I felt like getting on a plane and flying to Denmark: Maybe I could still have it all

January 4, 2015

This part of Thailand was a really lovely place to be cycling. I continued to mostly use the smaller roads and these took me through a variety of landscapes - I passed by harvested fields, rubber-tree plantations, rice paddy fields, wild woodland. The traffic on these roads was light and what there was mostly drove at a sensible speed, gave me plenty of space, and did not beep the horn constantly. And the people in the villages and at the roadside were very friendly too. They were never overly intrusive, but it was impossible for me to stop and look at my map without someone coming over to try and help me with directions. Making them understand that I wanted to stay on the smaller roads instead of taking the main highway was another matter.

The quiet roads had a way of making me feel like I was in the middle of nowhere, even though I wasn't. I could always find a town to eat and resupply

The town of Phang Khon. Lots of motorcycles here too of course, but...

... Thai Motorcycle Paparrazi Challenge wasn't a huge success

At night I had returned to my old ways and always camped, which Alan the accountant said was a very good idea. I fell into the habit of camping next to the wooden huts that Dea and I had slept next to a couple of times in Laos. In Thailand they seemed to be even more prevalent and it was usually easy for me to peel off into a field and set up my tent next to them. There was never anyone around, maybe because the crops had been harvested, or because it was all done by machine now anyway. The huts almost always came with a wooden platform that I could sit on to cook my dinner, and there would be a nice spot of flat ground for the tent. This was ideal, because I'd seen an alarming number of dead snakes on the road since I'd been in Thailand, and I didn't very much fancy walking through long grass or anywhere that I couldn't see the ground.

This was one of the worst huts because there was no platform, but you get the idea

This is what I was hoping to avoid. Jonas had told me that he nearly stepped on a cobra in Thailand once

Sometimes I took time out during the day to rest in the shade of these huts and do some writing for the blog. Finding wifi in towns to upload what I'd written was also easy. Although this area of Thailand, known as Isan, is considered the poor part of the country, it certainly didn't seem like the people were living in poverty. The houses were nice, the people well-dressed, roads in good condition and the way of life good. In many ways it felt more like being in Europe than the Asia that I had become accustomed to. I liked it a lot.

Even when I cycled on the main highways the shoulder was marked as a dedicated bike lane. I like!

Images of Thailand's King and Royal family were to be seen everywhere

I was heading vaguely in a south-east direction, and my plan was to go to either the Friendship Bridge II or the Friendship Bridge III in order to cross the Mekong back into Laos. Having just skirted around the city of Sakon Nakhon I had to make a decision about which of these I was going to head for, and I stopped to use wifi at a little cafe. A bit of research revealed that neither of these bridges officially allowed cycling and I read a few reports of others having to load the bikes onto motor vehicles in order to cross the border. Naturally this put the fear of God into me, and, although there seemed a chance I could just bribe my way across by bicycle, I was not so stupid as to have not learnt my lesson from Siberia, that lesson being that I don't know how to bribe people. And so I looked for an alternative, and saw that there was a border crossing further south at a place called Chong Mek, where the border was no longer marked by the Mekong and where I should have no problems. The only consequence of this change was that I would spend a little less time in Laos, and a little more time in Thailand. Which was no bad thing. I turned south.

I stumbled by accident upon this 'Lotus Garden' park

It was free to enter and walk around the boardwalks

Thailand was a really perfect place to be cycle touring, especially now that I had no real time deadlines, and I could meander along doing fifty to eighty kilometres per day on these lovely small roads, taking lots of breaks. The weather was always good, sunny but not too hot, and there was really nothing to complain about. So why did I feel so sad? What was this horrible feeling that sat inside me? An emptiness that permeated through me, and refused to be shaken off. A deep and unsettling loneliness. I looked to Alan for guidance, but he said he was an accountant, not a therapist, and he couldn't help me.

I felt like getting on a plane and flying to Denmark. Why not? I mean, what was the point of being here all alone? I could just get on a plane and fly to Denmark! Yes! Why the hell not? "You can't afford it" Alan said. He had a point. Actually, it wasn't the only problem with the plan. If I flew to Denmark my goal to travel around the world using only my bicycle and boats would be shattered. It would be so amazing to see Dea again, to hold her in my arms once more. But once the euphoria wore off what in the name of sanity was I going to do then? What could I do with myself in Denmark exactly? Then there would be the additional problem that Dea, whose mysterious attraction to me I could only attribute to her having mistaken me for a daring and intrepid adventurer, would have her illusions cruelly destroyed by me sitting around playing tetris and saying "I don't know what I want to do with my life." No, better to just keep going. Keep the illusion alive. Didn't Dea say that she wanted to come and join me cycling again, in Australia, or America? Maybe I could still have it all.

"I said, maybe I could still have it all, Alan."

"That's nice. How much money did you spend today?"

"One pound and two pence."

"Good boy, you're making me proud."

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 35,268 km (21,901 miles)

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