July 10, 2019
Day 1 - Here Comes Trouble
Pattaya to Suntara Wellness Resort (Chachoengsao)
The day had arrived. I managed to get the white Tern folding bike to the hotel which I'd be riding. Long story on that. My friend in turn would ride the Montague.
He pulled up to the hotel on the back of a scooter. The first thing I noticed was a massive backpack that my friend was carrying. A lot of extra weight will surely make the touring difficult. So I tried to help him strap it onto the rack with bungee cords but it wasn't working out. We figured on finding more bungee cords up the road somewhere later at a shop. As for me I slung my backpack and laptop case onto the handlebars, donned the HR monitor, and we started the tour.
The reason why my friend's backpack was so big was he just moved out of house in Hong Kong and was in a transition between jobs and not knowing where to go next.
[Update November 2022: His situation made a ton of sense as I learned from him over the covid madness in China. Those were catalysts to pursuing a similar journey, or at the very least mentally preparing for it]
Basically all of his belongings were in that bag which was a remarkable feat in and out of itself. We managed to get about 5km out of the city after dodging a myriad of Chinese tour buses and then stopped at some random food stall for breakfast. We ate a ton and were astonished how cheap the bill was. Yes, when you're off the tourist trail on a bike, the prices go down fast. The next bit of cycling went quite well as we trundled out of Pattaya proper and up the hills past Laem Chabang industrial shipping ports.
It was that first hill that started hitting my buddy hard, as the backpack slowed him down considerably. The sun was poking out as well and starting to get really hot.
We made it as far as Sri Racha, about 30km out before it was time for a "break". Well that turned into a huge lunch of feasting on sandwiches, cakes, frieds, soda, and it lasted well over an hour. All fine but I could tell that our original ambitions of doing 100-150 km a day looked to be pretty much shot at this point.
We had barely even started, and I calculated it would be 50-60 km a day pace at this rate. I was now beginning to wonder if this was even worth it, and maybe we should abandon the cycling idea but somehow decided to be optimistic.
The original idea I wanted to do was a ride through to Siem Reap in four days but this now looked to be unrealistic.
Furthermore my route went off the beaten track and I was encouraged to ride the main road since it's more developed and there's more pitstops.
And yes, we were stopping. A lot! The stops were every 3-5 km I would reckon. Sometimes at a 7/11, sometimes a fruit stall, sometimes a random noodle cart, or sometimes for no reason at all just to stop on the side of the road and recover from the hot sun.
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In all fairness, besides the fact that it was his first tour, the sun was out mercilessly hot and this was unusual for the rainy season. Normally there is a cloud cover from the monsoon that keeps things reasonable, but it really felt like April weather. I pointed this out, but my friend wasn't familiar with the normal weather patterns, and was only complaining about how hot the sun was.
[Update November 2022: For a first-time cycle tour, this was not an easy introduction and my friend was to be commended for giving it a go]
We managed to stop at a bike shop and try to assemble some bungee cords to deal with the heavy backpack. They had some in stock, even a brand new rack, and were really helpful to try and sort out the backpack problem.
Somehow we trundled along to Chonburi. I had booked a luxury resort at Suntara Wellness center much further on and needed to push to make the 95km by the end of the day. By now it was only 50 km done, and my friend was already feeling exhausted. Besides, he had a date at a location not far away from here and so we stopped at a nearby hotel where he dropped off his backpack and bike and I carried on.
We would agree to meet the next day in a town called Phanat Nikhom a little bit down the road.
The last 30+ km stretch was interesting, the GPS took me on convoluted roads through industrial parks, including some very remote sections. Still, I felt on top of the world. This was a relaxed vibe and some sublime cycling that was very peaceful. It was only the start of an awesome tour in Thailand.
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Today's ride: 95 km (59 miles)
Total: 461 km (286 miles)
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