Geoff Jones

To Bangkok from Phanom City on Geoff’s SE Asia tour

An excellent mornings cycling. It began and ended on busy dual carriageways initially with big trucks to suck me along later big tourist buses. Not so well endowed with coffee shops today but plenty of small towns.

As a lark I rode the bike over the official weighbridge 🙂 Total weight for bike, clobber & me was 120kg, My weight in the hotel gym tonight was 82kg , the main bag weighs 8kg and the bar bag 4kg plus about 1kg of water & bananas so the bike must weigh 25kg

It was real fun coming into Bangkok on really crowded roads, the bike is superb at weaving around the traffic so I was at the magnificent Windsor Suites Hotel at just after 12 noon having left at 6.36 so a good time for over 61 miles. My bike is now in pride of place in the foyer behind the concierge’s desk 🙂

The Room on the 22nd floor is the plushest yet with commanding views over Bangkok, a separate lounge & humungous bed & all for half the price of some b&b’s I’ve stayed at in the UK.

I’m having to stay here till Sunday as my new spectacles won’t be ready till saturday afternoon. I’ve also commissioned someone to make a silk pillowcase for my lovely Chinese silk sleeping bag that I use in less salubrious establishments. Tomorrow I’ve booked for the River Kwai ‘experience’, I’m not sure if Bas Humphreys from my Cavendish days would call it that after he nearly died building the thing..

According to bikemaps .net I now have 1923km of pedalling to Singapore & 30 days from Sunday to do it in.

The Strava is here:

all the photographs are here

Wattananakorn to Phanom City on Geoff’s SE Asia tour

I managed to be on the road at 6.30am after discovering the reason for my leg sore yesterday was because the saddle had twisted slightly to the left so well greased up with vaseline (not recommended according to Sally) I left Bamai Motel feeling comfortable and determined not to get dehydrated today.

cool idea to write name of shop in chocolate

I was helped by the conveniently spaced , western style coffee shops 🙂 so every hour or so I stopped for a jumbo Frappuccino and a 600ml bottle of water and cake 🙂 Yummy to if a bit expensive. It seems there is a clear two tier pricing system here. Local food is cheap ie meals for £1 to £2 and Western style food like coffee & cake for £3 . This scheme worked well, I even at to stop for a pee at one point 🙂

The road is quite busy and is in the process of been dualled although interestingly its the bridges that get left till the end, maybe they have a shortage of cement or steel? The result for me was good, as I used the unfinished empty carriageway hopping onto the busy road to avoid the unfinished bits 🙂

After 67 miles at 1pm it started to get way to hot for me so I pulled into the rundown Phaon City Hotel 🙁

This evening I discovered a great little restaurant the other side of 12 lanes of traffic 🙁 It has a cool name of ครัวโสภณ the menu is in a similar style, luckily a young couple on the adjacent table spotted my bewilderment, the girl had lived in London so spoke good English, so within moments I had another great Thai meal. The young guy aspires to cycle like me 🙂 and if he is reading this please send a copy of the pic to me at blog@geoffjones.com

Here is today’s Strava:

Todays pics are here or if you want the complete set of pics and not have to use the dreaded Google+ thne go here https://geoffjones.com/pictures

Tomorrow BANGKOK..

Sisophon to Wattananakorn on Geoff’s SE Asia tour

Today I made the early start, starting out just as the dawn broke. I had a quick eggy breakfast next door to the hotel and then set of for the border.

It was a struggle with a head wind, although I managed a few miles behind mopeds carrying enormous loads, no view but equally no wind 🙂 All the roadside places were selling petrol in old coke bottles and I couldn’t help but think they made perfect molotov cocktails 🙂 (Wow Mia didn’t realise it was a Finnish addition to the English language). I battled on wondering why the garages sold such small cans of drinks.

I made the 30 miles to the border in Poipet where everyone was exceedingly helpful and contrary to the article I read last night with no spivs about to rip me off. In fact there was no charge for the Thai entry visa and everyone, including the so called spivs were very helpful 🙂 In fact I think the best way across land borders is by bike 🙂

My word what a total and utter contrast is Thailand! The shops have doors and recognizable junk food! there are private cars with no motorbikes trying to break the Guinness book of records for how much/many you can carry on a bike & yes they even have Tesco 🙂 and a mobile phone shops like in the UK, So I easily got a SIM, £17 unlimited internet for a month. However, they use totally unrecognizable writing, so when it comes to finding a hotel what do you look for?

After my visit to Tesco where I did my trick of drinking one litre of juice in one gulp and leaving the empty container in the store 🙂 I just at to find somewhere to stay as my shorts had made a sore at the top of my leg/bottom area so cycling was very painful. Open Street Map showed a bed symbol so I was going slowly searching I found what looked like motel rooms so I pulled in, a lady on her bike took me to down and let me have room 3 for 300 baht (£5.56). With WiFi if I sit outside. Finally discovered it’s called Banmai Motel

Here is my 50 mile Strava showing a gentle incline all day coupled with the headwind & stupidly high temperature & its no wonder I feel wrecked:

A few pictures are here

Siem Reap to Sisophon on Geoff’s SE Asia biking tour

I left the comfort & splendour of the Angkor Era a bit later than I would have liked at just after 7. The lateness was, at breakfast, I received an email alert from Wordfence saying some files in a blog I run had suspect files 🙁 so I just deleted all 8 of them 🙂

Outside it was a gorgeous morning about as hot as an English summer’s day 🙂 Traffic was heavy initially but manageable especially with the good road service. I hit upon the start of a cycling race 🙂 I tried keeping up but these kids were fast! at 21mph I gave up and conserved my energy for later.

I love the amount of stuff that these guys tow around on their mopeds from around 12 adults to amazing stacks of mattresses etc. A couple of young girls came up and chatted to me in good English as we cruised along at 10mph. However, the road suddenly became very bad so they shot off.

I found a dealer for all the two wheel tractor things that are ubiquitous around Cambodia & Vietnam. Apparently they cost about $3,000 and made by Tra Chang a subsidiary of Kubata in Japan and imported via Thailand. Engines are up to 140HP so considerably more powerful than an Ox! The farmers with less than 5 hectares all use them as real tractors are at least 5 times more expensive. Apparently they (maybe) are called Power Teller’s

As the morning drew on it got hotter & hotter and soon coconut/Sprite stops became more frequent 🙂 Culminating in a garage just before Sisophon which had electric & real fridges where I consumed 3 cans of Sprite leaving a puddle on the table from the sweat pouring down my arms. I reckon it was upwards of 35degrees ;-(

So after 68 miles I collapsed on the bed in my $15 room at Nasa Hotel in Sisophon, leaving 25 miles or so to the Thai border at Paoy Paet (Poipet)

Here is the Strava, nic & flat apart from one pimple.

and a few pictures here