Rags to riches, hotel-wise

January 18, 2020

Phibun to Ubon Ratchathani

Dear little friends,

In the morning I was resisting freeing a bird. It was in a covered cage that we hadn't even noticed the day before but as I was loading my bike it started singing forlornly, in the vain hope that somebody would take off the cover and feed it. Somehow I stifled the urge to open its door and let it out into the nearby forest but I have a lot of doubts about that now.

Bruce has downplayed the humbleness of our humble guesthouse a bit. It had a lot of flaws, most of which had to do with the fact that it had turned into a housing project for poor Thais that could only pay by the night or week. None of them had been around when we showed up but as their jobs ended for the day they rolled in by motorcycle and car and their kids came out to play, there was a lot of friendly shouting back and forth, and like hard-working people everywhere things got quiet by bedtime. So it wasn’t a problem but not a nice place to stay.

We had plans though. After checking out the lodging options for Ubon Ratchathani Bruce surprised me by picking the nicest hotel in town. My criteria were all packing-related, it should be near a bike shop where we could get boxes, ideally it would be on the ground floor with doors where we could wheel bikes into our room for cleaning and disassembly, there should be a parking lot for a taxi to come right to us, etc. And it shouldn’t be a fortune.

Bruce was looking for the best buffet breakfast and a nice place to spend four nights before we left Asia. I’m not that hard to convince when it comes to a nice hotel.

So we left our dump of a guesthouse in Phibun knowing we were probably going to stay at someplace fancy. There were no reasonable alternate routes, just a straight highway shot to Ubon so we rode past the mean dogs, turned left, and got going.

What is there to say about a boring highway route? Not much. We stopped so Bruce could photograph a lovely cow. We stopped so he could pee. The traffic was pretty consistently heavy, the shoulder was adequate, and at one point the road was perfectly straight for ten miles, Kansas-style. It’s just not very fun or memorable and I was thinking, fancy hotel, fancy hotel, let’s just get there.

A cute rest stop, of which there were precious few on this highway, which didn't matter to us because we weren't stopping anyway.

We did 32 miles in three hours, a new record for us. I hadn’t slept that great and neither of us was enjoying this highway in the least. We had some apprehensions about entering U.R. because it was the largest town we’d been in since, well, we didn’t know when. Yangon? Uttaradit?

As it turns out, Ubon Ratchathani is easy to enter, easy to find things in, and a quite nice and somewhat sophisticated mid-sized city after the rustic river towns we’d been in for weeks. We liked it immediately and that is not a typical Thai town, let me tell you. Most of them seem like they fell off the back of a truck.

A local transportation option on the outskirts of Ubon Ratchathani.

We found Nartsiri Residence and wheeled our loaded bikes in, looking like people who have been touring rustic river towns for weeks. The bellhop guy looked completely befuddled, apparently we hadn’t entered at the correct entrance. It was pretty tony looking and we felt grubby but tried to exude confidence and worldliness. Thais have to work very hard to be rude and while a few eyebrows raised by a millimeter, all was well. We paid a full 850 baht for the first night and reserved the remaining three nights on Agoda for a real splash-out of $24.43 per night. We’d be drinking champagne out of high-heeled shoes! Our Keen sandals are not suited for that.

The bellhop was befuddled by our panniers and placed some of them upside down. It's always worth noting that nobody can clutter up a hotel room like cycle tourists.

Even blurry Bruce can successfully convey his enthusiasm.

The bikes were parked in a janitor’s hallway, and we tipped the bellhop who would be our ally when it was time to smuggle bikes upstairs to our room. Our stuff dumped, we turned on our heels and retrieved the bikes and went out on a quest for khao soi. Bruce had discovered a restaurant that served it and mapped out the route, it was our last chance for khao soi and we were lucky there was any in town at all, it’s a northern Thai specialty. Off we went, unloaded, hungry, happy. Our riding was essentially over, our fancy hotel room was beautiful, we were riding through a nice town to get one of my favorite dishes.

At a traffic light two women on a motorcycle asked us where we were going. In English. That was so strange that we just blurted out, “KHAO SOI!” and they laughed and pointed in the direction we were going. It was a fun interaction and the light lasted long enough for them to exclaim at how far we had come and tell us we were very strong. Hell yeah.

Andrea's enthusiasm is perfectly focused.

It can feel lighter than air, the end of a journey. Sitting in a cute little khao soi restaurant waiting for our khao soi, the walls decorated in contemporary Thai bamboo chic, with people wearing formal office clothing coming in to eat khao soi. The air sort of shimmers. We’ve ridden 1400 miles or more, it’s been hot but we’ve persevered, we are going home soon and we have four days to goof around and pack in a stylin’ room.

All the elements of Thai contemporary coffeeshop/cafe design in this one room. Wood, bamboo, local crafts, whimsy, traditional teakettles. It's great.

We picked this table because of the chairs, which are a bentwood style that haven't been made since the 70s and are pretty rare.

The khao soi was good. Not as good as you get in Chiang Mai. Not even as good as what we had in New Sukhothai at the wooden house where they only make khao soi. But it was good and I was happy and relieved, maybe the relief is what was making everything shimmer. I felt strong, so strong, so fit, and so, so, ready to fly home. I crunched the khao soi noodles and added the little pickles and shallots and lime and my eyes were blurring a little. Outside the heat was roasting our patiently parked bikes. We would easily retrace our route to Nartsiri Residence, kick off our sweaty clothes, turn on the hot water in our spotless, perfect, perfect bathroom with no plumbing issues, and wash away the grease, the sweat, the dirt, the caked-on sunscreen.

When we came out of our room again, we were good enough for our nice hotel. I mean, it was only 24 dollars and 43 cents.

This was not the most attractive khao soi I've ever eaten. Which is a pretty good metaphor for this trip, actually. I feel lucky we got to have it at all, it was tasty and wonderful, I'm grateful for this bowl in the moment, and I'll be back for more.

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Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 1,261 miles (2,029 km)

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Jen Rahn" .. we felt grubby but tried to exude confidence and worldliness."

You certainly have had enough confidence and worldliness-building experiences to knock the socks of of most other travelers. Especially those that don't know what it's like to feel grubby!
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4 years ago

Andrea BrownTo Jen RahnWe strongly espouse the "fake it till you make it" ethos.
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4 years ago