December 19, 2016
To Amnat Charoen: Leaving the Mekong
Today was not very interesting and I didn't take many pictures. I've left the Mekong behind, and am heading south through Thailand toward the border with Cambodia, planning to get to Siem Reap.
The hotel breakfast was not as good as it was yesterday. There were a lot fewer people, and the cook provided less variety. Just as well, as I was anxious to get going. I also had a little bit of business to attend to, as I managed to lock myself out of my login to my debit card account by being careless when typing my password. I sorted that out, and got going at about 8 o'clock.
Today's ride was back on the 212 divided highway. Fortunately, there was no road constuction (sic) for this section. But the Thai drivers have not thoroughly embraced the divided highway and the u-turns needed to access businesses on the other side. So there was a wide, smooth shoulder used by the motor bikes (and me) and also by a variety of vehicles going the wrong way. The protocol seems to call for the slowest vehicles to keep left, so there is sort of an increasing gradient of speed coming in from the edge of the road. The vehicles going the wrong way have negative speed, so they are effectively the slowest and take the outside of the road. So on my bicycle, I have vehicles going the wrong way to my left, motorbikes passing me to my right, and cars passing the motorbikes to their right. When I'm hugging the edge of the road, I need to watch for vehicles riding toward me and give them the space at the edge. It makes it stressful at times. But having written that, I need to acknowledge that traffic wasn't too heavy, and the ride was okay.
I did pass an area selling bamboo furniture, including bamboo huts.
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There was an interesting temple as I got closer to Amnat Charoen. There seems to be more Christian faith in this part of Thailand, and maybe that influenced the painting of Buddha with a halo.
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I stopped at a PT filling station with an Amazon Cafe outside of Amnat Charoen, and cooled off for quite a while in the cafe. The toilets here were Happy Tourist Toilets, as I'd seen way back, but these came with instructions. Good thing, too. I'd stopped earlier, and there had been footprints on the seat of the western style toilet. So, yes, do sit down.
I'm at the Fai Kid Hotel in Amnat Charoen. I've followed advice in other journals that this is the best place to stay. I opted for the 500 baht room (rather than 450 baht) to have a refrigerator and one floor lower since it is a walk up. The hotel is not busy at all, but I couldn't get a double bed. I'm in a room with 2 twin beds. It felt like some judgement was involved in not giving me the double despite my request.
The hotel restaurant is quite good. I had some crispy pork with basil for dinner. The restaurant is outdoors, and has a Thai singer. I ate early, and didn't hear her sing. I was going to wait, but was getting mosquito bitten and decided to go back to my room.
I walked around the neighborhood a little bit before dinner. There is supposed to be a night market nearby. The guy at reception said to go right from the hotel and take the second left. I didn't find it. Either I was in the wrong area, or it was a really small market.
Today's ride: 92 km (57 miles)
Total: 1,779 km (1,105 miles)
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