7. Last days in Thailand ☹️

After several wonderful days of procrastination in Chiang Mai, I finally steeled myself and cycled on from the city that had served as a temporary home. 🏠 

It would have been easy to stay longer but at the risk of inertia creeping in and, well, you can have too much of a good thing. 

Next stop was Chiang Rai (don’t pretend you misread the sign and head back to Chiang Mai, Dan!). I wasn’t feeling too adventurous/energetic so I elected to take the most direct route, on Highway 118, and do it in three easy days riding. There were a few ups and downs but, all in all, a gentle journey. 🚲 

As ever, the Thai roads have great surfaces and generous shoulders meaning easy and safe riding. On this first day, I rode up and through Khun Chae National Park. Nice forests and, for once….

…I stayed in a designated camp ground rather than ‘wild camping’. With the elevation being over 900m/3000ft I pitched with my flysheet for the first time on this trip, for extra insulation. And, with my new sleeping mat, even though it’s just a cheapo Decathlon foam mat, I slept like a log! Fitting in well with the forest surroundings. 

After five nights in a dorm, the peace and tranquility was manna from heaven. I don’t mind staying in a dorm and accept that it’s a shared space (which costs less as you have to put up with more) but, especially with the errant use of mobile phones, sleep is easily disturbed. 💤 

The next morning, I really took my time to break camp, letting all the condensation dry off my kit while listening to some podcasts. It was a Sunday morning, you can’t rush on Sunday morning. 

An added bonus of buying a pretty rubbish sleeping mat is that it doubles up perfectly as a yoga mat. Getting into a daily yoga routine is doing wonders for my middle-aged man lower back issues! I could go into more details here but perhaps DM me if you’d like more information! 🧘‍♀️ 

The next day was an even gentler ride, 95% of it was as flat as a pancake. As the evening drew in I started to look for another camp spot and pulled off the road into an abandoned building complex. It was very dusty! So, making use of this broom, I carefully prepared my camping platform. 

Initially, as the layers of dust scaled away, I thought I may have revealed a lost satellite temple of Angkor Wat. But, on reflection, maybe not. 🛕 

Ancient temple or not, it made for a functional camp spot and, again, I was able to enjoy some music/podcasts and get some reading done. 📖 

I’ve now read 3 of the 6 Palliser novels. It’s taking ages, each one is a veritable brick of a book, thank God I’ve got them on Kindle and not in print in my panniers. 🧱 

The next day broke a little misty and, for the last 20 miles into Chiang Rai, I got off the main highway to pass through more rural landscapes - small villages and rice paddies. 🌾 

Chiang Rai’s central clock tower, getting ready for New Year celebrations. 🥳 

I had vague notions of walking into town to join in but, my hotel, 20 minutes from the town centre, was very cosy and I was in bed by 9:30pm! A bit of a missed opportunity perhaps but I have enough self-knowledge to recognise I don’t thrive in big crowds. Quiet time worked well for me. 

Compared to 20+ years ago when I first visited Thailand, a major transformation is the huge proliferation of coffee shops. For me, a welcome development! Back in 2001, if you ordered coffee, you would most likely be served Nescafé 3 in 1 (coffee granules, milk powder, sugar). ☕️ 

On the flip side, the ubiquitous Internet cafes of the early 2000s have vanished. Oh how I miss waiting for 15 minutes for my emails to load on a dial-up connection! 

Today, even relatively small villages may have a more upmarket, Western-style coffee shop with ‘real’ coffee. Often in Thailand, in your run-of-the-mill noodle/rice shops, you order your food and it’s with you two minutes later. These new coffee shops offer a place where you can linger, take your time and, if you’re so lucky inclined, write blog posts, for example! ⌨️ 

A quick word on safety in Thailand. I virtually never lock up my bike anymore, it is so safe here! I mean, I’m probably tempting fate by writing this but my money belt and passport sit in my bike’s bar bag but I never think to take it inside a shop or restaurant when I’m buying something or having food. I’ll be a bit more circumspect when I cross to Laos, things might not be so secure there but, yes, not having to be in a constant state of heightened vigilance has certainly smoothed the ride in Thailand. 😌

 Now a quick word on costs. Without too much effort on my part, Thailand has worked out to be phenomenally cheap, I’m averaging around £12 a day here. This is not a boast, the cost of a trip isn’t a reliable metric for the quality of the experience (and I don’t keep a daily tab on expenses) but, I believe that I was spending a similar amount as a backpacker in 2001. 🎒 

Clearly, as a cycle tourist, being able to camp a couple of days a week and having zero transportation costs is a massive help to the budget. And the fact that a bowl of noodles, like the one in the photo, typically costs little over £1. 🍜 

And cheap street eats are everywhere! Chinese buns, sweet or savoury, something for all tastes. 🥯 

Moving on from Chiang Rai on New Year’s Day, I could have made the Lao border in a day but I opted to take two days. I tend to be a bit of a restless traveller but do try to cultivate the practice of slow travel. 

On the way east, I passed through many rubber plantation, each tree carefully ‘tapped’ to harvest its gooey sap.  🌴 

A stork-filled rice paddy. 🦩

Once more on the camping trail, I enquired at a forestry office for a place to pitch. Despite no common tongue, I was enthusiastically welcomed. And Google translate facilitated a warm and friendly conversation. Oiled by some Thai whiskey! I’m always cautious when local moonshine is proffered but it was quite tasty, not ridiculously strong and, after a few sips, I was not pressured to drink more.  🍸 

Nice to share a drink, especially after my non-celebration of New Year’s Eve.

Initially, I was directed to set up camp on a platform overlooking the Mekong with views across the Laos on the far side of the river. Not a bad pitch! 🌅

But they had a change of heart and said I’d be better off in this room. Great to bag a free bed for the night! And they even brought me a bowl of noodles! Without fail, I consistently feel guilty about receiving such hospitality - I’m not worthy! But it’s good to graciously accept, I got the sense they really enjoyed looking after me. 🧑‍🍼

With another day to kill before I enter Laos, I’m doing a bit of an exploration of the towns and sights on the Thai side of the Mekong. I won’t go quite as far north as the Golden Triangle today but will take in Chiang Saen and Chiang Khong. The Golden Triangle is where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet and was once a notorious opium production area. 🔺

The mighty Mekong. For me, this river holds mythic status for its associations with Apocalypse Now (and The Doors’ “The End”), which, in turn, evokes Conrad’s “Heart of Darkness”. As a 20-something backpacker, it, and the places it meanders through, completely captured my imagination. I haven’t researched it but, I imagine that since I was last in the region, the river has been engineered well out of its natural state with Chinese financed dams. No doubt the river’s ecology is under threat. Like most other rivers in the world. 😢 

Right, I’ll stop here as I have to ride 30ish miles south to Chiang Khong, hopefully find somewhere to camp and be ready to launch myself into Laos tomorrow. 🇱🇦

As is commonly the case for me, the prospect of crossing a border creates a creeping sense of anxiety. I know that levels of comfort will be lower than Thailand (and I’m going to attempt to go SIM-free. Eeek). Furthermore, for the northern half of Laos at least, the mountainous rides will be challenging. Keep hydrated, eat plenty and avoid food poisoning will be mantra!🕉️

Happy New Year!  

Bonus content:

In the dying light of the day, this is what I found for my final night’s accommodation in Thailand. What luxury! I couldn’t find WiFi to connect to! 🛜 

Still, it was metres walk from the Mekong so, up early, I enjoyed the soft light over the river and friendly exchanges with locals walking or jogging along the promenade.