December 22, 2006
To Kabin Buri: Swirling wind
"The wind is swirling", Patrick says.
The day starts with a beautiful pink sunrise we could see from our room. We go down a major street near the hotel and at the intersection we asked a man for directions yesterday, we find we should have trusted him then. We get to Route 33 and head out of town.
Yesterday, Rachel had a sense that we were leaving "civilization", knowing we only had a few more days in Thailand and 7-11s. Today the landscape changes and it felt like we were already in another country. That's how it is when close to border crossings. The wind also picked up earlier than usual, flags at the left side of road indicated a crosswind from the left, yet the flags on the right indicated a crosswind from the right...then sometimes a strong crosswind turned to nothing, then a headwind, then a push from behind...definitely swirling.
Patrick stopped by a sign advertising tea and coffee. Next to the shop is an interesting wooden boat display. Patrick takes pictures and found that the man makes furniture out of the old wooden boats. More to the point, typical of Thailand, the tea and coffee shop wasn't open.
The road signs with distances don't make sense as we are trying to decide how to break up the distance to Siem Reap. Our rest stop near Kabin buri, Patrick gets the phrase book out and asks women about "hotel", they say yes. We go on a few Kms, there's a hotel kind of isolated, and we decide to ride on to Sa Keo another 40kms, making tomorrow a shorter day, but when we reach Kabin Buri we see the hotel just off the route, very basic and we decide to stay. The friendly owner waves to us to roll our loaded bikes right into the room.
Patrick goes for beer and chips as Rachel does laundry in the shower. Patrick works on Rachel's bike, replacing the black handlebar tape that is too thick for her hands with Red tape. Patrick investigates what is causing a wobble on Rachel's bike with nothing determined.
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Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 3,161 km (1,963 miles)
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