Tuesday December 23, 2014, 198 miles (319 km) – Total so far: 7,940 miles (12,778 km)
Tuesday December 23, 2014 Three days 198 miles We have arrived after spending two nights at Cha Beach on the Gulf of Thailand. It was wonderful to be back in the water swimming and have delicious meals at a nearby right on the sand beach restaurant. On Sunday we started our trip back north to Bangkok by way of a different and very scenic country road to the west then north. The riding was easy will small hills and a light headwind.
Jocelyn’s rear derailleur that was replaced in Vietnam broke so she turned her bike into a fixed gear bike and we continued. On the first night it was getting late so we decided to stay at a Buddhist Temple and it was so quiet and peaceful as the monks welcomed us into a room where we set up our tent (mosquitoes). We had heard that people sometimes stay in these temples and we thought it was great as it is free and the karma soothing. Throughout the evening, night and morning we were enchanted by the chanting at prayer times. When we left early the next morning they gave us food and sent us on our way.
As we cycled closer to Bangkok the traffic and cities increased but we did find another temple for the night. However this one was inhabited by very aggressive dogs that kept us up most of the night. Most dogs are unneutered so maybe this brings about their aggressive behavior and there was one “chief” male dog that deeply growled at others. Our tent was safely enclosed in a fenced area so that the dogs couldn’t get to it. When we first set it up the chief dog peed on it followed by the others. At that point the monks directed us to this fenced area. After eating at a market, as there were no open restaurants in the area, we returned to our tent and were brought food which we saved for breakfast. There were also three funeral ceremonies close to our tent and that made for a long evening along with the howling dogs. As the monks chant the dogs howl. I think we did manage to nap a few hours. Monks rise at 4 am and start their prayer service.
Jocelyn had mapped out a good route to Bangkok as we had heard that it is worse to cycle into than Istanbul. But the drivers here are much more courteous and the traffic flowed smoothly. We were soon in the city and found the hotel that our Swiss cyclist’s friends Beatrice and Peter are staying at. Tomorrow we will start looking for boxes and other supplies to get our bikes ready for our Sunday flight home.
Seems hard to believe that just a short 10 ½ months ago we started in Marrakech. Morocco and are now in Bangkok, Thailand after almost 8,000 cycling miles and about 3,000 train, bus, and ferry rides with most of that in China!
