Now THAT Got a Bit Crazy - Phu Reua 600km + There/Back Again

October 22-24, Solo trip to Phu Reua, Loei Province, Thailand.

https://www.strava.com/activities/758092642

Photos below, some fun stories from the ride as well.  Enjoy!!

All the things I brought on this ride spread out on my bed.  I don't think I have done that before, usually everything is somewhat already in place, maybe just add more of what I already have... but.  Here you can see what I deem necessary for a multi-day ride on unknown, but very likely to be all local roads of Thailand.  

-500g of oatmeal mixed with cinnamon, raisins, peanuts, chia seeds, and sunflower seeds.  (pretty much my staple for every day, riding or not :) )
-6 bars, 10 dates, 10 bananas (for the 1st day, and then I will buy more bananas each night)
-Electrolyte Mixes, 2 Liters of water (Camelbak)
-Sunglasses, Knife, 4 bike lights and chargers.
-Power bank back-up (bright blue in photo)
-Bible, toothbrush, ID, Money, Insurance Card
-Small First Aid kit, Bike tire repair kit
-2 extra bike tubes, mini-pump, multi-tool, chain oil
-1 entire extra change of all cycling clothes
-neck Buff, sunscreen, helmet, gloves
-Hi-Vis vest/ankle bits
-Maps and notes in Zip-Loc bag w/phone/keys

Which looks like this when all in place (I have my backpack on, and then my phone/ID in one jersey pocket,
my sunglasses in the next pocket, and some bananas in the last jersey pocket).  Most of the heavy stuff is in the top tube bag,
and all clothes and whatever is left of the oatmeal goes in the seat post bag (mine is the waterproof Apidura 14L).

Starting out at 5am.
It was not long before things started to look like this...

I was lucky, it looked to be perfect weather for all 3 days (according to the forecast).  I was heading to mountains though, so of course I knew I would get rained on at least once the next day, but for now everything was looking and feeling great!

I wanted to do a 600km route that I will eventually invite others to join me for as well.  The next province over, Khon Kaen, is much bigger, with many more cyclists, than my town, so I wanted the route to actually start from there.  Which meant that I would need to ride the 70km there early this morning, and of course 70km back once I had finished.

I do know a couple of guys who I imagine wouldn't bat an eye at adding such distance to an already pretty tough schedule, but for me it just forced me to relax, knowing that there was no way I could finish within the pre-set 40 hour time limit in which a 600km ride is supposed to be completed (although if this route is used as an official event, then the way I took would very much need to be completed within 40 hours :) ouch.  It took me 61 hours (including the extra 135km, so if I made 735 the official distance, then I would have been about 9 hours over instead of 21), but wow, I would still need to massively pick up the pace next time!)

A few more photo treats before really getting under way.  Blazing sun that is, the norm for riding in Thailand.

Very picturesque... if you look seeing a buffalo rear.

Just outside Khon Kaen, this guy grabbed my wheel!  I smiled at him, asked where he was from, then dropped my smile and asked, "Where's your helmet?!"  He offered the excuse that he was headed into town to buy a new one... well.  We chatted for about 15 minutes, he even asked to stop to take a photo together.  He was from Kalasin, wonder if I'll see him again...

Just starting out for the actual 600 route, my ticker was already at 95km right around this lovely
field of cassava :).  It is sometimes impossible to avoid main roads while planning a ride this long,
but I love Thailand's extensive network of 'highways for the countryside' (Tang Luang Chonnabot)
and I included as many as I could.  This is a perfect example, perfect pavement but not a car in sight!

Ubonrat Dam.  Just passed Checkpoint 2.

Couldn't not take a Self-Photo, the scenery was just gorgeous!  Also, photos like this remind me
to relax (when I might glance at the photo album sitting down taking breaks along the way), remind
me that a few hours ago at least, I was smiling and everything was fun!

(Written mostly while riding)

I don't even know where to start… The past 48 hours have been quite a ride.  I’ll try to recall a few highlights, some cute or goofy things that happened as well :) But wow!!  What a cool trip.  Lucky to be alive!

I wanted to do another 600km brevet ride before the end of the year, and then feel satisfied to leave the bike alone for a few weeks.  Thailand only has three official events of this distance per year… and they are all done!  One of them happened too far away, the second I was already joining a local bike event with another group so I missed that one as well, and the 3rd was the one I did in Sukhothai in July.  That only left me to go out alone.  If it was gonna happen, I needed to psyche up and just get it done - although I tried to get friends to come too, this not being an official ride kind of dissuaded them… or maybe they just said it was crazy - Oh well.  That just made me want to make it even more epic, (make them jealous? some positive reinforcement saying “See!  You can’t afford to miss the next one!  Come on now!), and really test myself before the end of the year… Not that July's 600 was not a test!  It was/is actually the most difficult route of the 3 held here in Thailand (so far :) ), but doing big rides solo is a bit different - without the competitive spirit to help, doing it just for the love of long hours in nature, time spent with just myself, God, the wind, the sun, and the birds... And on the flip side, no one knows where I am, no one to offer encouragement, no one to help if I'm lost, broken down, at my wits end... Haha.  So this was definitely going to be a test in many ways.

I thought I could at least use this route for a future 600, and now having (nearly) completed it, I am very sure it will be a great one.  It has long stretches of flats as one leaves Central Esaan, many many rolling hills from here to North Esaan, about 6 hours of seriously big Hills near the border with Laos, to make you laugh or cry (or both :-) ), steep descents on the way back, breathtaking views from the single 1300m (4,400 feet) mountain climb… Oh yeah and of course inevitably you'll experience rain along the way, blazing sun, high speeds in the dark, stiff winds coming down from the nearby mountains, Thai stray dogs (anyone who rides here knows that dogs have just as large a part in the list of ‘dangers of cycling’)…  Allllll the fun stuff.

On rides this long, it is tough to remember all the cool little things that happened along the way, and this time I would talk into my phone occasionally (thanks Siri!) - but of course many little things will still just be gifts to me.  Forgotten until some tiny thing next year reminds me of a beautiful scene or meeting on one of these multi day rides, and that is a lot of the reward for building all these experiences and memories in the first place!

Right before Checkpoint 3, this area is the District of Pa Khao, 

Heading out on the 2nd morning, greetings from this guy right here!  Example of the
dress appropriate for Loei's most famous tradition - Phi Ta Kon (Ghost Festival)

First stop, breakfast of homegrown bananas.

My first stop for the day, a LOVELY time spent hanging out with this couple.  I only ordered coffee, but when they
found me to speak Thai well enough to chat, they actually yelled for all to hear "Hey, who wants to come speak with a foreigner?!"  Hilarious.  So nice, so friendly, they gave me free tea, free guava, 2 entire fans of bananas (very sweet, lasted me all the way til mid-day of the 3rd day :) ! ), as well as inviting me to stay for lunch.  That was still another 3 hours away, I politely declined, but I hope I pass this way again...  Their names were P'Kae and P'Kai

Doesn't get too much greener than Thailand in the last week of rainy season.

Not the Mae Kong River, but I am getting close.  This is the bridge pulling into the town of Tha Li.

All of the dishes that they called "Local Tha Li" cuisine had meat, meat, and more meat, so I
opted for a bowl of Phó.  So many Laos and Vietnamese have immigrated to these areas over the past
few generations, mostly tribes from those countries though and not Laos Central/Vietnam Central speaking
people, so they of course brought their food along with them as well :)  Good noodles!

To the border with Laos.

The hill poking up is in Laos, I am still standing in Thailand.  You can see a Thai style temple on the right,
and a Khmer style temple on the left.  I was amazed, so super cool, we are SO far from the border with Cambodia,
but this only goes to show how far the influence of the once-massive Khmer Empire stretched...  where was
Thailand at that time?

Closer shot of that same temple... So cool!

I thought the light poles were wonderful, brand new!  This area was quite remote, but they
get to enjoy (for a little while at least) this lovely giant and smooth road, and (hopefully)
working street lights!

Just glorious... enjoying dreaming about that peaceful view.  

I always love cute signs like this, I even turned back to snap a photo of this one.  Pokkati means "Normal," looking at
the transliteration I am not sure now of the real name, but in Thai language anyways this village is "The Normal Village."
I have previously seen Baan Mai Tammada, which means "The Unusual Village," so this must clearly be its sister-city.

Want to go to Laos?  Have to find the officer in charge first, because I saw not a soul...  

The beautiful road a few photos back suddenly ended, there was very rough gravel for about 3km (again I am loving
my 35C tyres :) !!)  and then suddenly lovely pavement again!

Pretty cool, I have taken enough long trips by now to recognize the names of smaller cities which are many hundreds
of kilometres from mine... both of these were lovely places, but I was not going to visit them on this trip...
If interested, you can see one of the most beautiful rice paddies in all of Thailand here
, from the Na Haew District

Ok, so I guess I will first just talk about what I learned from this trip.  One thing stands out in my mind, I will say that on this trip, clearly, I learned how mental fortitude can overcome obstacles.  Common enough phrase, but take a second and think - What are the trials in your life where, without mental fortitude, you really wouldn’t have made it?  A phrase that we see posted on walls, hear in advertisements, but how many times have you actually tested that statement in your own life?  This is a huge statement, I know full well, 3 days of cycling cannot even hold a candle to say, mental fortitude in battling disease, adverse conditions in your work environment every day for fifteen and a half years.  But it is an example!  This 3-day trip was very hard, make no mistake about that, but I know it was only 3 days… It served to be a pretty cool example, just to myself, a boost of encouragement just to myself, for myself!, of how even my own doubting mind can still come around and do something that is just a little bit impressive sometimes.  

Maybe, on the other hand, that time that comes to mind when I mention  mental fortitude - maybe you didn’t make it that time, and a loved one or kind friend came around to help you through.  Those kinds of tests can come in any form, because it is the willpower that ultimately decides your fate.  Yes I will use the word ‘decide,’ in the last few days for me it definitely was a ‘decision’ to finish, because this is where I showed myself how, even at age 30, which then of course means any age at all!, one can still surprise one’s self simply by refusing to fail.

In the afternoon of Day 2, so about 36 hours in, I had the less-than-comfortable of experiencing what cyclist call "bonking."  I rode straight through the day, it got pretty hot and I definitely didn't drink enough, yeah yeah common enough story for cyclists, but I was trying to still keep to the time limit.  If you recall, a 600km Brevet ride should be completed in under 40 hours.  I was still going to ride the full course (and remember, I also rode TO Khon Kaen to begin with, adding 135km onto the ‘Official’ 600 distance).  At this point I had just left medium rolling hills, and moved into real seriously steep hills - and I still had about 100 km of these to go.  Just 2 PM and I started getting scared.  “Bonking”, a funny word to talk about a state of near emergency for your body, is when the body has depleted it's supply of available glycogen.  You can either stop, start eating like its Thanksgiving, and wait for your body to convert fuels and make more glycogen - which is easy enough if you have plenty of time to relax - which someone in a race absolutely does not have :) - but another side effect of sugar depletion is loss of optimism.  This one is, to me anyways, the more dangerous when traveling alone!

Negative thoughts start, the pain that is always there in the legs, back, rear, hands, all of it starts to become much more noticeable (and worthy of complaint instead of laughter), and if you happen to be alone (and cold) on a smaller mountain roads (it was raining as well), you have no one to bounce thoughts off of or keep spirits up with laughing at the adverse conditions… well I might have scared myself a little bit.  Where I live there are not many hills - OK there are zero Hills whatsoever - so I I am not the best judge of how long it takes to get through a massive up-and-down section.  I had never been on these roads, and the elevation is so up and down that merely studying a map beforehand does not tell you where you will need to save your energy, where its ok to say “ah, thats alright then, passed the halfway point now, there is probably a place to buy water up ahead.”  It was pretty remote, and even two separate sections of gravel road.  Not a road in the process of being made, but really just a normal gravel road, it was just a very small-town area.  

The funniest part of the trip came just after the most lame part. As I mentioned before I pushed a bit too hard, went past my limit into the red zone, and started suffering.  In the nervousness that came with the lack of energy, I hitched a ride with the first truck that picked me up. I do speak Thai pretty well, but it was raining, the guy in the truck also spoke quickly, and I just heard him say, “I’m not going to the tourist area you know.”  I said fine fine no problem and I quickly threw my bike and myself into the back of his truck.  I just figured he was talking about the River View or some Tourist Lookout Point.  Maybe the border crossing nearby, I don’t know, I figured that he just thought I was a tourist, while I was in fact nearing a touristed spot (Phu Reua, a large mountain with its own national park), I didn’t really give much thought to what he would have said, could have said, my mind wasn’t really up for any sound decisions at the time anyways.  I wanted warmth, food, and most of all to sit on something other than the bike seat, (and dry if possible? could I be that lucky?).

In the truck, out of the rain at least, I put my head down and immediately started collecting my thoughts, trying to find the will to battle up the final mountain which I was still determined to do, just take a breather here for just a second… and… hey.  I noticed that he turned sharply right, and a bit more quickly than I was expecting, and whoa!!  He started descending what felt like an amazingly steep incline.  I looked up saw that the road had changed from black pavement to gray squares of cement - if was beautiful but we were dropping really quick.  It was raining and I didn't want to bang on the car window just yet, it was also very steep, if I didn’t mention that yet, a descent on a single-lane narrow road, well by now it was too late.  It was slick and I waited until the drop was over before I knocked gently on the window behind the driver seat. 

The site of the most-hilarious-but-extremely-unfunny-at-the-time nice man giving me a ride into the scene
of much personal suffering.

It was only another 60 seconds until we had reached the end, but the damage was done. As it turns out, he was just out on an errand, saw me struggling and picked me up out of the kindness of his heart.  He explained that his plan was to just take me back to his office, at least I could have a sit, a chat, some hot coffee and a breather… We had descended into a valley to the Dam Project where he worked.  You can see the pictures below - It was a power plant, quite a beautiful location, but I was going to have to climb a literal wall to get out of there. No harm done on his part, he was actually being nice but, oh man.  I was laughing, the sort of grim laugh when one knows there is some pain in the near future… well.  Get on with it.

I made a video getting back up out of there, and after I got my head straight again, enjoying the scenery snapped a few photos, I had played with his dogs a little bit, and chatted with his co-workers, it boosted my spirits but I still didn’t sit much, didn’t rest, nor eat as much as I should have.  I was ready to get back on the bike thinking that my aching legs in fading light were better than aching legs on unknown hills in the dark.  The dark was not going to wait, so I had to go.  But what did I find, after climbing that wall I felt right back where I started.  Shaky, barely moving forward but standing on those pedals, zigzagging like a drunkard to get back up out of there, it wasn't a minute before I had my thumb out again sitting at the side of the road.  At least the rain has stopped but the roads were so wet, my still-complaining brain said something like, “well I don't like descending in the rain, this is for safety!  (whatever, 1 million excuses possible when you are 430km into a marathon ride), I hitched again and at least this time I got a lift that was going all the way back to the main road.

The top of that 'wall' I was talking about.  Bonked out at the top, transported gently down, and forced to bonk again
as I slogged it out getting back to this same spot about an hour later.  Looking at Strava there was only one section
over 20%, for about 300 meters, and the other 1.5km or so are between 8-12%, but without much energy,...
oof.  That 300 meters was killer.

Now, even though I did hitch-hike, it is still bit interesting here in that I didn’t break any Brevet rules until I reached the next town and THEN did not go back to the spot from where I got picked up.  Riders doing these events will often have problems that are too big to fix, usually bike issues, and will have to get a lift into town in search of a bike shop.  The rules are that as long as the rider stays within the time limit, AND goes all the way back, however far it may be, to the point where they got assistance, rejoin the route there and continue on riding, then there is no issue.  Time management can be a problem pretty much immediately, but its not against the rules just to hitchhike.  Well on this day however, not only did I hitch, I took a total shortcut, taking the day’s total distance from around 240km down to 185km, and no I did not return to that dam road (damn road! haha) where I got the lift.  In my own head though, I still had the main mountain to climb, and I kinda used the extra 60-odd kilometers that I added, plus the 60-odd km’s I would need to then get home again the following day, to make myself ok with it.   Oh well, just gotta do better next time :)  I still rode more than 600km, but I was now just on a massive bike ride, I was no longer following the rules were this to be an official event.

Well!  Different cyclist have different strengths, I prefer flats followed by single, long and unbroken mountain climbs - I am not strong enough to do the medium height unbroken stretches of small hills.  While they are extremely beautiful, they are tiring, again especially in the rain, and by now it was surprisingly cold! My hands still hurt today and my pinky is still a little numb (3 days later, the numbness still hasn’t gone away!  Be warned!  Don’t grab the bars, just rest on them!  Even when its cold!).  I stopped to buy gloves to put over my riding gloves, I guess I should have been more prepared.  I knew that Phu Reua is usually the spot in Thailand that records the record low temps for each calendar year, while I wasn’t going to the that specific summit I was still in the area, Phu Luang is about 50km from Phu Reua, it was around 15C which feels very cold for me coming from 34C, no rain, hot sunshine just the day before in Maha Sarakam.  That right there is such a beautiful thing about the long-distance rides :) even though I was caught out this time, it is still amazing to think that one can ride far enough, or long enough hours if its just a one-day ride, to experience complete changes in weather.  Not just temperature, but even entirely different climes!  Up there in Phu Luang, even the vegetation was radically different from that which I have around my town in Sarakam.  So cool.  Beautiful.  Ok, back to the story!

So there was the funny part of the trip, didn't feel funny at the time of course, but really that is a hilarious situation - someone out of the kindness of their heart just heaps another portion of suffering onto your already large plate - hey, my mother always talked to me about the ‘Clean Plate Club’ at dinner as a kid, “You take it, you need to finish it!” and I chose to take this route today.  So now, about 3PM, I had eaten, had a sit, I didn't want to cut any more corners, it had started raining hard by this point but I had got my mind right and that made up for “adverse” conditions, adverse being a very loosely defined cycling term, subjective in the extreme :) !  I was ready to start a good climb (it also warms you up massively).  I stopped for a coffee, (changed my socks!) and started to climb the forested hills to the Phu Luang Wildlife Research Center.

It was hard of course, but wow it looked like Jurassic Park in there!!  Check out those photos below (the narrow road, broken up near the edges but plenty smooth down the middle).  It was amazingly gloomy, dark, super thick jungle, almost a deafening sound of birds and insects all around, a bit windy, humid yet cool, and as I neared the top it was getting quite cold indeed.  I hadn't quite reached the end but it was almost dark so I turned around wanting at least some real sunlight with which to descend from that elevation, the hands were almost immediately numb again but at least it wasn't an unbroken descent, and had some small climbs on the way where I could warm up.

I may have used my 'Foreign-ness' to get in here, but wow it was like Jurassic Park!  Well worth it!
By Foreign-ness I mean to say that of course no one could know the personal history of anyone cruising
around on a bicycle after-hours, and my overly-large smile, exaggerated waving, and quickly looking away
to avoid any "Don't go in there" hand signals... the gate was closed, I quickly swerved around, smiled,
and didnt look back :)  They didn't give chase, and I enjoyed over an hour of Glorious silence, had
this gigantic park climb all to myself!

Finally reaching the main road, almost totally spent by now but I knew it was basically all downhill into Wang Sapung (I was going back to the same hotel).  Another 90 minutes, 20 of which were just blazing down insanely steep slopes, at least I was glad I didn't have to climb those particular bits, really really steep I am telling you, I avoided them as I came all the way around Phu Reua, taking the back way earlier in the day.

I thought it was already steep.  Wow.  This thing must be intense!  Took the photo to remind myself that I have
some unfinished business here :)  That route looks tough, and very rewarding!

The views were again breathtaking, and I think I reached 48 miles per hour on one descent.  The smaller mountain roads were much steeper actually, but as one can’t see very far around approaching corners, you have to always be controlling the speed.  Out here though on the open and new road, you have two-lanes each way, I was passing cars, I'll say that much, flying down these hills.  Lots of fun, yes of course its dangerous, but not nearly the most dangerous part of cycling!  Especially not in Thailand, and I will get to that in a bit… ok so Day 2 started and ended well, a bit of stress midway through but hey, don’t let anyone tell you that just because we have a low average speed on the all-day rides that Brevets are EASY.  I think of it this way - which is more impressive:  Riding 65km in 2 hours, yes its fast, but then you have to sit down and majorly catch your breath (non-pro riders anyways, of course the pros ride this speed while having a chat).  OR, riding 240km in 10 hours.  Doesn’t sound fast, and really if you’re just out for a 10k ride then 24kph is so slow its almost boring!, but try riding 4 hours 55 minutes straight, stop for water (in the bottles, no time to drink), food (in the pockets, same story), a pee break, usually no time to even consider sitting down, “whew 10 minutes lost already?  Back on the bike!!” and then put in another 4 hours and 55 minutes.  Which would be more difficult?  For me, the endurance is much more impressive, it also takes not just muscles but massive willpower to deal with all the stuff that starts to nag along the way.  Anyways, not going to talk about that stuff now, but just to say, this ride was a bit trying at times.  I was very, very glad to see that red light glowing down at the Wang Sapung intersection.

My favorite dessert in Thailand.  Tofu, some bits of fried bread, the seeds are Basil seeds, and the brown 'soup' is not
soup, it is the water from boiling TONS of ginger for an entire day.  There is also brown sugar added to this, and sometimes
sago and/or kidney beans or Job's tears (its the real name of a bean :) ).

The next day I woke up at 4, wanted to enjoy the cool morning air for as long as I could while still getting a solid 6 hours of sleep in me, but what do you know - rain falling again.  I made no fuss about it, put my head down, slowed the pedals a bit, and charged onwards.  I was in a great mood, and I honestly say that I have no no NO idea why.  As the sun came up, the rain fell harder, and I pulled into the first large town at around 7AM.  I checked the weather radar, and an amazing chance presented itself.  Unbelievable.  A gift, just for me, direct from God, for me and me along :)  I could see 2 large storm cells, a break of what looked like 1-2 hours between them.  Could I shoot that gap?  I had to try, because judging from the satellite image they might be all-day type rains.  Just two huge blobs of red, even the darker red bits in the middle (the real heavy rain), but separated, and with a perfect little channel between them.  The wind seemed like it was blowing straight out of the South, I was heading directly East, so I decided to go for it - I can’t believe how well it turned out in the end, it really was great!, but first I have to mention how it was the worst part of the trip before it got to the ‘easy’ bit.

On this return home, I swear that I discovered the Most Treacherous Section of Road in all of Thailand.  I have passed this way two years before, and even thought the same thing then… I can't (or maybe I can, yes I definitely can) CAN believe that nothing has changed!  Nothing at all!  In 2 years!  The officials in charge of this section of road deserve an award for job LEAST well done!!  

Again, I will admit that my golden mood could only have come as a blessing from God, because wow the scene looked grim.  I was singing to myself singing out loud which I don’t think I have ever done on a ride, I was purposely stretching my cheeks to grin, I mean literally commanding the cheek muscles to stretch themselves back to expose my teeth, might have looked a bit crazy come to think of it haha, waving at people when I could, and even entertaining myself trying to think how the situation could possibly be MORE uncomfortable.  

To explain this more clearly, to give you a picture in the utmost degree of what I was seeing, I have to also explain a little bit about one of Thailand's many subcultures.  I will try to keep this short :)   Very interesting part of Thai culture though, modern culture I mean!!  The Agriculture Transport Sub-Culture:  Sugarcane and cassava are very common plants in this area (rubber and rice being the other two of Thailand’s cash crops).  In areas that don't receive as much water, either from rain or from government provided irrigation, these areas have more sandy soil, and you will find cassava and/or sugar cane growing throughout Esaan.  I don’t know for sure, but there might even be as much of these nowadays as there is rice!  The subculture that arises here is not in the farming but in the transportation of the crops.  The companies that own these fields are often massive, giant corporations with amazingly large processing plants in the middle of absolutely nowhere.  It is very common for me to be exploring a new dirt-packed road, come to an intersection with a glowing, perfectly manicured, brand-new stretch of 10km of blacktop, I follow it down the way and find myself riding alongside a fence enclosing what one can only guess to be thousands of tons of raw cassava/manioc piled up in football stadium sized warehouses.  Depending on the season, there could be a line of trucks waiting both outside and in to sell and/or transport the finished products from these factories.  The owners, being just a tad bit more wealthy than the surrounding country folk, take advantage of the location and use their influence to have a new road built which passes ever-so-conveniently near their plant, maybe even right to it, and not a meter beyond!  Of course it makes total logical sense, but wow how this can disrupt the flow of what was once a dirt-road small-town close-knit community.  The truck drivers, under pressure from the large companies I am sure, all-too-often turn to using home-made alcohol, methamphetamines, maybe even cheaper and less-healthy stimulants (I am sure that meth and rice whiskey are only the main ones, must be many more things out there!), well, like manual laborers the world over, it is all too easy for people in charge to look the other way, dehumanize the situation due to the sheer size of the problem, and in the end it all comes down to money anyways if those guys even need to put their finger on just one root cause.

I have learned about this over the years through my students talking about their family situations, but now I learn about the driving aspect of it while I am out alone on my bike and suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, a string of 5-meter high, double-trailer trucks come barreling down an otherwise completely deserted road, raising a storm of dust, dropping bits of whatever they happen to be over-loaded with, and just smash their way through whatever scene was quietly appearing before my eyes just moments before.  Many of the drivers/owners will decorate these trucks in the most bright and colorful ways possible, often choosing comic book themes, movies (often including catch-phrases written across the back), cartoon characters, anything and everything, and the sight of it is absolutely hilarious until one slowly learns all of the other problems that have come along too.

Anyways.  You have a glimpse now of an all-too-common and yet terribly-in-need-of-regulation scene in North East Thailand.  The road I was heading down, a text-book example of one of these local roads-turned to thru-traffic transport drug-attracting death lanes.  I mentioned earlier that the danger of descending steep hills didn’t even compare to what I face/faced in this next 60 minutes of riding, so let me give even a few more details.  As these roads are built on top of previously existing roads, much much smaller, but the roads have been there for decades, its just the quality that is upgraded, the people living in all these small towns still have to carry on with their day to day lives - For someone like a cowherd, “Oh wow!  A nice smooth road where I can walk my cattle, instead of pushing them one by one through that swamp on the left, hey and they took my road too!  I have been doing this for years, well oh I am definitely walking my beautiful cows on the shoulder for as long as I possibly can!”  Again, it makes complete sense for that person, but when you consider all the other things that are happening… oh and there’s more.  Thai people are very nice to animals, specifically dogs, feeding pretty much any dog that even looks hungry no matter who’s dog it may be, so there are tons and tons of dogs, probably the majority of dogs in Esaan have no single owner, and then you have students needing to go to school (I was coming through right around 8AM), you have the local farmers transporting their products 500m up and down each little stretch of road nearest their house, and then finally you may have kids already cutting school, showing off their motorcycles by revving the engines as fast as they can for all of 6 seconds before then turning back off the pavement and casually parking next to it.  Or just parking on the road.  No big deal, because its their hometown see?  They don’t think to do otherwise, because the roads are just all built on top of each other.

I remember my good friend one time saying something to the extent of “Thailand has some of the most dangerous driving even possible in the world!  Why?  Because in Kenya for example, people are bad drivers, but they cannot, for the most part, ever get up to a deadly speed due to the terrible road conditions - just too many potholes to ever go fast.  On the other hand, in Europe or North America, people drive super fast, much faster than speeds needed to kill, the roads are also beautiful and well maintained, designed to allow cars to reach these speeds all the time, but the highways are separate from local roads.  Police have cars that work, radar devices that turn on, non-corrupt (for the most part) policemen who actually try to give people tickets (people believe it to be true, which is much more important than whether or not it actually is true) and there is a clear system of the requirements to get licensed.  Finally, there are real penalties for those who drive without said license, and so although there are still plenty of accidents, they are usually vehicle to vehicle instead of vehicle to cow to (bicycle) with a dog in the mix,… oh and there is STILL more to come! :) 

Thailand is in the middle of this, right in the middle of Western Europe and Central Africa.  Here in Thailand we are taking the most dangerous of both worlds, and slamming them together.  See what comes out! - this country has brand new roads, not constantly maintained, but constantly rebuilt (corruption), so nice and smooth, but probably half of the countryside drives without a license (I agree from personal knowledge as far as young people are concerned) and the other half are not much better.  There are ZERO enforced rules about what type of traffic can be on the roads, no enforced speed limits at all, so people are bad drivers, terrible in fact, but can easily reach speeds fast enough to be lethal at pretty much any time, anywhere.  Even totally excluding normal 4-wheeled vehicles (or 6, 12, 20-wheel trucks), there is a huge variety in traffic just between home-made stuff, you can see tractors, new screaming Kawasakis as well as the black-smoking super-old 100c motorbikes, animals of several types, foot traffic, other bicycles,… it is just incredible sometimes what all one can find one a stretch of road as it approaches any village along the way.

So this day had all these different types of traffic, but I am STILL not even close to describing all the little cringe-worthy details that were happening on THIS day.  On this day, the large trucks blasting through were all carrying sand.  Not cassava, not cane, heck even rocks would have even been better, at least they just fall straight down, sand was just horrible because the sand can blow out.  So not only was the road dangerously covered in fine grit, but because it was raining, this grit turned into a sort of mist, a haze of suspended sand particles about 1 meter from the ground.  Still not quite done, because to top it all off, although it was raining over my head, off in the distance the sun was shining.  I was heading due East, right into the early morning sun, and the road was wet enough to reflect the sun’s rays right into my eyes.  It was incredible, like I said I was trying to imagine how the situation could even be any more UNcomfortable.  I guess I could have had a bike problem, trying to fix a flat in these circumstances would have been so bad it could have been made into a cycling comedy sketch, but wow I remember thinking how a passerby would have burst out laughing (if they weren’t too busy fending for their own lives amidst all the various speeds of traffic in all directions) - They would have seen me riding with my head tilted to the side, looking out of just one eye avoiding the painfully bright road reflection, also trying to cover my mouth in order to breath without inhaling sand, also checking behind me to see if I could safely dodge whatever came up in front without getting rear-ended by an

A) elementary-school kid doing 50kph on a motorbike,

B) an elderly man in a 3-wheeled tuktuk doing 35kph taking his wife to the market,

C) a dog chasing me at roughly the same speed I am doing, slow or fast because well, thats just how they have fun!

or

D) a twenty-ton truck driving at 80kph down the middle of the road without a care in the world.

Yeah.  So that section of road was about 30km long, stretching from the District Capital of Wang Sapung, passing the District of Na Klang, and in to the Provincial Capital of Nong Bua Lamphu.  As I said before, I had come this way for an English Camp 2 years ago, we took taxis from Udon, and I remember being impressed at how dangerous the road was at that time.  If it could be any worse, you must also have guessed that yes, indeed, various sections of the road, completely chance whether they would be marked or unmarked of course, were under various stages of construction, taking what may be 3-lanes each way down to just 1 lane, and lastly, this area being of lower elevation, there were tons of 1 lane bridges crossing all the little streams and rivers along the way.  Avoid this road at all costs.  If you are wondering why I didn’t, I guess I either have no answer, or I can say it was just one of those situations in life where each additional hardship gets added on after one has already made one’s self ok with whatever was going on beforehand.  Little by little, things added together to create an insanely risky situation, had they all presented themselves at once I may have just shook my head and tried to find a dirt road winding around all this nonsense… but they just piled on bit by bit until I was already many km’s deep into it all.  Maybe there is something inside us all that loves taking risks, whether it is because it will add to the story we can tell once we get home, or if its out of a sense of personal pride, personal power, as in ‘hey I am just flirting with death, just cavorting with the evil forces here, my guardian angels just doing their utmost to keep hell at bay here, and I am just pushing one limit after another, whee!!  I was the idiot who thought that because I had already rode 500km, I was invincible because hey, I was basically in the home-stretch!

Last few photos here, a massive plastic Starfruit to cheer me up :) !

Nearing the last few km's of the Tour de Pongneep, a cool bike race where riders take one big lap around the
entire Ubonrat reservoir.  I rode in the Open MTB category last year and got 4th place, it is the largest and
most annoying trophy in my small trophy case :)  Annoying because I did so poorly and still managed 4th, shows
how stupidly hard it was that day (insane heat, literally hundreds of riders pulled out due to the 41C noon sun).
Anyways, the climb to the finish line is not far ahead...

Well, to move on as fast as possible, I will recap:  I had a talk about the coolest part of the trip, the funniest part of the trip, the worst part of the trip, I already mentioned the learning experience, and so to top it off - I am glad to still be alive, I am glad to see that my time on the bike has let me improve, able to do more and more, really allowing me to go far out and explore some things that I really couldn’t do any other way.  I am ultimately thankful to God for introducing this country to me in the first place, as I have said many times before - 7 years has just flown by, and I really am just as satisfied, and also very much just plain happy on a day to day basis, as I was in my first year living here.  Indeed much more so, as I can now say that I have done something here, left some sort of a mark, whereas in my first year I was really only having fun, if anyone else got any benefit from my existence then it was just a lucky accident.  Well here I am, aside from all the strength and fitness that comes with the cycling, those things to me are definitely just a bonus - the #1 reason I love riding my bike is because I get to experience this country and its people in a very unique way.  It is an entirely new way to travel, for someone who is already very lucky in travel experiences from an early age, and I hope for many more good and fruitful years to come.

Enjoy the photos, thanks for reading, and as always - God bless.  Work hard, work smart, and if you’re riding then ride strong but ride safe.  Have a great day everyone, take care!  - Joel

Just to write down what I ate, always one of the most fun things for me to track, not only for the number of calories but also which types of foods feel the best at what times of day...

Day 1 - 

Left at 5AM, before riding I started with Oatmeal like usual, followed by water (2), along the way I picked up some Thai donuts, some pumpkin (steamed), coffee, more water (2), bananas.  A few hours later, about 10AM, some rice and eggs, then more bananas while riding.  Stopped for another mid-day meal of vegetables with rice, a fried egg, then ate rice cakes while riding.  Stopped for a Coca Cola, then more water.  For dinner, had a sugarcane drink, more rice and vegetables, another egg on top, then had fruit and oatmeal before bed.

I spent 250 Baht today on food/drinks, and then the hotel was 400 Baht.  (35 Baht = 1$USD)

Day 2 -

I left late today, the weather was actually pretty chilly, I started with oatmeal and bananas.  Along the way, stopped for water, had some dates, and then stopped for coffee.  While sitting down, I had a guava, some longkong (fruit), more bananas, and more water.  At 1130AM, I stopped for noodles, had some eggs as well, water, more bananas and then a granola bar while riding.  Stopped for more water and had a 7-11 gel as well.  Had bananas while riding, "stopped" for coffee at the Dam (pictures above), then had some more fruit while waiting for the rain.  For dinner, more vegetables with rice, eggs, and then the ginger/tofu/brown sugar (pictures above), more oatmeal before bed.

Day 3 - 

Left very early today, but the rain started almost immediately.  I stopped after just an hour, made it to the next town in a total downpour.  Started with oatmeal, then had bananas and water while riding.  Granola bar while waiting, then at around 10AM stopped for more water and had some dates while waiting for another spell of rain.  Today I had almost no breaks, I felt strangely out of it, not hungry but quite thirsty, and I cant recall clearly but I think I rode nearly 100km without a break, just a few bananas in my pocket and a few bottles of water.  Around 1pm I was nearing Khon Kaen, and I just pushed all the way through to the end.  Khon Kaen meant the end of the 600, but then I still needed to get home, at least 2 more hours after the finish line.  Extra points I call them! :)  had some more rice cakes, more fruit, another granola bar, and had the lovely cappucino as a reward (picture above).  

I definitely felt the loss of energy the next day, but somehow just having some decent weather, good cloud cover, also getting the ending 100km in sight, I was just able to smash it out and not really stop for food.  I was excited at the thought of finishing such a distance (new PR for me for 3 days of riding), and I guess it was fun enough that I didn't feel the need to worry so much about proper fueling.  On second thought, I had never had oatmeal both morning and night, and here I did it not once, but for all three days!  Maybe it gave me some more calories in reserve for each day, who knows, but I will definitely remember to check on this for next time.

What a great set of days, I will remember this fondly :)  Full of the pure and perfect things I was searching for, long hours on the bike but gigantic stretches with nothing but the wind in the trees, and the sound of the wheels spinning over long, twisting, hilly and GREEN views from the quiet roads... til next time!

-Joel