Jan. 19th - Tha Uten to Nakhon Phanom - Kim and Glory - Cycling beyond

January 19, 2024

Jan. 19th - Tha Uten to Nakhon Phanom

Short 20 mile ride into a much bigger city today so I took my time. There's a fantastic bike path after you pass under the Friendship Bridge to Laos if you turn left towards the river. I really enjoyed it.

A nice mural leaving this morning. Thought I'd better take a picture because I wouldn't have much scenery today. How wrong I was!

A nursery with spinning windmill type flower

A very oversized bird in front of the Friendship Bridge to Laos

Ever since Corey Hart's recent release of his new single "Dinosaurs" I swear I see them everywhere! See my little dino mascot hanging off my pannier :)

What the heck? I kept seeing these motorcycles up on platforms and took me a while to figure it out...

There's a cable down to the river. It must be for getting supplies from the road to the river boats and vice versa. Clever!

Great views of the karst mountains of Laos. I decided to blast some Corey Hart music to really enjoy my nice ride into Nakon Phanom

The entrance to the tunnel/bridge. I took a video and it is actually pretty fun to ride through. Fantastic architecture.

And then a gazillion school kids showed up with painted faces. In true fashion, they had no clue to get out of the bike lane until their teachers instructed them to. Not every teacher was on the ball either.

Sometimes I just had to stop and wait. And yes, I waved and said hello the whole time!

Here we have a whole promenade and yet the bike lane gets very narrow. Pass with caution. Thankfully, I was one of the few people using it

This reminded me of a certain singer who wears his sunglasses at night, so yes, I stopped to take a picture 😂

I really liked the cheery yellow fridge and the desk space behind my bike. Good set up for research

Festivities. I wonder what's being celebrated.

It's a Friday night and I was having a little bit of trouble finding a hotel that had two nights available. I wanted a rest day. I opted for NP Residence. Pretty cheap compared to everywhere else. They were really nice and no issues wheeling my bike right into the room. They were a bit north of town which was a pain. I walked to the main area tonight, but my second night I didn't feel like going that far. Mostly hung out doing route research. The other issue was my little ant friends were visiting again. Both in the bathroom and in my room. I made sure to bag all my garbage and keep my food sealed up.

I'm also having pain with my tooth again. It's so weird because sometimes I think it's the upper tooth. All I have to do is put cold water in my mouth and it becomes very clear it's the lower. I went ahead and went to a local dentist who spoke English. Only cost me $100b to get a consult. He thinks I need to see a specialist and likely need a root canal. Wait. I thought he was the specialist. The good news is, it's not an immediate need so I can wait until I get to Bangkok and/or decide if I want to go back to Chiang Mai where the work was done.

Today's ride: 20 miles (32 km)
Total: 714 miles (1,149 km)

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Andrea BrownLots of great memories of that bike path. If you end up in Ubon, we highly recommend the Nartsiri Residence.
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9 months ago

Kim JohnsonTo Andrea BrownThanks so much. Definitely headed there and will be training or flying to Bankgok (maybe Chiang Mai.) Tooth problem needs to be dealt with.
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9 months ago