After a
month in Laos it was time to get back on the bike and back to what I consider “normal”
life again. Unfortunately I had gotten a really bad cold the last day in Laos
and wasn’t super exited to start cycling. But when the last day on my visa came
I had no other choice and had to get out and into Thailand. I’m going to miss
the time in Laos and all the friends I made there. Especially Chris, Rob and
Amanda who I spend a lot of time with in Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng and
Vientiane. But they were also moving on to their next destination in South East
Asia, so in some way it felt like the right time to move on.
So with a
bad cough, runny nose and very low on energy I got on the bike and headed for
the border. Likely it just about 30 km from Vientiane so that was no problem
even in my state. But I didn’t get much further than that and found myself a
hotel in the Nong Khai, the first city in Thailand just across the border.
After two
days in bed I was feeling better but still not good. But I took it easy and
continued down south to the next city that was Udon Thani. I hadn’t been super
excited about this part of Thailand and it felt mostly like transport down to Cambodia.
And that was pretty much what it turned out to be. I went slow and had some
resting days since I hadn’t gotten rid of my cold. There wasn’t much to see
along the way, but maybe if I was feeling better and had the energy to explore
more I would have seen another side of this part of Thailand.
The last
big city was Nakhon Ratchasima where I stopped for two nights. On Sunday
evening when I went for a bike ride around town before going back to the hotel to
watch the final of the Olympic ice hockey between Sweden and Canada I noticed a
strange sound from the back on the bike. Strange sounds are never good news and
it turned out the screw holding the back rack had snapped and the broken off
screw was stuck in the hole. I tried my best to get it out without luck before
heading out in the city looking for a bike shop late on a Sunday evening. I
found one that looked closed, but I knocked and a woman answered. She didn’t speak
much English but understood the problem, the mechanic wasn’t there but I got to
use some tools to try to get the screw out. I was really stuck in there and my
tries was useless. So after that I ended up in a little worn down shop where I noticed
two men working on some bikes. He ended up having to drill to get rid of the
old screw and put a new one in. I was happy to get it fixed that night so I
could continue the next morning. I missed the first part of the final, but let’s
not mention the result in that game..
After Nakhon
Ratchasima I was finally on some nicer roads with a lot more green around when
I was cycling through a National Park area. There were some hills on the way
and even though they weren’t huge it was still hard in the heat under the
burning sun. But after a uphill there’s always a downhill and that evening I
was gliding down the other side.
The next
day I reached the border town of Aranyaprathet where I’m now staying in a
bungalow getting ready to head into Cambodia tomorrow morning. And after the
little bit boring first part of Thailand I’m really looking forward to going to
Cambodia and especially Siem Reap, which I hope will be a highlight.
