3. Temple-hopping, sand-bagging and wild-camping on the road north

Hello Bloggites. The last post was from Phitsanoluk where I’d spent two quiet days exploring the city’s modest attractions. Two days is enough to build a bit of an affinity with a place and I was a little sad to move on. Still, I’d committed to Plan C, ride west to Mae Sot near the Myanmar border and do a big loop round to Chiang Mai. 

Just an hour out of Phitsanoluk, I came across this street party with the huge lorry blasting out loud music with singers performing from the wagon. I stopped to take a look and, as the solitary farang I was soon being beckoned over to join in dancing. 🕺 

I’m sorry dear reader, but there was no chance I was dismounting Bertha to get up and dance in my lycra cycling shorts! They’re great for cycling but feel like you’re wearing a big nappy. I’m too self conscious. 

Instead, a large bottle of ice cold Chang beer was passed my way. At 9:20 on a Monday morning. In the beating hot sun. I negotiated down to drink just a cup (and it was mighty tasty, my first alcohol of the trip), drank up and rode on. A fun fifteen minutes but I didn’t want to be derailed by a beery Monday morning! 🍺 

Landscapes continued to be more of the same on the road to Sukhothai, lots of intensive cultivation of flat plains. Lots of birds to enjoy along the way but they’re all too skittish to get good photos. There is a bee-eater in this shot though. 🐝 🐦 

At some point, mid-morning, a thought popped into my head. If I opt for plan C, the Mae Sot loop, it’ll spit me out in Chiang Mai around about Christmas time. Just when the town is filling with tourists and accommodation will be at a premium. I quickly reverted back to plan B and re-committed to make a more direct path to Chiang Mai to avoid the crowds.

I told you my decision-making was agonised. 😫

Charcoal production - saw quite of a lot of these makeshift factories along the way. 🪨 

It was another hot, hot day and I was glad to reach Sukhothai, check-in to a hotel and cool down. The town of Sukhothai was not massively inspiring but I passed the late afternoon having a bit of a walk around before resting up for the main attraction. 

The main attraction being the historical park home to stunning ruins of a various temples and Buddha statues. Call me a philistine but I didn’t care too much to carefully read the information boards about each temple, I just wanted to spend the day cycling and walking around the complex, enjoying the aesthetics and soaking up the atmosphere with my own thoughts and reflections. Of which there were plenty. 💭 🪞 

Bertha the dendrophile. 

I’m not sure I’ve even picked out the best pictures but hope these give some impression of the beauty and grandeur of the park. 📷 

The park was about 8 miles ride from my hotel but I got there early, when the temperatures are lower and the light is softer. 💡 

Walking around the temple complexes provoked a lot of thoughts in me and acted as a portal to my younger self. In the early 2000s it is fair to say that I was obsessed about, or, at least, passionate about Asia (obsession is closer to the mark though). Between 2001 and 2005 I spent three years first backpacking around the continent and then teaching English in Japan. 🇯🇵

These were formative years. 

In this period I was lucky enough to visit the great temple centres of Kyoto and Nara 🇯🇵 , Bagan 🇲🇲 , Angkor Wat 🇰🇭 and various Tibetan temples in Western China 🇨🇳 (am I humble bragging?). And, wandering around Sukhothai’s temples, I recalled feeling so completely fulfilled by exploring such places, and fulfilled in travelling as a backpacker, as if that lifestyle was all I’d ever want. Roll on twenty odd years, I’m glad to be walking in my younger self’s footsteps, albeit travelling in a different way, a way that now better fulfils me. 🚲 

But I couldn’t imagine living in Asia again and am so glad I did it when I did. I reflected that, whatever your obsession or passion is, you have to act on it NOW! Because, eventually, the feeling or motivation will pass. If you want to run a marathon, start planning to do it now. If you want to learn a language, start now. If you want to change your job, take action now. If you want to take four months out of life and cycle around SE Asia, don’t overthink it, do it now. Done! ✔️ 

Smile for the camera. One of the many thousands of street dogs you’ll see in Thailand on a daily basis. 🐕 They are very cute, sometimes a bit barky but not bitey. Unlike some of the dogs I encountered in Latin America, I don’t feel I need to give them a wide berth when cycling, they are far from malevolent . 

With the heat rising to peak levels and the temple park filling with tourists, especially Thai school students racing around on bikes (looked like great fun!), the atmosphere was getting a bit zany 🤪 so I beat a retreat to my hotel for a breather. 

Dan, you don’t need to pitch your tent, you have a hotel room. But I shared it with a few mosquitoes and I really hate their buzzing whine and nibbling bites! Once bitten, twice shy, I genuinely get anxious if I know they’re in the room with me. Rather than lather myself with mosquito spray at night (that doesn’t always work anyway), it’s just easier to get in the tent. 

The best decision I made in Sukhothai was, undoubtedly, to cycle the eight miles back to the park in the evening. As the sun sets, again, her rays soften as she puts the land to rest and this is a great time to enjoy the atmosphere of the temples. 🛕 

The crowds had thinned out and I had some nice chats with some other travellers. One of them, Cedric, a landscape gardener from Switzerland, told me he works for 9 months a year then takes 3 months off each winter to travel. He’s not rich but his job is stress-free and rewarding. He seemed very contented with his lot in life. 

Having recently, and unsuccessfully and painfully returned to classroom (and promptly left), it made me think that this trip is a fantastic opportunity for me to reset some aspects of my life, especially my working life. By what metrics should I measure the success of future jobs? I’m thinking about this a lot at the moment. I feel very lucky that, when back in the UK I will return to a wonderful organisation that has values I fully align with. That’s a big part of the puzzle already fixed. 🧩 

What beauty!

Nice temple in the background too. 😉 

Goodnight Sukhothai.

Monks collecting alms in Sukhothai town.

Riding on from Sukhothai, I had to do a bit of sandbagging. Thankfully, nothing to do with flood defences, more in the sense of slowing down, pedalling on to less than my full pace potential. 

Impromptu break shaded from the midday sun. 

I’d arranged a Warm Showers stay further north in Thailand. I could have made the distance in two days but had to take three days to do it as per the arrangements I’d made with my hosts. So, against my usual target-driven style of cycling, I slowed down. 

Slower pace enabled me to add to my butterfly roadkill collection. I hope you’re enjoying it. 🤩 

After 10 days of cycling from town to town, researching hotels and staying in air-con rooms which, climate change guilt tripped, I rarely switched on, it was time to branch out. With evening approaching, I cycled into a small temple complex and started to stake it out. It was distinctly wabisabi, lacking the garish gilt of your typical Thai temple. 🇹🇭 

I knew I should camp there! 

Then, just minutes after I’d arrived, a guy pulled up and parked up in a car. I pounced, with my picture card of a tent and Thai script asking “Can I camp here?”. You can see the card laid against my tent in the picture above. Miraculously the guy nodded, I double-checked and pointed to where I might pitch the tent, he nodded in agreement again and the negotiation was completed! All in ten seconds! 

I was so happy because, to me, this is so much closer to the essence of true cycle touring. Sniffing out potential camp spots, being creative and imaginative, engaging with local communities, being willing to put yourself in a position of vulnerability and being told ‘No’. 

To get a ‘Yes’ at the first time of asking was a massive confidence boost for the trip. 🙌 

The next day, I met the temple’s monk (seemingly the only one there). He invited me to coffee. It wasn’t exactly gourmet and the bottom-of-the-jar scrapings of instant granules may have dated from the Buddha’s enlightenment but I was grateful and touched by the gesture. ☕️ 

I felt very safe in the temple grounds and packed up slowly. This enabled me to witness alms-giving. Here the monk is collecting offerings from the locals.

In return, I think they’re receiving some kind of prayer or blessing. 

Then, ceremony done, the group photo. It was such a delight to be part of this. It felt so inclusive, so convivial, quite simply, my heart filled! 💓 

Everyone soon dispersed so I took my cue to leave, said my goodbyes, offered a small donation to the temple and rode on. 

Just minutes later I passed this store selling khao lam. Which is sticky rice cooked in a stem of bamboo. 🍚 

The vendor has to bash it open. 

Then you get a tasty cylinder of filling, glutinous rice, sweet with a few beans. 🫘 

It kept me going for pretty much the whole day! 

And I needed the energy as the first hills arrived this day. 🏔️ 

I crossed a number of river bridges, but all were bone dry, just parched white rock river beds. In contrast, torrents of sweat were pouring off me as I worked hard up the inclines. 💦 

Onto Chiang Mai and beyond, there will be more of this. I relish the challenge and opportunity to get fit!

What goes up must come down. 

As you can see from this picture, I’ve moved into more forested environments. The shade from the trees is most welcome. 🌴 

Crossing the farmland, you’re so exposed to the sun, it becomes exhausting. 

I tried my tent picture card at another temple but this is no ‘Access All Areas’ pass. My request was declined. Ouch. But fair enough, it is an unusual request, I guess, and puts the other party on the spot. I graciously thanked them and walked away. No hard feelings. Swines. (joke) 🤡 

But as one door closes, another opens. I rode on, scouring the landscape for other opportunities. And what an opportunity came my way! This hilltop monument appeared in the distance, I thought “that would be an awesome place to camp!”⛺️ 

High above the forest, utterly alone, I felt very free and at peace. And confident that I wouldn’t be disturbed; the path up was very overgrown/unused. In fact, pushing through the vegetation, my clothes were soon covered in enough seeds to plant a forest as I variously pedalled and pushed Bertha up to the summit. ⛰️ 

I slept pretty well, just the soft churring and chirping of insects, soothing and soporific, and the occasional distant tinkle of cow bells.🔔 (cattle are quite common in this area). 

My sleeping mat must have some microholes in it as it slowly deflates overnight, not so comfortable on a concrete platform. But a few middle of the night rescue breaths restores the comfort levels. 🛟 

My sleeping spot was on the building on the hill between the telegraph poles (below the skyline). I believe this is part of Doi Chong National Park. 🏞️ 

So great to have used the tent in the last two days and inject a sense of adventure that was missing beforehand. I plan to build on this!

This is my signing off point. For the next two nights I’ll be staying with a Dutch couple who are part of the Warm Showers network. Then on to Chiang Mai where I’ve booked a room for four nights; I’ve heard good things about the city and believe it will warrant a few days exploration. If not, I’ll crack on with reading Trollope, my goal is to read all the Palliser novels while I’m away, something that would not happen back at home!