December 20, 2025
Day 109 — Bangkok to Hua Hin (by train)
Well it was the day we were leaving Bangkok. It didn’t really feel like we had been there long enough, but we had a bit of a schedule to keep, so had to push on.
I really like Bangkok, and enjoyed our brief time there, both as a reconnect with our 25 year old backpacking selves, and as a taste of what we might see in Thailand as we bike further south. It was also a hilariously abrupt transition from Japan. Loud, chaotic, disorderly, it’s a hot mess and so many things Japan wasn’t (and don’t get me wrong, we loved Japan).
Anyway, our train to Hua Hin wasn’t until the early evening, so there was some time left to hang out. Marilee opened to stay back at our supernice guesthouse to do some trip planning, while I opted to spend a couple hours walking aimlessly. I took some photos on my walk, some of which are below.
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Sadly, it came time to leave the Tavee Guesthouse. Hope it won’t be another 30 years until we’re back! We geared up the bikes and screwed up our courage to bike the 7 km from the guesthouse to the train station.
We managed the ride through the streets OK, even routed through some backstreets which was fun. And we pulled up at the train station … and though we were definitely at the train station, it’s the huge fancy building right there, we were at the older station, across a set of train tracks from the fancy new station. We walked the bikes up and down the platform, and there was really no way across. We were maybe 50 metres from the station, but couldn’t get there. Only thing to do was head south until some street crossed the tracks. We ended up biking another 4 km just to get from the old station to the new. Anyway, we had given ourselves an absurd amount of time, so we weren’t too fussed.
We sorted out the rest of it just fine. We chatted with another cyclist, a Frenchman in full roadie kit with a road bike fresh from a ride in Chiang Mai. He gave us tips on getting the bikes from the freight car, which was appreciated. Not much to mention about the 4 hour trip, except we got to watch the couple across from us navigate some big marital spat. She was furious, he was fighting for his life. He kept buying drinks from the itinerant vendors which she shunned. She just turned away and fell asleep. And for some reason he got out a fancy pink sheet and spent some time trying to cover both of them. Very unsuccessfully. Scenes from a train.
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Well we successfully got the bikes off the train at Hua Hin, and navigated the short ride to the hotel. Back to riding tomorrow!
Today's ride: 12 km (7 miles)
Total: 4,871 km (3,025 miles)
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