December 17, 2016
To Mukdahan
I left the guest house early. There was supposed to be coffee and toast available at 6. The hot water was ready, and I made a cup of coffee, but there wasn't any bread. The toaster was there, though. The proprietor was still asleep in the entry. That's common, for someone to sleep near the entrance so they have 24 hour coverage.
As I left, the monks came by and people were waiting for the daily alms giving, for which they get blessings in return.
Nothing was open besides the 7-Eleven, so I stopped there for some more coffee and a steamed bun and a pandan cake to fuel my ride. Fortunately it was still cool, and the ride was mostly flat.
I was able to stay off of 212 all the way to Mukdahan. The cement section that I started on was awfully bumpy and I was having second thoughts about staying off the highway, when it transitioned to smoother blacktop. I was happy.
There wasn't much traffic until I reached a police checkpoint with a traffic jam. At first I thought it was another graduation, like yesterday, but then I saw the sign that it was the Shrine for Our Lady of the Martyrs of Thailand. I looked it up after I got to my hotel, and the Martyrs were a group of women, all Catholic, suspected of spying for the French during the Franco-Thailand war, and executed. They died between December 16 and December 26, 1940. So this week is the time to visit the shrine.
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The rest of the ride today seemed very dirty and dull. The grass was dry, and the fields were generally brown. The towns I passed through seemed to still be asleep, and I just didn't see much activity.
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I reached the bridge to Laos, Friendship Bridge #2.
The road I was on went under the bridge, but there was a promenade and a few vendors. I kept seeing signs for an Indo-Chinese Market. I think this area under the bridge was the first of these, as the distances to the market indicated on the signs kept jumping around. But there really wasn't much going on here, either. It was another 10 km or so to my hotel in the town of Mukdahan. Those were a dreary 10 km, and I was worrying about whether the city would be okay. But then I turned a corner, passed a temple, and all of a sudden things came alive. There is a very busy and active Indo-Chinese Market along the waterfront. It is jam packed with all sorts of Asian junk, a shopper's paradise.
I had planned to stay in Mukdahan for 2 nights. It wasn't that the city seemed interesting or that I need a day off of my bike. It's that I need a little bit of comfort and luxury. I booked into the Waterfront Hotel, a splurge at 790 baht per night, and have a big comfy room with white cotton sheets on a bed with a reasonable mattress, an air-conditioner that works well and doesn't sound like a jet engine, hot water in the shower that is hot, a refrigerator, and a tv with English channels. My only disappointment is that the channel that is listed as BBC has been changed to a Japanese channel, so there is no news in English. I did watch a few minutes of skiing on Euro Sport, which seems weird to me now given the weather where I am. I'm hoping to sleep in, at least a little bit, tomorrow.
Today's ride: 51 km (32 miles)
Total: 1,687 km (1,048 miles)
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