84km 4.5 hrs. first 45km in 2hrs. 212 all the way. storm later
So much for early starts. Left 10.30 without breakfast but just up the road was a nice lady with BBQ chicken, sticky rice and a great chilli source. Her husband in hospital with 3 to 6 months to live with cancer. She has two children. ‘ Life is just money. Only work money for food’ she said. I guess that can be said for most people in the world and most it is just to live not for luxury items. We do not seem to generally to have advanced much.
Few resorts on the way as usual. Most not on google maps. I nearly stopped at one when could see storm coming but it was too pink.
I could see the dark clouds ahead. Then the temperature dropped and wind picked up. Only 9km to go so speeded up to get there before the storm hit. I failed. The storm was coming at me. Two km from destination I could see it ahead and dived into a food stall just in time to the surprise of the owner. As usual the main part of the storm hit with very heavy rain followed by lighter rain as it passed over. I sat in silence with the owner waiting for it to finish. Twenty minutes and all over. One can not cycle in the middle of the storm. It is like a 100 fools throwing water in ones face shouting, ‘Happy!’.
Just before the turning right into town is a Tesco Lotus store. Biggest store since BKK. I needed new gloves and sun block. This time bought gardening gloves for 55B as they cover the wrist and also bought factor 110 sun block for 495B. Expensive and it hurt but the factor 50 is not strong enough and it is cheaper than skin cancer. I convinced myself.
Tip:
- put hydration powder in all your water
- do not buy cherry hydration powder. Its horrible.
- use a nappy pin to fix a pannier. (I wondered why I had been carrying it for years).
Seem to be more westerners or to be mores specific more old western men drinking sitting around. I asked then about hotels and was interrogated by a blotchy faced man from Birmingham about where I was from. Maenam Hotel costs 450B for a room with a great view of the Mekong on 400B for a room with a view of a wall. Nice Chinese restaurant next door.
Steve, from an ice cream selling family in Coventry, found me enthusiastically. His girlfriend who he met in a bar in Pattyia spoke very little English which was ok as he talked enough for both of them. He wanted to get her a visa for the UK which I think she understood. She is 21 and from a small village. Should be interesting. We celebrated our meeting with drinks in the evening. He likes his girlfriend as she cooks and cleans and likes to stay home. She said, ‘He happy, I happy’.
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broken pannier before nappy pin
Important cycling equipment
I thought i would be roughing it
Stone smashers. Women.
sheltered here from storm
view from hotel window of Mekong
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