are several 300km events it’s going to be interesting, to say the least. One positive is the night time temperature is at 23°C  one huge minus is the day temp is 32°C and humidity at 80% 🙁 although I’ve been here a week and survived so far.

Now for some sleep before the start.

 

Three days riding north from Bangkok

A very hot three days riding the 150+ miles from Bangkok to Uthai Thani due North from Bangkok and roughly following the Chao Phraya River. I had overnight stops in Ayutthaya and Sing Buri.  Ayutthaya is the old capital city before its wanton destruction in 1767. Interesting that stumps of the various massive buildings are all that’s left a bit like all the abbeys in the UK after the Dissolution of the Monasteries. My b&b reminded me a bit of the fussy UK places too. Sing Buri, on the other hand, was in an uber-modern garden room.

Uthai Thani is well of the tourist circuit so virtually no English is spoken but it seems to have a good selection of coffee shops etc although it’s a challenge ordering vegetarian food.

With all my switching of hotels, I seemed to have misplaced my tool kit 🙁 So here’s hoping to no breakdowns.

Still struggling like crazy to get my photos from the iPhone onto WordPress 🙁 Apple seems to dislike making them public and poor old Flickr doesn’t seem able to read the “Photos Library.photoslibrary” database, oh how I long for good old Picasa.

 

 

 

Three nights in Bangkok

Three different hotels too – it appears whenever I book into a hotel it instantly fills up for subsequent nights I never realised how famous I am 🙂 However, The Windsor Suites Hotel on my first night was hosting a Latino dance festival and the Coco@20 filled up with weekend punters.

On Saturday I decided to do the Bike Historic Bangkok Tour offered by Grasshopper Adventures from their new base in Bangkok imagine my surprise when I arrived that it was being led by Seen who I had met whilst cycling from Kuiburi to Baan Grood in 2014. It was an excellent tour of 11 miles (although I added an extra 5 miles from my hotel), culminating, for me, in a visit to the Steam locomotiveloco sheds to see the steam engine that featured in The Bridge over the River Kwai. Whilst doing the tour the German couple pointed out their hotel on the canal front a quick call by Bettina and The Lamphu Tree House was booked for Saturday night also Seen mentioned the original Capital was at Ayutthaya which is 80km upstream so that’s tomorrow’s ride sorted!

The evening was disappointing as I missed the hustle & bustle of the new city especially the decent massage places the one near the Lamphu hotel looked decidedly dodgy.

Other pictures

New premises for Grasshopper Adventures
New premises for Grasshopper Adventures

 

 

Bangkok again!

Bangkok Arrival

I arrived in Bangkok with the bike still intact in its box just under 24 hours after leaving Amsterdam. Apparently it’s 2061 days since I left here last time after passing through on my epic Hanoi to Singapore bike ride. I’m once again staying at the Hotel Windsor Suites.\

The flights were OK although a bit dull as I had no interesting fellow passengers this time and in fact Etihad seemed a bit uninspiring too. Not much sleep either. However, Bangkok airport is truly vast and incredibly busy with immigration all very slick & easy

A SIM card at the airport for my modem cost 1099 Baht (£28) for 250GB of data over 30 days with the speed restricted to 4Mbps, which just about handles Facetime calls OK. From the airport I took a taxi with the bike in its huge box squeezing in behind, total cost 500 Baht (£13). I quickly re-assembled it in the foyer and it seems to have survived the flights really well no problems at all.

Dinner amazingly was at the Oktoberfest just across the road complete with dancing etc:-)

I will probably stay in Bangkok until Sunday to fully recover from the flight and biking out of the city should be easier.