2. Crossing Thailand’s Lowland Plains

Picking up the blog from the last post, it’s been a case of getting my head down a bit and putting in some miles to cross Thailand’s rice basket lowland plains. 

Leaving Saraburi, I nipped down to the market and got some breakfast from this store. I tried so hard to choose a vegetarian dish and pointed to the pot laden with big chunks of tofu and copious amounts of bean sprouts. Then, digging in, the inevitable chunks of chicken emerged! I tried… 🍲 

Seeing various animal parts/animals in markets can be quite an assault on the senses. In the West, with so much of our food neatly packaged and stacked on supermarket shelves, there’s no wonder we don’t really think about what it actually is. This is a reminder that pork comes from pigs! 🐽 

There was nothing to make me linger in Saraburi so I was soon on the road again. Nevertheless, it was a friendly place and these non-descript towns do show an interesting slice of life in an average Thai town.  

The next few days cycling looked a lot like this - rice paddies, a few mountains in the distance and mercifully flat rides. 🌾 ⛰️ 

From Saraburi to my next stop, Lopburi, was just 40 miles so I took my time. Stopping for an iced coffee has become part of my daily routine. These roadside stalls will do you one for 50p. 🪙 

This is a road. Look how well made it is, how straight and how little traffic is on it. A cyclist’s dream! Thai roads are so good and, even when there is traffic, as you can see, the hard shoulder is super-wide and traffic manners are very good. I’ve felt very safe cycling here so far. 🚴 

In truth, the cycling has almost been a little too easy and, after a week, getting a little repetitive and lacking in challenge. With mountains looming, this will change! Nonetheless, there’s plenty to distract/divert me along the ride with landscapes, temples, farming scenes and bird life. These tiny doves (song thrush-sized) are very common. I also see dazzling kingfishers every day, bee-eaters, an increasing number of rollers and a few distant quartering harriers. Kind of wish I had a field guide with me, there’s a lot I could be learning. 📖 

I arrived in Lopburi in good time to have a look around. I actually visited in 2001 (half a lifetime ago, eek!) but can only vaguely recall the monkeys and night market. Anyway, I headed to the main tourist attraction, the former royal palace. I enjoyed the museum and all of its cultural artefacts but was more drawn to the garden and its magnificent trees….

….and Tree Sparrows! I will happily walk hours on the Marlborough Downs to catch a glimpse of a solitary Tree Sparrow but here they’re abundant, not only in the countryside but also occupying the urban niche our House Sparrows have in the UK. Great to see that they’re doing so well here, where did we get it so wrong with our populations? 🐦 

There are quite a lot of fairly tame monkeys in Lopburi and they’re part of the tourist draw. I still gave them a wide berth when I walked past though! 

Leaving Lopburi I was looking for breakfast as I knew I had a big day ahead of me (it was 85 miles to Nakhon Sawan). I kind of failed to find anything substantial quickly, so I downed this coffee and churros, Thai style and just got going. ☕️ 

As I was leaving, primary students were filtering into their school, each one greeting their teacher with hands clasped together and a little bow. Such reverence! Teacher friends, insist on this as your students enter your classrooms. 

I was out of town before 7am, with the sun still low in the sky and temperatures cool enough to wear a second layer. It was also very breezy on this day. Mostly a cross wind, buffering got annoying but I did get a turbocharging tailwind a few times. 💨 

This was probably the most spectacular and unique temple I’ve stopped at so far. Really I just wanted to down some water, eat some bananas and take five but…

…I was approached by this enthusiastic and kindly ‘uncle’ (as Thais would say). He gave me an impromptu tour and run-down of the temple’s history and ensured my water bottles were full before I rode on. Random acts of kindness make the world go round, I really believe in them. 🌍 

Fly-tipping, sadly, seems to be a global phenomenon. And I’d say that in general, the plastic pollution in the roadside verges here is no worse than what I see back at home, i.e. pretty bad. 😢

Damn it, roadblock. But we (me and Bertha) sailed through. Yet another benefit of travelling by bicycle, usually ‘closed roads’ are passable. Even in the UK, I usually have a go at getting through a closed road, and usually succeed. 🛣️ 

This vehicle’s engine is pumping water into the field. There are all kinds of irrigation works going on all the time everywhere out in the countryside. 🚿 

If I stopped at every temple I saw, I’d be 200 miles back down the road. They do make for some spectacular photos though! 📸 

Between Nakhon Sawan and Phitsanoluk I stayed in Taphan Hin at the Rose Inn Hotel. It had a kind of Fawlty Towers vibe, in fact, should Thailand ever want to do a Thai remake, the manager is the perfect Basil Fawlty! But in a good way, amusing rather than offensive! 

Crossing the railway line to walk into town, I’m pointing at Chiang Mai where I’m eventually headed. Without wishing to belittle my trip, what I’ve done so far, on the spectrum of cycle touring, is rather at the tame end. Knocking out, on average, 50-60 miles a day on the flat, then staying at comfortable hotels*, is not that adventurous. As I head further north, the inclines and elevations should increase. 

*btw, I am always staying in the cheapest hotels and, where possible, opt for fan rooms not air con. 🪭 

Market scene in Taphan Hin. I’m sorry to say that the fish in the foreground were still semi-alive until the fish-woman clobbered them with her stick.🦯 

I found it slightly distressing.

Golden squirrel. 🐿️ 

Most of the time that I eat out, I prefer to ‘eat out’, as in, on the street. It may be that I’m missing out on some more refined dishes by not going to more upmarket restaurants but I love the atmosphere of eating on the street with the locals. And, most of the time you’re paying £1 - 1:50 for a bowl of noodles or plate of something on rice. 🍜 

Leaving Taphan Hin to cycle on to Phitsanulok (where I’m writing this entry). Crossing the Nan River. 🌉 

Not sure how well these can be seen but this is a huge spiralling column of storks. 

Butterfly roadkill. Don’t know this species’ name but they seem very common here. 🦋 

I’ve now made it to Phitsanoluk which is a fairly big city but with a friendly small town feel. Though I’m not that tired from cycling, I thought I’d take a rest day (and it’s Sunday). At the moment, the biggest challenge of cycling is being exposed to heat and sunshine so a day off the bike, giving my patches of sunburn and prickly heat a breather, has felt good! 🌞 

Some nice environmental murals around the city. 🖼️ 

Some kind of evening prayer session? The monks were chanting and locals (?) were reading and chanting along with prayer books. It was really nice to sit down for 20 minutes or so to listen in and just be part of the focused yet calming atmosphere. 

You could spend a lifetime studying all the decorations in temples. To be honest, I find some of the temples a little gaudy but never fail to be impressed by the detail and intricacy of the decoration. 🛕 

I wandered into this Chinese temple this morning and was greeted so warmly by the ‘warden’. She showed me how to fill a bowl with oil and light a candle then walked me round, explaining, in Thai, all there was to know about the temple. OK, it’s true, I didn’t understand a word, but her kindness transcended any language barrier. 🕯️ 

Here she is, the kindest person in Phitsanoluk! And there’s something so life-affirming that she’s taking care of her little patch of the planet and wants to selflessly share it with others. I was very touched by her warm welcome. 

Being honest, there are plenty of moments when I feel slightly overwhelmed by being so far from home and embarking on this journey alone (a feeling common to all my trips). However, as a natural introvert, having a few of these positive interactions a day is just enough to recharge my social battery for the moment and keep me going. Though you can’t quite force a random encounter (otherwise it wouldn’t be random?) by approaching people with an openness, with interested mindset and simply with a smile, good things come your way! 😀 

There’s a great folk museum in Phitsanulok, passed a very pleasant couple of hours here. Some of the fixtures and fittings from the ‘yesteryear’ hotels I’ve recently been staying in could be donated to the collection! 

Still, however cheap, basic and dated, I’ve enjoyed the accommodation so far, another kind of Thai ‘slice of life’. Eventually, I may come across more backpacker accommodation but slightly fear having to mix with twenty-something backpackers, I might be past it! 🎒 

Nice collection of bikes in the folk museum but I’ll stick with Bertha, thanks. 🚲 🙏 

OK, time to sign off and make a decision about where to go next. A few days ago I was set on making a beeline north-east to Nan, then switched to going straight to Chiang Mai, now I’m thinking west towards Mae Sot. This is definitely the worst bit about solo travel, The Road Not Taken, agonising over which path to follow. Or, should I say, the most liberating because I have no one to please but myself?

See you in the next post and find out which path I chose!