Day T34: Ruined

March 6, 2020

Prasat to Nang Rong via Phnom Rung

After a very late start, I made it barely a kilometer before the first Amazon Cafe and 7/11 stop. These are standard in Thailand for any cycle tourist. Shortly after that, another stop and there it was: the famous chicken on a stick. The people were super friendly at this stop. You can ask the chicken to be cut in half as it's already so much chicken, and it's only 65 baht. Throw in some sticky rice and coke and it's amazing.

I noticed that Phnom Rung Historical Park was on the way and decided to make a stop there. This is basically a mini version of Angkor Wat and it only costs 100 baht to get in as opposed to $37 for the day pass at the Cambodian counterpart. As a bonus, a group of friendly Thai ladies on group tour mobbed me for selfies.

All this was worth the push effort to get up that steep hill on the bicycle.

Unfortunately it rained hard on top of the volcano and it stayed that way for hours. Eventually I had to suck it up and head down. The whole volcano was a rain magnet as the clouds just gathered on it and didn't move. Eventually it dried up further beyond. Still this was quite odd as the cloudy and cool weather all day felt a lot more like August in the monsoon season than this time of year.

On the way down I stopped here and met another couple from the UK touring on scooters. Their trip was no longer certain and they were making plans to go home due to the coronavirus.

Some friends I wanted to meet in Nang Rong flaked out on me at the last minute. I suspected that people were starting to get afraid of going out due the coronavirus and this could be a worrisome trend. The mask wearing I saw at the hotel that night seemed to confirm such things.

I then began to wonder why I wasn't also making plans to go home due to the coronavirus.

I got in touch with my friend I had spent time with in Pattaya earlier. He told me just now, "I got back to China and they said I needed to isolate for 14 days on campus. So I said fine, I'll stay on the campus property and not leave the gate. I'll run around the school track and do exercise with a mask on. But my compound told me that's not OK, and they confined me to my apartment! I was shocked, I had no idea they would change the rules to this. This is way over the top." He soon booked a flight out to the UK where he is from.

This was of immense interest to me because I was weighing my options to do the same thing, but decided to wait. If I have to quarantine 14 days at my apartment in Shanghai then it throws a wrench into the plans I'm mulling over.

Today's ride: 89 km (55 miles)
Total: 1,182 km (734 miles)

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