December 21, 2006
To Nokhon Nayok: Leaving Bangkok
Patrick goes down to the lobby at 6am to see if the guard is there to unlock the door where our bikes are kept. We shuttle all the gear down, make a final check of the apartment and we are off again, cycling at first light.
No sooner than turning the corner, Rachel notices she has a wobble...a big wobble. We go on. The traffic is just starting we head back toward Pak Kret the direction we came into Nonthaburi. There's lots of commuter traffic, we make our way through, sometimes like the locals. One section we went the wrong way to avoid a long U-turn.
There is one construction section that gave us Deja Vu Nairobi in being dusty, sometimes having to go off in the sand on the sides of the road, other times when traffic was stopped, just as the local motorbikes, we worked our way between the cars, buses, minivans, other bikes.
We get onto Route 305, a big section follows a canal, straight shot, nice morning. Later the wind picks up. We get to the outskirts of Nokhon Noyok, a town not in any of our guidebooks, Patrick had searched the internet and there is supposed to be some hotels here. There is a big official sign with flag flying indicating "tourist information". The office is closed so on we go. Patrick spots a building with lots of flags "I think that looks like a hotel, let's check it out" he says. Earlier at an intersection Patrick had asked a motorbike transport man, "hotel?" and the man eventually pointed to the right, we didn't quite trust him, now in front of this building he asked 2 people, "hotel" and got vague responses.
Eventually, a lady came out and confirmed it was a hotel. Patrick checked out the room, said it is very basic. Patrick had the energy to check out other hotels around and comes back that he found another one "much better" and he had already registered us. It was about 2pm. The hotel is nice, it's along the river and even though we have to shuttle our stuff up to the fifth floor.... there's an elevator!
We have a corner room, a little balcony, with cracks Patrick, the architect, says. There's a view of the river and what looks like a night market stetting up. Patrick cleans up and goes for beer and potato chips while Rachel cleans up.... a routine is developing.
We watch as the street fills up with food stalls. In the park, we watch and hear an aerobics workout with about 30 people exercising. It seemed pretty intense and didn't have breaks...this wasn't tai chi. At dusk we wandered through the market, had chicken satay with peanut sauce and cucumber for an appetizer. We look at all the food stalls before deciding on, surprise and wait for it.... mussels and pad thai.
We pick up milk for tomorrow's cereal and pepsi and head back to the room to read and try to coerce the other one to write in the journal.
Tonight, Rachel writes.
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Today's ride: 104 km (65 miles)
Total: 3,089 km (1,918 miles)
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