We’ll be back for dinner

December 15, 2019

Chat Trakan to Nakhon Thai

Dear little friends,

The weather has been heating up again so I was interested in an early start. That doesn’t really happen but I got up and took my shower and packed up and Bruce did his papaya chores and eventually we were rollin’. It was going to be a nice short day, and the weather was beautiful, clear blue skies and beautiful countryside.

I keep moving my sun protective gear around, sometimes a hat under my helmet that ends up looking like Sunbonnet Sue, or my bandanna on my head to protect my ears and a buff on my neck. I ALWAYS have long sleeves on and tons of sunscreen on my feet which still have sandal tan lines anyway. I am a person with distinguishable sweat capacity so sunscreen is generally gone from my face by ten am, but lately I’ve been using some of Bruce’s 50 spf zinc sunscreen to add to my already bizarre appearance.

It was a good day for observing crops. This part of Thailand seems to be preparing for a new crop of tapioca. They chop the stalks of the plants they have harvested the roots from into pieces, stick the pieces into the tilled soil to root, and ta-da, more tapioca plants. Tapioca is so labor intensive and the price per kilo is so low I don’t even know how they make a living at this crop but there sure is a lot of it now. It has a sickish-sweet smell as the roots dry, sort of like vomited lemon meringue pie. Gross.

Little morning glory plants running wild along the roadside. At home we would be really unhappy to see these. Here they are charming and somebody else’s problem.

Alluring little roads constantly try to entice us away from asphalt and traffic.

I have trumpeted our increased fitness and today was a good day for climbing hills that we didn’t have to get off the bikes and push up. So I was feeling smug when ascending a medium-hard hill, maybe 8%, when a cycling tourist appeared on the other side and immediately came over to greet us. Cycle tourists have been rarer than found money on this trip and we always love to meet them. This one is a Thai who speaks very good English despite his apologizing over and over for his stammer. He gave us some good advice and there was taking of photos, including a group selfie that required a tripod set up on the 2-foot shoulder as large trucks groaned up a few inches away from us.

Meet Eark, a guy on the move. So nice to meet other bicycle travelers.

The beginnings of an elaborate gate. I told the workers that I was impressed with their work and they all cheered and gave me a thumbs up.

This was a short day and the next day was going to be a killer so we chose a resort on the far side of Nakhon Thai in order to be that much closer in the morning. That didn’t really work the way it should have but what DID happen is when we were nearly to the resort we spotted a nice looking restaurant by the highway, the kind we immediately dismiss because it looks too expensive and nice for the likes of us. But we were starving and took a look and boy are we glad we did.

Seated in the shady table area, the pleasant owners said yes, they could make that, and yes, the wife in her cooking area whipped out some of the best food we have had on the trip in mere seconds it seemed like, smiling all the while. Their grandson played video games nonstop on phone while grandpa bustled around bringing us ice water and condiments. Our loaded bikes waited in the gravel parking lot.

Sometimes you just get lucky and often meal prices make no sense. The poor little street cook charges way more than you expected, the fancy restaurant charges hardly anything. We should stop trying to figure it out and just ask ahead of time. Anyway, our gourmet lunches were 30 baht apiece, about half the price we had anticipated. Yeah, baby. We’d be back for dinner.

The resort had these little wooden mini-chalets that were pretty cute, and a clothesline behind where the sun blistered my laundry dry in about ten minutes. I love me a good sunny clothesline and I sweat so much that other people appreciate my frequent washing too, I would imagine.

What this place lacked in landscaping it made up for in instant clothes-drying capacity. Sometimes that is a satisfactory tradeoff.

A spirit house manufacturer at the edge of Nakhon Thai.

We went into town later to buy the papaya and milk, and then kind of panicked, thinking that the Great Restaurant would close early like the rubes had in Chat Trakan but no, we had another great meal, other patrons came and ate, everybody was fed and happy. These things loom large while bicycle touring. Will we eat well? We did. Back to our little chalet, put the nearly melted clothing away, put ourselves to bed, and get ready for another day on the road.

Hello, beautiful pad si-eu. Come here closer.

Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 526 miles (847 km)

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