Waving in the Breeze

November 28, 2025

Ban Luang to Pong

Dear little friends,

As wiped out as I was from yesterday’s hell ride I still had trouble sleeping. Honestly, it hurts my soul to get such a physical ass-kicking. In any case, there was more of that hilly riding ahead and there was no way I was going to do it again. But if we could get a ride to the next town over the hills we would be fine. So after some discussion we decided to see if the guesthouse owner could help us find a ride to Chiang Muan.

We ventured outside and stood around looking like we needed something and she emerged. Under the garage roof next to some motorcycles was a nice looking pickup truck.

With Google Translate we asked if we could get a ride to Chiang Muan.

“It’s 21 kilometers,” she informed us. Yes, yes we knew that. Translate fail.

“Mai dai,” I said, with a forlorn gesture of fragile weakness that was in no way feigned.

She got on her phone and called her guy, who was 20 feet away in their residence so we could hear him replying to her both on her phone and through the window.

He came out, we agreed on a price and he went in to finish his breakfast and we went into our bungalow and packed up. Bruce was muttering a bit about the price but I sure wasn’t. I needed to get out of the mountains.

As it was, he was a gracious driver. His pickup was in perfect nick, with various parts of the interior covered in protective plastic and cardboard on the floors. And the ride was extremely hilly and there was a very steep downhill for several miles that he had to drive in 2nd gear. He burned up a lot of gas taking us down and even more going back home, so he certainly deserved what we paid him.

He dropped us off at the first 7-Eleven in Chiang Muan. Chiang Muan isn’t very big but it has two 7-Elevens. After we waved and thanked, we set up the bikes and then sat down in front of a tiny coffee kiosk. The two girls working there had still-hot coffee bolan lined up in their little tin pots all ready to cool down and make into a day’s worth of iced coffee. They poured steaming hot coffee into clear plastic cups and sealed the lids in a machine. That was new to us. We sat in the shade of the kiosk and drank our coffee while the girls crouched inside and ate breakfast soup.

We didn’t get far before we got to the second 7-Eleven, at a PTT gas station. PTT’s have gas pumps, EV chargers, clean bathrooms, Amazon Coffee places, and a 7-Eleven. Some of them have food sellers in the evenings, even. We stopped for a box of Lactasoy for tomorrow’s breakfast and noticed a bike tourist rolling down the hill we were going to be climbing soon. I don’t think he noticed us but he decided to stop at 7-Eleven too, so we ended up chatting with Tom from Connecticut/Miami, whose photo we did not take.

Now Tom is young and fit and could probably bike circles around us backward but he wanted to know about the road ahead. Without exaggerating I told him it was hell and that the grades were bitter. “Can you weave on them, though?” he wanted to know.

Weaving is when you go up steep hills by going back and forth across the road surface to lessen the grade. There was enough traffic flying up and down and coming around sharp curves that you might possibly not hear. We didn’t even consider weaving. Tom took off and we don’t know how he fared on that road to Nan but we wished him the best.

A roadside eatery pulled us in and we had another one of those incredible meals that you get for a song in rural Thailand. There were a lot of neighbors going in and out and some were eating of course. An elderly Mien woman was hanging out there as well in her traditional dress and headdress. I have worked with a few Mien-American colleagues so the Mien are pretty special to me. She was shy but seemed like a very sweet lady.

The woman in the background is of the Mien ethnic group.

The broth that always comes with meals is such a nice addition.

There was a lot of pretty countryside to cover and the day was moving along so we did also. There was a stop at a temple around noon to peel off our cold-weather clothing. Mornings are getting quite brisk! One of us has to stop and photograph various crematories and beautiful grasses waving in the breeze. The other stops too and drinks from their water bottle and takes a look around and thinks deep thoughts.

First crematory where the chimney isn't cement painted white.

First things first. The Buddha is in place and the temple can be built anytime - probably years away.

This roadside rest structure is melting into the earth. We see these cute wooden things all along the roads. Maintenance seems to be the problem in SE Asia.

There was one last hill pass but it wasn’t terrible and then we were really out of the mountains for real.

Everyone knows there are no cameras. We never see police either.

We are seeing more and more rice drying in the sun. And there is another one of those cute rest stop gazebos.

We came upon a rickety farmers’ resting hut in front of a crop of yellow-blooming plants that we’d never seen before waving in the breeze. One of us had to climb the rickety ladder to the rickety missing-boards edifice to photograph and video them and the other one wisely stayed on the surface of the good wide earth and took a few close-ups.

Eventually we arrived at our chosen guesthouse in Pong, or rather, on the outskirts of Pong at the top of a steep hill. It had a great view from there but I wanted the view of the inside of our bungalow and I wanted to wash my sweaty clothes and hang them to dry from our bikes in the hot sun.

They don't look like much but they were beautiful on the inside.

Oops, the installer of this holder obviously couldn't read English.

The bungalow had a surprise little deck behind, with a table and sink and shady plants. Wouldn’t it be nice to have coffee and muesli out there in the morning? We had only eaten one meal so we went over to the adjacent cafe and boo, it was closed. Neither of us felt like riding down the hill to Pong (and back uphill) so we conjured up a nutritious meal of peanuts, fruit, potato chips and a package of Cremos (knockoff Oreos). We don’t normally have chid (junk food) with us but it sure came in handy this time. It was delicious.

Those are clay clods in the road and not what you might be thinking.

Today's ride: 18 miles (29 km)
Total: 258 miles (415 km)

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