November 22, 2025
Zig Zagging through Tiny Villages
Den Chai to Phrae
Zig Zagging through Tiny Villages
Den Chai to Phrae
The young woman who was seemingly running the guest house, the same one who was worried about dealing with me the night before, was all smiles in the morning. She motioned to the big jok pot which meant that we were invited to have breakfast there. The coffee was terrible but the jok was good. It's a nice thing to start the day with even if it isn't much. There were a lot of people who had stayed the night who were laborers of some sort and they snarfed down the jok and went to work in their work vehicles.
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We went to work on trying to figure out a route that was NOT on the big highway. Andrea is great about mapping routes in the countryside. I just go along with whatever she comes up with.
It takes a lot of stopping and looking at the Google maps to see if we made the right turn but it's all a lot of fun. We were only going 14 miles to Phrae but at our pace and with our zig zag route and stopping to take photos every ten seconds, it was going to take some time. No jok (joke), we were going to Phrae (Pray).
Our route was to take us through many small hamlets which, to save space for growing as much rice as possible, were tight little settlements with houses close to each other, the streets narrow and winding. I feel as though the streets were originally dirt paths before cars or maybe a more appropriate measure would be as wide as a water buffalo cart. That means that the streets in the little towns were super narrow and turned at 90 degrees a lot. I loved it. Each town had a temple, of course. There were few cars and they were driving at a snail's pace. The towns were quiet except for some dogs. At one point we turned a 90 degree and there in front of us were about 12 dogs just looking for some excitement. They couldn't believe their luck to have two foreigners suddenly turn the corner. But it was actually bad luck for them that there was a man right there in the street who yelled at them every time they tried to chase us. You can't trust the dogs when they are in a pack like that. The man had quite a job keeping the dogs off of us but he basically saved us. We were lucky to have him although I really doubt the dogs would have been aggressive enough to bite us.
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The tiny hamlets were so small that after a few zigs and zags we were abruptly spit out into rice paddies again. The rice harvest had just begun and since the rains are done out come the blue tarps for lying on the ground to dry the rice. The large flat areas in front of schools was a favorite place to dry rice. We stopped and watched people spreading the rice onto the tarps and then spreading it some more with their feet walking back and forth.
We crossed little bridges over irrigation ditches. Water gurgled all along our route in a very intricate system of water distribution to the paddies. The elevation of each paddy is slightly different and that's where the intricacies of making it flow from one paddy to another comes into play. I think it has been worked out over generations. I always marvel at it and love the gurgling of rushing water. The paddies which had already been harvested were already under water, softening the clay so the plowing could begin and the next crop of rice planted. I was surprised that it's warm enough here to start the next crop. It's winter! And speaking of that, the temperatures are down considerably and we are having some more ideal weather for riding than when we were in the south last trip. It never got cool in the south on our last trip. It actually could be an old time winter here in the north, just what we were hoping for.
Our day was very peaceful and slow. We stopped at a field hut in order to FaceTime with our 3 year-old grandson and show him water buffalo in the field and talk about rice and harvesting it. I did not mention the snake tail lying in the field hut next to me. I have the feeling some field workers caught a snake and ate it except for the tail.
At one point we entered a thick forest and the temperature dropped ten degrees. It wasn't morning anymore which meant that the birds were not singing as much. It was cool and quiet and wonderful inside the dark forest. It was small and soon we were back out in the sun and rice fields and then another little town. Right turn, left turn, right, left and we stumbled onto the Yom River. On our trip we titled Unmettled Roads we followed the Yom River for quite some time but not this far north. We greeted the Yom again. It looked like it had flooded its banks earlier this summer but was back to behaving.
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To meet the Yom River meant that we were getting close to Phrae because Phrae is on the Yom. We more or less followed the river into Phrae and directly to a coffee house at random since it was too early to check into a hotel. By chance I think we went to the right coffeehouse because they had the best tasting coffee of the trip so far and the cheapest. It was called the On The Way Cafe. We also noticed that the crew working there seemed to know each and every one of the customers who walked in and greeted them enthusiastically. I think they have the right formula for success.
We then checked into a huge yellow hotel, dumped off all our stuff and went to a highly recommended khao soi restaurant. We got to ride around Phrae a bit too. The khao soi was fantastic, made by an older woman who probably has been making it for decades. Phrae looks like a very nice town, especially the old section inside the old walls and moat. We haven't seen one tourist yet and no one speaks English. It's like the old days, which is exciting that there are still places like this in Thailand. Actually most of Thailand is like this. We can't wait to explore Phrae. It was a beautiful ride today, just another that I enjoyed thoroughly.
lovebruce
Today's ride: 18 miles (29 km)
Total: 205 miles (330 km)
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