Day 4C Bike: Serendipity

January 31, 2024

I had no idea where I was going to stay tonight, simply because the border crossing was a big unknown. I had looked up some places near Khlong Hat while being tossed around at immigration. Unfortunately they all got wiped from my map once the Cambodia SIM card stopped working. I do have a Thai SIM that is supposed to work now from last trip, but for whatever reason it is not.

I stopped off at a 7/11 and gas station and finally relaxed. I tossed my bags near the bench and walked into the store leaving them unattended. There was no need to constantly watch my shit every second like in Cambodia anymore. I enjoyed a water and cake and just chilled out on the bench.

Without knowing exactly where the resort was, I just started riding around randomly and happened to see one. At that exact moment I rolled in, Siri turned around and said "Hello". I could hear her mention 'farang' to her friends while I was cycling up the gravel driveway so that was probably the giveaway clue. She could speak really good English. After all the people in Cambodia who couldn't, this was a miracle to hear it to begin with.

She was very friendly and talkative. At 73 years of age, Siri was vibrant and still knew how to enjoy the finer things in life such as red wine. Her exuberance for life happened despite being in a wheelchair with a long term polio disability. Her daughter kept taking really good care of her. She was in fact cooking a delicious meal and I was invited. For whatever reason, Siri was having a meeting with a bunch of people and her daughter was the host. They both happened to be friends with the owner of the resort, which explains the whole connection. It was a no brainer to stay here, and so I asked, "Please show me the VIP room" and for 600 baht it was exactly what I wanted.

That settled, Siri said, "It's up to you if you want to join us or not, I know some people want to be left alone." I said, "Thanks for inviting me, I would really like to join you all" and it only made perfect sense. This trip was in fact teaching me how advantageous it is to be an ambivert, I can roll both ways. She said, "You are now part of our group. Please don't forget us." I assured her I would remember.

Siri said all sorts of fascinating things. The food was delicious and exactly what was needed after Cambodia. More and more dishes kept coming up. A policeman appeared out of nowhere and gave us his delicious bok choi vegetables. Siri said to me, "He is also part of our group."

She later said, "You go to Cambodia again, next time come with us, there is a casino near the Pailin border. I know very important people there, you'll be safe, we all know how Cambodia is dangerous."

This was key information and a potential idea came to mind: if I did sell my condo, there would need to be a way to get the money out of Thailand. With a personal security escort and a policeman we just met, each taking their fair cut, we could negotiate some sort of an arrangement and change that to US dollars at the casino. Granted my wife would probably kill me for doing something like this, but hey, when in Rome.

Siri also explained that, "Myanmar was colonized by Britain earlier, and Cambodia colonized by the French. Thailand was never colonized as you know, this is freedom." She was completely on point with that one. This was probably not a good time to tell her that Russia and China were the new colonial players in our global village, I wouldn't want to ruin the vibes.

More delicious food was enjoyed, and I shared some of the soju and gin that had been brought over from Cambodia. The mother Siri kept wanting more red wine, and insisted I serve her, but I thought it best to only pour little bits at at time.

Such good food came up I couldn't stop salivating. The kicker however was the som tum, the spicy salad that is so hot it will leave you in pain for hours. This was mixed in with some fried insects or whatever else it was, I didn't care. This was after Cambodia I would literally eat insects.

Another friend of theirs showed up who didn't speak much English but said through translation to me that "Your eyes are like a big snake" Well how flattering, but my anaconda don't want none unless you got buns hun. Kidding aside, I said, "What does it look like, an anaconda?" She said "No, bigger than an anaconda, like a naga snake" and showed a picture of such. Well that was telling. Maybe a coincidence but I was born in the year of the snake and had not mentioned anything about that. I did tell her I had a wife so as not to get any ideas. The whole family laughed and Siri the Mom said, "Good for you to tell us that, you know that many men in Thailand have multiple wives. You seem like a good person." I thanked her for that and she went on to explain that her daughter had her relationship broken for exactly this reason, we all know what the husband did.

We got talking and drinking some more and Siri said, "I know I speak too much, but I really enjoy talking to you and practicing English. Please help my daughter also learn English and Chinese when you can." That would be nice if there was time on this trip. Later I was offered to rent a condo in Pattaya from the anaconda woman after selling mine, but hers was at least 5 times the price. There's no way it could happen, and it also made me lose confidence that I could sell my own condo if the market was like this.

Things took a more interesting turn when Siri said, "How do you think you got here? Was this you looking at a map? You crossed from Cambodia at this exact border and this exact time, then went riding around to find this resort, and I just happened to turn around and say hello. I wasn't even supposed to be here. I have land and a house in Soi Dao. My daughter takes care of me there, but she is driving to Bangkok tomorrow and we stopped off here to meet my friend along the way."

As a quick point of reference, Soi Dao is about 50km south of here. If you want to drive to Bangkok from there you have two choices. You can keep going further south, you're in Chantaburi, but that's a longer route. Or you pass by Khlong Hat and then swing west. A long time ago on a previous bike trip I had gone as far as Aran (the Poipet border) but didn't cross into Cambodia, then I passed through Khlong Hat and along that route just mentioned. So all these places I knew where they were talking about.

Never in my wildest dreams did I think that on Jan 31 2024 I would be back here again in Khlong Hat having crossed from a new international border with Cambodia and experiencing this serendipitous moment.

Siri went on to say, "You know that God sent you here didn't he" God as in Buddha for them, but we get the picture, just insert 'higher power' There was really no other way to explain it. Let's examine the chain of events

- If I wasn't disgusted with the vibe in Battambang I would have stayed, but I chose to bounce and also got a late start with a strength workout, decluttering yearbooks by the pool, and checking all my stuff.

- The lack of food and the limited border opening time compelled me to take a taxi from Bavel and get there earlier. A taxi was waiting at the appointed time.

- I chose to cross this border and take an adventure as opposed to the tried and true borders of Poipet and Pailin. This border happened to be the closest to the resort

- The delay at immigration with the ridiculous document got me to the resort at the right time. If I was too early I would have missed Siri and gone straight to sleep or even found a different resort.

They offered to prophecy over my trip and bless it and well, some things are best left out of this blog. Whatever they said didn't really matter so much in the fact that the whole timing and chain of events was not entirely random. It connected too much with everything else that happened on the trip. There had to be a higher power involved here.

Today's ride: 12 km (7 miles)
Total: 536 km (333 miles)

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