Uni Students, Amazing Sunrise - Pha Mok Miwai, Roi-Et.

Dec 4-6, 2015...
Sarakam > Roi-Et > Pha Mok Miwai (National Forest) > Selaphum > Khon Kaen > Sarakam

Last weekend I set a new personal best, riding 440 km in 48 hours.  I left Friday night after work, rode touring-style, visiting many sights along the way all day Saturday, and finally woke up early morning Sunday to ride all the way back home making it just in time for church.

I was a bit nervous starting out, knowing that I would be heading into the wind for a solid 9 hours.  4 on Friday and then another 5 on Saturday.  See the map below.  It is about 220km almost straight East to my destination, but then of course the 220km returning was wonderful :)  All that wind makes it easy to ride not only at a good pace, but less time needed to rest...

I was heading for the hills behind a massive and famous temple in the province of Roi-Et; Wat Maha Chedi Chaiya-Mongkon.  I had visited the temple before with students after an English camp in mid-November (pictures included, not from this trip but from a few weeks ago), but after spending the night camping out with them in the hills above the temple, I was just itching to cycle back and climb around.

The weather could not have been better.  Some of the best weather days I have seen yet, the wind barely even bothered me even though it took about an hour longer than it probably would have without...  The sky seems to be ready to give an above-average beautiful sunrise and sunset probably 90% of the time in Thailand, I don't know how this is possible, maybe other places just have boring sun scenes and Thailand is actually normal, but anyways... This sunrise was a gift!!

I usually don't stop to take photos, just slow down and steer with one hand (and yes I definitely have dropped my phone a few times), but this one deserved a parking spot.


In the space of about 10 minutes, I got to witness the glory of a pristine 5:59AM sunrise under a perfectly clouded sky (the clouds even stuck around the entire day to protect me from the sun.  Yep, just for me!).  I also made friends with 2 dogs.  So nice when they don't just stand 10 meters off and obliterate the silence with pointless barking, these dogs were awesome.  And they wagged appropriately to salute this wonderful sun-up...








I finally started rolling again when it was looking like this, and wow it was tough to watch where i was going for a good 15 minutes along side that wonderful scene...

About an hour later I reached the entrance to the huge temple, Wat Phu Pa Nam Yoi, or called by another name Wat Pra Tat Maha Chedi Chaya Mongkon (a bit long :) ), and I enjoyed the long climb up and into the National Forest Protected area.  Here you can see some super cool trees nearing the end of the main road/track.

At the base of the hill, right near the main road , you can either go straight into the temple, or turn left and continue all the way up to the lookout point and camp site.  This is the place we had 3 English camps 3 previous weekends in a row, and on this 4th weekend I just had to ride back here alone and hang out a little bit longer.  The students were awesome, as usual, a great few weekends practicing English together, but this beauty deserved some quiet appreciation time as well!!

Inside the temple grounds

English Camp with Rajabat Roi Et 4th Year Students, these students took me up to the temple after the 2nd day of camp...

The whole temple was very ornate, even more than most, but I loved this guy right here...
Gotta climb to the top floor to see him!

2nd floor, coming down, hearing this monk chanting all the way from the top!  Quite a voice!

After quite a few photos, I stopped here for lunch, back in the town of Nong Phok.  I eat mostly fruit when I ride anywhere, well really I eat mostly fruit any day and every day... but definitely when I'm out riding!  Mango is my favorite fruit, and it is hard to find right now.  The season for mango in Thailand is from about March to August, so maybe these came from somewhere further away, or someone just had a very lucky and wonderful tree still producing :)  anyways, here's a video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dqcd31nLLBw

And another video of my playing guitar during dinner, the place we went had quite a cool band playing while we feasted, I wanted to play a tune with them, but there was only one guitar, so I just played my tried-and-true Thai hit song, went pretty well I hope!

https://www.facebook.com/opele.jorasa/videos/980554665343377/?theater

 The ride through the woods was great, so peaceful, and I decided to make the trip a bit longer on the way back, taking even more time to enjoy the lovely weather.  It is not very often in Thailand that I can ride throughout an entire day without having to take a break to cool off.  Today I rode at 1pm, 2pm...it was great!  Usually I (and probably every other cyclist around here) can't really bear to ride from about 11am to 2pm, its just too hot, the sun is intense here at 16 degrees N lat.

Today I extended the ride by another 45km to visit Selaphum by a country road, and made it back to the Rajabat campus just a bit after dark - 177km total for the day.

As if the sunrise was not enough, I was blessed with this sunset!!!  Unreal, so cool... what a day.  See the small sliver of the moon there?

I was well received by one of the camp staff that night, another 4th year student, he took me out for dinner and I crashed on his couch afterwards... There was a hilarious little sign in the restaurant next door, I managed to catch a glimpse on the way in and had to take a photo.  (The place we went to had much better food, all local style, but this sign just made me laugh.)

This guy was in the bathroom of the campsite, a bit wider than my hand!

Coming back down from the campsite, the sunlight was just right....

Awesome little town I passed on the way from Pa Mok Miwai to Selaphum, using local highway 2259.  This tree is one of my favorites, definitely my favorite in Thailand, its called a Rain Tree in English, in Thai "Ton Jamjuree"...
There you can also see my bike with the amount of stuff I brought for this trip.

And to top of an already stellar trip, this was the sunrise on the Sunday morning as I left Roi-Et.

I left at about 5:15AM, got to witness that sunrise you see above just before entering the downtown of Roi-Et, and then got to have the wind push me the remaining 45km home in a hurry.  I changed for church, took a bus to Kon Kaen, and enjoyed some great coffee with a friend after church.

I had left my mountain bike in Kon Kaen a few days before, and so I was able to ride back to Sarakam after coffee, making it home just after dark.  Total distance for today, 165km.

Just as I pulled into my road, I noticed another biker riding a bike I had never seen before.  I caught up with him, chatted a bit, and took 4 more laps around campus just cooling down.  I rarely get to talk to other cyclists, everyone around here just cruises on their road bikes at high speed!  I usually mountain bike, and while I do enjoy having any and all rice field tracks and trails to myself, its always great to chat with people who love the same things we do!  This guy was cool, and the meeting put a nice end to SUCH a cool weekend of cycling.

I felt incredibly lucky and thankful to have been able to do what I did this weekend, and I hope this shorter blog post of pictures and memories will inspire YOU to grab a bicycle, get out there, and find out really how beautiful your own home can be!  I had never even heard of this National Forest before last month, and this was one of my favorite bike trips yet!  It was just there waiting... and I am sure you have plenty of places like that around you as well!  Safe travels, have a great day!

-Joel