January 9, 2020
Lucky Morning Money
Tha Uthen to Nakhon Phanom
Lucky Morning Money
Tha Uthen to Nakhon Phanom
I forgot to mention that we survived the scary food we ate three days ago without any stomach problems at all. In the morning after eating it and realizing we were still alive I told Andrea that we could dig out the portion we threw away and add it to our breakfast but she took a dim view of my suggestion.
We got up earlier than usual in our garden bungalow in Tha Uthen in order to beat the heat that has overstayed its welcome. As we were hooking our panniers onto our bikes we heard commotion down the street but thought nothing of it. But as soon as we were outside the gate to our place we saw that an early morning market had sprung up. And it looked like a really special sort of market with lots of handmade stuff such as baskets.
We hadn’t gone more than a mere meter on our bikes before I was haggling for a beautifully woven sticky rice container. It was a style I had never seen which pretty much meant I had to have it because beautifully woven sticky rice baskets seems to be my weakness this trip. (I bought one in Vientiane as well.)
The woman was eager to come down in price to make the sale because it was her first (and very early - she wasn’t even fully set up yet) sale of the day which is auspicious. She took my money and thwapped many of the other woven baskets with the bills. It is the custom to do this with the money from the first sale of the day. It’s called, Lucky Morning Money.
To me it was a Lucky Morning Basket and with it tied and dangling off my rear panniers we tried to go a little further. That time we got another meter or two before the lure of the Cafe Bolan stand hooked us. At that point I gave up and parked my bike. Everyone was being so welcoming. I think those vendors come to that particular street every so often but it seemed like we were the first foreigners to ever participate in their fun, and so early. We were their first customers and they were thrilled we were there. I had the feeling many of the vendors, especially the basket weavers, had come from across the river in Laos. There was an international flair to the whole affair!
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I was all in and could have walked around the market as the celebrity that it seemed I was and I would have inevitably bought more things that would have dangled off my panniers because, well, because my panniers were all full. Andrea was more torn. She was definitely charmed by the nice people and intrigued by the stuff they sold but she still had that early morning start planted firmly in her mind. She wanted Lucky Morning Start! The sun was illuminating the mist over the Mekong and it was a charming setting for an impromptu rural market.
So, we tried to compromise a little and have a little bit of all of it. We rode the gauntlet slowly looking this way and then on that side as well. We smiled and said hello to as many vendors as possible but we kept moving. As soon as we were through it we accelerated down 2027, a road that would soon take us to the big road, 212. There were no thru roads right next to the Mekong in that area.
And then we were in the middle of road construction. It was a widening operation to make 212 four lanes. Actually it wasn’t that big of a deal because it was still too early for big road machines to be active. The construction was mostly finished with hard packed earth just waiting for its asphalt cap. The earth was packed so hard that we moved off our road and onto the earthen one. In so doing we made better time than if we had stayed on the shoulder-less asphalt road.
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A few miles north of Nakhon Phanom is one of the four “Friendship Bridges” across the Mekong to Laos. As soon as we passed under it we could get back to a road right along the river. From there we could ride all the way into Nakhon Phanom and what a long and lovely entrance it was. There is an actual bike path in addition to the promenade and road which featured first a long bridge over a small tributary river made just for cyclists. Then, further on, was what they called, The Tunnel.
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The Tunnel was made because the bike path came up against an exclusive private property that I suppose would not allow the bike path to cross. So, the city came up with a creative solution. They made a bridge of sorts that swung out in front of that private property along and above the banks of the Mekong. It must have made the view from that private property pretty dismal because the bridge was also covered, thus, The Tunnel. It surprised us how long it was. Plus, it was great fun to ride in it.
The rest of the way into Nakhon Phanom on that route was along a boulevard with huge restored colonial mansions overlooking the Mekong which gave way to more governmental sorts of large buildings but all in a beautiful older style.
We were in Nakhon Phanom five years ago. For a large town we thought it was nice then but now it is way way nicer. There must be a really good mayor or governor of the province or something because something good is going on. Many of the buildings in downtown have been spiffed up and many have been torn down replaced by beautiful modern buildings. It has been a remarkable transformation and I’d recommend anyone to go there to experience it.
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But we weren’t feeling the pull of being in a larger city. We did stop for some excellent noodle soup and then we simply kept going along the Mekong without any plans at all.
Only a couple of miles south of town we came across an interesting option for staying the night. It was a resort called the BHIVE. There were a lot of bungalows all in two long rows. The enticing thing for us was that the sign out by the road advertised a pool!! We never stay at places with pools because they are usually more expensive. But we were feeling pool hardy in the heat so we swung in to ask the price.
A maid showed us one of the bungalows. It was super modern and actually quite luxurious for us. She was really enthusiastic about the place and was rattling off (all in Thai) what this place down the road was charging and how awful it was and that place over there was a dump and wanted just about as much money as here and the food was this and the dogs were that and those people were not nice and no one else had a pool. Then she told us that breakfast was also included and since we hadn’t known that she went on and on about how great the breakfast was and we would actually be fools to not stay there. Well, she didn’t say that but she was basically saying that. The maid was funny. She suddenly stopped trying to convince us and was sort of embarrassed that she had been so overly dramatic and enthusiastic and had talked about the neighbors in the way she had. Then we all burst out laughing. She laughed so hard she nearly fell off the steps. We totally believed her and didn’t need to hear more. We gave her a thumbs-up and were in the BHIVE.
The BHIVE was not near any stores or markets and was in a kind of an edge-of-town wasteland and we didn’t feel like riding to town anyway so the included breakfast was actually a big incentive for us to just stop riding, take a dip in the pool during the heat of the day and stay in a luxurious room for a change. We deserved it!! Lucky Afternoon Swim!
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Swimming in the enormous pool was just what we needed. A great decision and something new for us. Of the twenty bungalows I think one other was occupied with Thai tourists. Again we felt like we owned the place. For a BHIVE it was kind of inactive, but for us it was perfect.
lovebruce
Today's ride: 25 miles (40 km)
Total: 1,009 miles (1,624 km)
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