July 21, 2019
Day 1A - Not Quite Deja Vu
Bangkok to Chachoengsao
I spent more time in Bangkok than planned, but it was all good. Part of that involved several social events at InterNations which is a community for global minds held in many world cities including Bangkok. I met lots of new friends there and got some great information. One of the friends I met was Husna who lived in a nearby town of Chachoengsao which I was familiar with. She is a Thai Muslim and apparently there is a significant community in that town. So it only made sense that I would make a stop there on the first leg of this restart ride to Siem Reap.
Throughout the day I had been texting another contact from that event and getting some local perspective on the Thai political situation. I wanted to know if it was just me, or maybe there were some negative political changes in the air. Surely a local could confirm.
My friend said, "I'm really sorry about all that is happening in my country. It is true that our economy is not growing. People are upset with the military coup and now the current unstable government. No wonder you had met all these shit situations. Our politics just isn't stable and it affects all aspects of life. It's getting much worse. I'm afraid if you come again for another trip sometime later, you will see it get worse."
I let this information digest and it then made me realize a key principle: the neo-liberal view of the world I had been told and come to believe wasn't exactly true. Allow me to explain: for as long as I've been alive, the prevailing view I grew up with in Canada is that the global economy is becoming more and more integrated, and the political situation is improving globally with more countries opening up and becoming more democratic etc... In other words, as time goes on and we enter the 21st century more, things will continue in this direction. Yet the information and experiences I was receiving, especially post-2016 or so was confirming the opposite. Not only was it possible for countries to reverse course in the opposite direction, that is to become more closed off and nationalistic, it could happen at a very fast pace. China was the perfect example of this. Ever since Xi Jinping came to power, he not only reversed course of his predecessors, he did things at breakneck speed and with purposeful intentionality. In his view, he would basically say to hell with this international system and playing by the rules made by the US, we will do things our own way and make China great again. And now we were seeing some stuff in Thailand with similar governments no doubt inspired by people like him and Vladimir Putin.
As for the Pattaya condo and the mismanager my friend said, "You can't spoil this guy. You may need a lawyer to solve this. Thais like the easy life I'm afraid. Thai people are not disciplined and they don't care about the world, especially when dealing with foreigners. I would say they are self-centered for sure. Let me say this: as a Thai, this kind of thing hurts me a lot. As you love Thailand and you want to do business here, you just can't spoil locals. You have to make them work. Make them learn to be professional. Ottherwise, we won't learn anything and things are going to get worse. You are now truly seeing the big picture."
I was gobsmacked to be hearing all of this stuff, especially coming from a local. She really knew her stuff!!
What can I say, this was a necessary conversation and information. In the coming years, more and more of these meetings and conversations would take place to expand my view on the big picture. Long story short: all that neo-liberal worldview they had told me in university was being severely challenged. This really became the case once all the autocrats started coming to power, roughly in the mid-2010s.
Meanwhile for today it was time to get going. I found the Montague stored at James' hotel parking lot. I loaded the bike up with a small backpack and set off. The route would be extremely simple, just head down On Nut Road and keep going all the way to Chachoengsao.
I was not in a very good mood and dealing with little sleep over the recent events. Basically, I just wanted to get out of Bangkok on the bike. As I did, things slowly began to change. Gradually, the cycling made me forget all these troubles and calm down the mind.
The traffic was heavy at first, but as this kept going, some pleasant surprises happened. The cloud cover kept the temperatures down, more people were smiling, the atmosphere got less tense, traffic totally thinned out, and the absolute lush pure green countryside appeared.
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People started waving and kids were greeting hellos on their own bikes. Construction workers were even waving and smiling. I stopped into a 7/11 and people were laughing and genuinely enjoying life and their day. They started joking with me also. All this time I was hardly breaking a sweat as the blissful cool temperatures kept this the easiest cycling I had ever done.
Things were returning back to order. The last two weeks were like a cosmic sized disturbance in the force but now the familiar Thailand was coming back. It hardly took any time at all to reach Chachoengsao and then I found my guesthouse, appropriately named The Chill.
Not long after that, Husna showed up with her husband and they treated me to a delicious dinner at a local restaurant I never would have found on my own. We had a great conversation and talked about all manner of topics. Naturally I told them just a snippet of the above and what they said was, "Bad luck is over, good luck is coming back." They also said, "We know an agent in Pattaya". I'll hold my breath on that one.
After such a delicious dinner and chilling with the band, I was given a motorcycle tour of Chachoengsao of all the key sights, and then it was a blissful night of sleep.
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Chachoengsao is a very interesting crossroads town. I'm surprised at how quickly it quiets down at night, like most Thai towns but it's so close to Bangkok. Even after 40km out of Bangkok you can really feel the changes and you just wouldn't know that Chachoengsao happens to be in such a great location. It's equidistant between Bangkok and Pattaya and you can easily take the train to either city or other transport without too much trouble.
Today's ride: 60 km (37 miles)
Total: 1,002 km (622 miles)
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