Week 12 & 13

Apr 4, 2018

5 min read

Bangkok, Meaklong Railway Market, Monkeys and the Royal Coastal Road.

Week 12 began with our last day at Toom’s - our Couchsurfing/Warmshowers host, who has taught us so much about Thai culture and life in Bangkok. Toom has been hosting Couchsurfers since 2009, and has many interesting things to say about the community and how it has changed over the years.

IMG_5553
IMG_4126
IMG_5538

Toom’s place is around 20km North of Bangkok’s old city, and after a few days of really relaxing and feeling at home with him, we cycled into the city to stay closer to the city center.

IMG_4176
IMG_4224

Sunset water taxi

Kao San Road

G0033429
IMG_4234
IMG_4246
IMG_4301
IMG_4310
P1130322
P1130295
IMG_4408
IMG_4191

Our next 4 days included water taxi’s at sunset, night time cycle rides through China Town, drinking crazy Thai alcohol, Bangkok Arts&Culture Center, the famous Kao San Road, Visa extension for Reggie and traditional arts&crafts for Maddy. Overall Bangkok was just as crazy as people said - with traffic, people, noise, heat, smells, street food stalls… Even though it wasn’t the first time for Reggie, for Maddy it was all a new experience and 4 days was plenty of time to see/do everything on our list.

IMG_4456
IMG_4462
IMG_4449

Bangkok Arts&Culture Center

A week after initially arriving in Bangkok, it was time to move on towards the South of Thailand.

G0043597
P1130739
P1130726

Around 70km South-West of Bangkok is the small town of Samut Songkhran, where the famous Meaklong Railway Market is located - a market that runs along the railway tracks. Every time a train comes through, the whole market has to fold back it’s parasols to let the train squeeze past, with just inches to spare!

IMG_4597
IMG_4620
IMG_4618

We also stopped at the floating market in the same town.

P1140225
IMG_4647
P1140407
P1140330
P1140411
P1140428
P1150056
P1150128
P1150116

Week 13 consisted of the incredible Royal Coastal Road, sleeping spots that could’t be more perfect, and more swimming opportunities than you could imagine!

Reggie had some fun on one of our beach stops along the Royal Coastal Road, finding some dead sea mud...

On one evening we picked our spot on the map for sleeping, heading towards a green area on a small peninsula, but when we got there it turned out to be in the middle of a restricted military zone. The soldiers let us cycle into the area - after filling in names and passport details - but we had to find another place to camp... luckily there was a great spot around 10km further down the road.

P1150089
IMG_4727
IMG_4728

One amazing thing we saw, were coconut farmers who had trained monkeys with a leash/lead to climb up palm trees and break off the coconuts, throwing them to the floor! The monkey would pick a coconut and twist it until it came free, or bite through the stem if it wouldn’t come free by twisting, then just push the coconut over the edge and watch it fall to the floor far below. The men would shout instructions to the monkeys if they got distracted, and had to watch the road to make sure no coconut fell on a passing driver!

P1150330
P1150332
IMG_5583

We also met 2 other cycle tourers - one from France who was heading North from Singapore and the other from Poland who was riding a power-asist bicycle from Poland around the world. It’s always very interesting to meet other tourers, to get inspiration and tips about routes, bicycle set-ups, gear and possible cycling locations.

One cyclist was pushing hard because of his visa, so was covering 120-140km a day, but a typical day for us was:

5:30/6am wake up
around 40km of riding
2hr mid-day lunch break/relax from the sun
around 40km of riding
camp set-up/dinner around sunset
sleep around 8/9pm

Our route took us from Bangkok to Chumphon, over 500km of cycling - which is why we aren’t breaking down day-to-day life, because this post would be incredibly long… Even though it’s long already… And, if you’re still reading, thank you!

P1150358
P1150336

After 8 total days on the road, our bikes were in serious need of some love - bicycle bath time!

IMG_4423
IMG_4426
IMG_4439

IMG_4474
IMG_4475
IMG_4476

Reggie finally got his rear wheel re-spoked, and there was another flat tire for Maddy (overall, flat number 4). We also found a bicycle shop that has everything you could ask for and more! This little gem of a bike store is located inside the ground floor of the Bangkok Art&Culture Center, and is somewhere we could have spent hours (and a lot of money) planning the perfect custom-made city bike, touring bike, racing bike, cargo bike.... aaaanything you could think of!

One morning we were taken down some small, sandy roads, into a forest. We then got lost in said forest, because Maps.me (our navigating App) doesn't always get it right.

Are there any down-sides to cycling in Thailand? Yes, Dogs. Both of us are HUGE lovers of dogs… but when cycling through rural areas, or even along highways, the local dogs tend to run after us. Although this makes the journey more exciting, it is also a little stressful (for Maddy).

Otherwise, the local people are friendly, the other road traffic is generally polite, we haven’t felt like we are being ripped off for any reason, the weather is great, the roads are smooth, there are many public toilets and 1Bhat (£0.02/$0.03) per 1L drinking water refill machines!

What did we learn?

The food in Bangkok was not as good as we expected - maybe we didn’t find the right places, but the food we’ve found on the road so far has been much nicer.
Although the busy-ness of the city is nice, it doesn’t take long to get out of the city and find some really quite and empty beaches.
A clean bike chain and cassette is much more comfortable to ride on and worth stopping for regular cleanups.
Early mornings, although painful, make a day much more productive .