November 30, 2025
Respect
Chiang Kham to Phaya Mengrai
Respect
When there is a buffet breakfast in store I'm up and at 'em pretty early, filled with anticipation and excitement. From the reviews of De One Dee Hotel, (strange name except Dee means 'good' in Thai but why the first De then? That's French isn't it?), the buffet breakfast wasn't anything to write home about (or write about in an online journal). It was fairly good with a couple of pots of Thai food. It's always good if it isn't just a western breakfast so I think it was pretty good. The breakfast helped bring down the price of the place and got us onto our bikes a bit faster.
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It was downright cold in the morning as we pedalled away from our fancy hotel. It was the coldest I had been yet. Part of the reason was that it was solidly cloudy/foggy to begin with. We took a very quiet back road at first and came upon a strange place that was abandoned. People sometimes have dreams of building something unique and then they actually do it. Sometimes their dreams are just that and they don't pan out. It seems to happen quite often in Thailand. To me it says the Thais have creative minds and want to build their dreams not just dream them, at least if they have the money to do so.
What we came across was something I don't even know what it was. Neither of us could figure it out. There had been lots of odd little wooden structures built a while ago. There were signs in English about a "Kingdom". It resembled something a rich kid built with forts and lookout towers. I, on the other hand, found logs in the forest and notched them and built a log cabin up as high as my waist and then didn't know how to go higher without it all falling apart so I ingeniously dug out the soil inside to make my sides higher! Genius, right? I dug down at least two feet and then nailed a pitched plywood roof on it. There were no windows so it was dark and earthy. The door, well there wasn't a door, just steps down in the soil. It served as a trap for snakes, frogs and salamanders. It was a sad sort of fort but I sat in it and thought about hunting deer with my BB gun. After a major rainstorm it filled with water and didn't drain very well. It was awful and fell into abandonment just like the "Kingdom". I'll just post some photos because we really didn't know what we were looking at. I have the feeling the concept might have some sort of game of searching for something. I was definitely searching as my eyes scanned the area back and forth.
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1 month ago
1 month ago
Eventually we came to a pretty big highway but again with little traffic. As we pulled onto the larger highway a man in a truck who was stopped at the traffic light stuck his head out his window and yelled, "Very good!" with a big smile. We saw other people along the way, especially people on large motorcycles, give us a thumbs up. And one guy racing his motorbike at top speed in the opposite lane tore off his red cap and waved it to us. The cap was flapping around as if it was about to be torn to pieces. It was funny but we thought it was nice to be honored like that. Everyone was so nice. Why are they so nice to us?!! I think people are showing their respect for us for riding in their country. They know it is difficult to ride bikes and they know by the looks of our loaded bikes that we are going far and wide in their country. And they are showing us respect. It's nice.
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We were on other little roads other than the bigger highway and on those roads the rice drying was in full swing. Whole lanes were blocked by rice drying on blue tarps. I am a little bit disappointed that the rice harvest has largely taken place already. It seems we are a month too late to see the amber waves of rice across entire valleys. Now, we are seeing the drying stage which is interesting as well. And since the rice is in, farmers have been plowing the rice paddies which they first made soft by soaking them with water for days. We were dodging clods of clay on the pavement and rolling right over butterfly shadows all day.
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On one very rural small road we had stopped for drinks of water. We were both still astride our bikes and out of nowhere a very dark man rode a bike past us very slowly. We both looked at each other and said, "WHERE DID HE COME FROM?" Seriously, it was as if he just suddenly appeared. Since he hadn't said anything and kept pedaling on his old one speed bike slowly down the road he seemed like a ghost. He wore black clothing and his skin was very dark too. When we finally started out again he was well down the road but we saw that he stopped. I decided I'd greet him as I greet everyone so when I passed him I was going slowly and I greeted him in Thai. There was no expression on his face, no acknowledgement at all. This is so unThai.
Andrea agreed something was off. She said, "Did you see how his facial skin was all mottled and how he just stared?" Then she added, "I think he's a zombie." Oh man, that's all we needed out there in the middle of nowhere with few cars. I think Andrea was right, that guy was a zombie. No matter how fast we went he was slowly pedaling behind us. I started looking back every few meters and there he was plugging along on an old bike that didn't fit him. It was like he "took care of" the former owner of that bike. He didn't care if the bike didn't fit him, it was faster than walking. Zombie's don't make good time walking. The zombie denied us stopping for any reason. I couldn't take photos anymore nor could we stop to drink water for fear the Zombie would catch up to us. We were freaked. That guy was whack.
We were way down a winding road and I looked back and I could still see the black figure zombieing his way towards us. I told Andrea that there really wasn't anything we could do, that he'd eventually catch up with us. That didn't sit well with her, of course.
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But we were able to get to the small town, Phaya Mengrai, without the Zombie catching up with us. We got a little bungalow right in town that was the most humble little place of our trip so far, also the cheapest @ $10. The owners were the sweetest people ever. The younger woman spoke very good English and she was very excited to have us stay there. Her two cute little girls brought us bottles of water and clean towels. She even said she had a washing machine we could use. That was a first! She quickly showed me how to use the washing machine and then she had to rush off to sell lottery tickets. I think Sundays are big days for selling lottery tickets. I felt bad that that was apparently her job.
| Heart | 3 | Comment | 2 | Link |
1 month ago
1 month ago
We stuffed a lot of clothes into that machine and it washed them well. Andrea showed me that there was a water extractor centrifuge thing that I didn't know anything about. It worked if we didn't have much in it. The clothes inside it had to be perfectly balanced or it would make a horrible off balance racket like there was a tennis shoe inside and the whole washing machine bounced around. After it had made a horrible racket a few times a man came out, (her father? husband? no idea). I didn't know exactly why he came out but it must have been because it sounded like I was about to kill the washing machine. What was on my mind however, was that we never got a key to our room. I guess the bungalow was usually rented by the hour and there was never a need to give out a key. Everyone who had rented the bungalow in the past had never needed a key because they had never left the bungalow! But we were planning on going out to look for food after we had ruined the washing machine.
I was therefore thinking of asking for the key but I didn't know the word for key in Thai. I made a turning motion with my hand and the man looked confused so I went over to the door he had come out of and made the same gesture at his door knob. He went to get it, I thought. He came back with three or four tools and offered them to me. It was then I realized that he was thinking I knew how to fix the water extractor because the racket it was making when it wasn't balanced had probably woken him up from his nap, plus, he no doubt thought I had broken it. I waved off the tools and he went away and came back with his entire tool box! I was laughing and so was he. I then went across to our bungalow door and made the motion with my hand at that door and it finally clicked. It took some time but that gave me more time to break the washing machine. He did come back with a key. We both laughed again.
Around dark Andrea and I went looking for food but all the restaurants were closed because it was Sunday. For the first time ever we went to 7-Eleven and picked out some food. I never dreamed I'd ever eat food from a 7-Eleven but it looked rather good and was very cheap. But the amazing thing was that the employees at 7-Eleven heat up the food in microwaves for you. That 7-Eleven was busy and the employees were so energetic and willing to please us in any way they could.
We sat on the curb of a closed business and ate our food and watched the center of town activities which were slim with everything closed except 7-Eleven. The food was remarkably good and it was fun to see all the people on motorbikes who passed by give us big smiles. They knew exactly what we were eating. Even our guest house guy passed us and had a big smile.
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1 month ago
When we got back to our bungalow the key didn't work in our door. I looked at it and saw that it had a number 3 on it. We were in number 2 bungalow. The lottery seller's mother was out and about and she went and got the correct key for us. She, too, was very welcoming and cheery. The man escaped into his little house and didn't want to be implicated in the key debacle.
As we drifted off to sleep we simultaneously said, "Did you lock the door?"
lovebruce
Today's ride: 35 miles (56 km)
Total: 338 miles (544 km)
| Rate this entry's writing | Heart | 11 |
| Comment on this entry | Comment | 7 |
1 month ago
We haven't seen the zombie lately but we know he is still plodding along after us!
Yes, heat and humidity are huge factors over here when riding bikes. Fortunately we are way in the north and it has become very pleasant weather. Once we head south to escape the inevitable smoke as more and more fields are burned, we are sure it will be much hotter and more humid. But for now we are very much enjoying the beautiful weather.
1 month ago
In Japan, we get very good food, consistently, from 7-11 and clones called Lawson and Family Mart. Best egg salad on white bread, without crusts, or onigiri rice triangles filled with salmon, tofu, nato or any number of things, with a nori wrapper that is kept dry with ingeniously designed plastic packaging. They have hot food as well, but we stick to the coolers.
1 month ago
1 month ago