January 9, 2015
Meeting some other cyclists in Khemmarat: With free wifi!
Along my merry way I pedaled once again this fine morning, stopping only to photograph this rather impressively overloaded motorcycle:
In the town of Khemmarat I stopped to change some money at a bank, buy bread and cookies, hang out on the nice Mekong riverfront promenade place, and do other such enthralling and exciting things. On my way through town I noticed two touring bicycles parked up and, as they were accompanied by a friendly looking two people, I went over to investigate. Apart from Robin these were the first two other cyclists that I had met in all of Thailand, the first travelers of any kind in fact. This was partly because of being in a less-visited area of the country, and also because of the number of roads. I'm sure there must have been a few other cyclists out there, but the chances of bumping into each other on the myriad small roads was naturally lower.
But bump into these two I did. Karin and Patrick, from Switzerland, were nearing the end of a four month 'honeymoon' bicycle ride through South East Asia, most of which had been spent in Thailand. They were very nice, and going my way, so we fell into an easy rhythm cycling together for the rest of the day.
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Karin had an interesting bike. It had a system similar to a Rohlhoff hubb, but it was integrated at the front, in the crankset somehow. I'd never seen such a thing before. She'd had to have a frame custom built in order to fit this thing in and, although it was very cool, with the racks built into the frame and everything, it was eye-wateringly expensive. 6,000 euros! Golly!
"Alan says I could travel for two years on that!"
"Who's Alan?"
"Oh, no one."
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It was good to have some company and I rode along and talked mostly with Karin, because Patrick wasn't so confident about his English, and it was a very fine afternoon. We got to the town of Ban-something-or-other, where they had planned to stop. They didn't like camping, and so were aiming to always end the day in a place where they could find accommodation, which was getting more difficult because we were getting into a more remote part of the country. Ban-something-or-other was quite small, and we followed directions down a side road before coming to a guesthouse/resort. The rooms here were 700 baht (14 pounds) which was a lot for Thailand, but my new companions coughed up and moved in. I asked the friendly owner if I could use the wifi for a bit before leaving, and he agreed.
The man spoke perfect English, and when I asked him why he said "because I am from Malaysia" in a way that suggested that everyone in Malaysia could speak perfect English, which gave me something very much to look forward to about Malaysia. I asked him about the white vegetable at the side of the road, and he explained that it was a root vegetable left there to dry, and would be used, interestingly enough, for cleaning oil.
As it started to get dark I left the guesthouse/resort and moved into a field a short distance away where there was another of those huts, and plenty of space for my tent. To my delight I found that I was close enough to the resort to still have a signal. Now my wild campsites were really reaching new heights. Not only a good place to sit, eat, and sleep, but now also with free wifi!
Today's ride: 71 km (44 miles)
Total: 35,592 km (22,103 miles)
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