Day 10 Bike: Rolling On

July 17, 2023

Phetchabun to Kosit One Hotel (Bueng Sam Phan)

That poolside session with a laptop was incredibly productive. It really must be done more often. Not only did all the initial tasks get done with coin sorting and repacking, I made good headway on everything else I set out to do.

In particular I found an absolute ton of resources for mental health and PTSD counseling. One got back to me instantly. Their program fits my needs except it lasts over a month. Will need to mull over. Meanwhile, the more 'quick fix' solution is a few sessions of talk therapy in Bangkok. It will at least start the healing process. But when you suffer an ordeal like the Shanghai lockdown, there really is no quick fix to recover. That month long retreat is more like the ticket, if time and money permits.

Finally, the bike was oiled up and the mud cleaned off at a local bike shop. It will do. The more professional maintenance will have to wait. There were also no gyms in town that I could find.

Well, nothing to do but bike onwards and crank out more distance.

Started off with another delicious buffet breakfast

The Livist Resort was hands down the best accomodation I've seen. For this price it even beat out the Ray Hotel in BuriRam and that is seriously tough competition. There is a little secret, it is called cycle touring in Isaan. Nobody really does it because the landscape is so boring, but what makes up for it are these hidden gems of hotels that offer astounding value. There are quite a few guests actually, mostly locals, but a surprising amount of farang as well.

When it came time to have the breakfast, my reservation didn't include it but nobody checked. I paid the money anyway. They laughed. I could have gotten a free breakfast but that's not the point because I budgeted for this and was happy to pay the money. At this point I'm seriously under budget anyway. But those people who would have said nothing and gotten a free breakfast are the same people who don't budget their lives in the first place.

Speaking of budgets, I set aside a massive pocketful of one baht coins and planned to burn through them during the biking. This was the first stop.

The riding today was, of course, very boring. Nothing really of interest to take pictures on the road as it was just straight and flat motorway. Instead, I was on the lookout for interesting stops and things to take pictures of on the side of the road.

For starters we have the potential residence of the current playboy king. He has a penchant for European architecture.

Found this chain store making an appearance. They had all kinds of interesting shit in here.

Next was time for shoe shopping. I asked which ones were best for HIIT and jumping. She sold me on the Nikes. All for $80, who could complain. I then tossed my old ones that had been bought during the pandemic.

There's gonna be a lot of HIIT coming out of these bad boys.

After that it was just ride and stop for breaks. Nothing of interest really. The hotel came up sooner than later. It was just under 100km but it all went rather fast.

Surprisingly the hotel actually takes some responsibility

Next it was the hunt for food. I went back into the town to find some and came across all these stalls selling noodles. When I ordered, they gave me teeny weeny little portions, about 1/4 of what I'd get in Laos. To make matters worse, I could overhear them making fun of me in Thai language.

My spoken Thai is extremely basic, but I know enough to catch following words: 'one person' (by himself), 'farang' (white guy), 'bicycle' and 'no money'. Perhaps my interpretation was wrong, but I took all this to mean: pity this white guy by himself on a bicycle with no money.

If that's what they wanted to say, then maybe it's a good thing. If they think we're just a bunch of poor shmucks riding around without a lot of cash then it's better for our safety.

You call that a portion? It's fit for a kid not a cycle tourist. Give me a break.

I went to another restaurant later and had two pastries at 7/11 along the way.

The daily accounting that I hate but must be done.

Today's ride: 94 km (58 miles)
Total: 1,183 km (735 miles)

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