Sudden Stops for Mesmerizing Things

December 20, 2025

Si Samrong to Khiri Mat

This morning we did have a papaya. We had two papayas in fact. I bought two because one was small and very ripe and the other one had a coloration that I couldn't read as ripe or not ripe. But they were both fine and we had another wonderful papaya/muesli breakfast on our porch, the porch that was non-existent on our original bungalow before our unexpected upgrade.

We got going early in the relative coolness once again. Another beautiful day was upon us. This is the way it is all winter in Thailand. With climate change the temperatures have been creeping up from what I remember 50 years ago but the absence of rain for the winter is the same as back then. The breeze from the north was again there to help us. And again it was flat with mostly rice seedlings as far as we could see. There was one other crop that was being pretty heavily farmed as well. The plants were small, green and leafy. I thought it was some sort of choy. There are many different kinds of choy and since I am not a choy aficionado I couldn't tell you what kind of choy was being grown all over the place. There were an unusual number of households that had entire front and back yards devoted to growing the tiny choy to a respectable size before it was presumably sold and transplanted to big fields. I was thinking the area was a sort of bread basket because maybe the soil was exceptionally good or at lest just right for that certain kind of choy.

I was stopping to photograph the baby choy here and there and one time while we were stopped Andrea said one word, "Tobacco," and rode off. Once again, Andrea completely deflated my preconceived notions of delight. Here I had been thinking how when the choy was ready to be harvested big refrigerated semi-trucks would pull up at the fields and there would be a massive harvest of that certain kind of choy. They would pack the trucks and drive like mad to Bangkok and the markets would be filled with the wonderful green leafy nutritious stuff. But one word and all that went out the window. Tobacco. Of course she's right. Why didn't I think of that? Thailand actually grows a lot of tobacco. I had never seen it in these parts. We always saw it over on the eastern Thai border along the Mekong. But way over here I made up a fantasy that it was a choy region. Tobacco! Another one word complete sentence I guess. She just said it and rode off leaving me standing there speechless. Tobacco totally makes sense. Individual households wouldn't turn their yards into baby choy nurseries! What was I thinking! But baby tobacco plants would be cash. I kind of hate that it wasn't choy.

Planting day. Transplanting the baby "choy."

As I was frustrating over my happy-go-lucky choy fantasy there was suddenly a guy walking a magnificent bull down the highway. I have never seen such a beautiful bull. The guy had a black hoodie on and if he had been walking a lot slower my mind would have gone to' zombie' but he was definitely not the zombie. Plus, he had a bull. I know bulls are usually confident in themselves but this bull seemed even more so because he somehow knew he was super good looking. They were on the other side of a four lane and walking so fast that I had to circle around to get a good photo of them. That bull was just strutting down the road!

Then we came across a coffee shop, the 107 Cafe, where the owners had the place so decked out for Christmas that we squeezed on our brakes without knowing we were coming to an abrupt stop. They had handmade from styrofoam, thick drifts of snow hanging over the eaves of the roof! There were Christmas trees, fake presents and all sorts of decorations. And besides that the place was totally kitsch before all the Christmas stuff. We had to get some coffee from them so we could sit and admire all the kitsch. A lot of effort had gone into making the 107 Cafe (and bar). The entire structure was made from old boards and windows cobbled together. A young couple were making our iced lattes and they took a long time crafting them, like way longer than normal, but that gave us more time to walk around and admire their cafe.

The two types of coffee places that we seek out in Thailand are the kitsch places and the ultra modern places. The ultra modern ones have higher prices but they exude a bit of luxuriousness. A round window or two is really the thing now with those modern places. We occasionally need to go modern even if it costs more because we put up with a lot; from pushing up 15% hills to sewer gas filled bathrooms in some of the places we stay.

Today's coffee was brought to us by the ultra kitsch 107 Cafe. We sat there and slowly enjoyed our excellent lattes. Andrea took some time to FaceTime the grandkids and show them all the decorations. They, of course, think the Christmas decorations are totally normal for this time of year. But we are stopped dead in our tracks as if we have just come across a magnificent bull walking down a four lane when we see styrofoam snow drifts.

Fake flowers at 107 Cafe. But, this frog looked so real I thought it was. For the longest time I stood there waiting for it to move or blink. It must not have been a real frog.

I guess the boyfriend had hit a wall with selfies.

We had been at the cafe for a long time but finally it was time to get back on the road. As we pushed our bikes onto the pavement that hooded guy with his bull walked right past us now going the opposite direction. I quickly passed them and positioned myself to do a little video. I mean, when was the last time you saw a beautiful bull being walked down a four lane highway? The bull took a lane! Fantastic! It seemed like possibly the hooded guy walked his bull many miles per day on that road.

Now they are going the opposite direction.

Then we got off that four lane road and onto a much smaller rural road more to our liking. It was very low traffic, very quiet. Again we saw a lot of fields being prepared for rice planting. The road was full of clay clods. Dogs are more prevalent and more into defending their territory way out in the countryside but we have never had any vicious attacks. We crossed lots of waterways and I marveled at the intricate system of distributing water to the fields. Most of the water must initially come from rivers either by diverting and using gravity to distribute it or by pumping it from rivers into cement irrigation ditches that are canted a degree or two so that the water flows where they want it to flow. From those ditches it flows into smaller streams into individual fields. It's brilliant and probably has taken many many years to perfect. I also love the sound of gurgling water as we ride the rural roads. It was a big variety of roads that the navigator had come up with on her phone. I just went along for the ride and took photos every time she had to stop to look at her phone.

There are tiny pepper plants in each hole in the plastic.

Even the most humble homes have spirit houses.

Most brand new temples are of the Bangkok style. I don't like this impersonal style with the roofline extremely high up. Everything is projected upwards presumably towards heaven. Probably most of the money to build new temples comes from local people who have gone to Bangkok to make their fortunes. They come back to their home towns to gain merit by building a temple. I'm just guessing but this scenario is a good possibility.

These look like fishing stands but these are rice paddies. So, I'm confused.

When a house is built before the people move in they call the monks over to bless the house. The monks paint these symbols over the front door and chant for hours. I don't know exactly what these symbols mean.

We zig zagged through a lot of countryside and it was getting hot and I told Andrea I was getting pretty hungry. She asked, "How hungry?" "I could eat a chicken," I told her. "Well, half a chicken." Now, I must explain. This is our sixth bicycle trip in SE Asia. We have seen a lot of really delicious looking chickens on spits over coals and we have only once bought a thigh or some small part of a chicken. It was so good. So, I have been threatening to buy a whole chicken and sit by the side of the road and eat it with her like we are cave people. I say it every trip, several times per trip, but we have never done it. We did eat an entire duck in Vietnam once. We had come a long way that day and were in a guest house but there was no food anywhere nearby except a roasting duck stand. We bought a duck and took it back to our room and devoured it! We have always joked how we ate an entire duck once. But we have never eaten a whole chicken.

We turned onto a slightly larger road in order to get to the small town where there were a couple of guest houses. But just before we got to the town, there by the side of the road was a rotisserie chicken stand! It was only three miles back that I had mentioned eating a whole chicken! I stopped and was staring at the chickens turning over the coals as if I was being hypnotized. The woman watched me and started laughing. I turned to Andrea, "I think this is the day we eat a chicken." I asked the woman how much for a whole chicken and the price was expensive ($5) for here but I was remembering that thigh we had on our last trip and how good it tasted. She whacked the chicken with her cleaver a few times and included some spicy sweet sauce in the bag. I hung it from my handlebars and we were off. Then we saw a Thai iced tea stand and we had to have a couple of those to wash down the chicken.

This guy is mesmerized by the chickens just as I was.

We found a guest house, paid them quickly and immediately set to eating that chicken while it was still warm on the nice front porch of our bungalow. We did eat like we were starving cave people. No utensils, we just dug in with both hands. It was super delicious. Chicken in Thailand is the best chicken I have ever eaten. I don't know why exactly. It just is. And I don't know exactly why it felt so good to eat a whole chicken either. It just did.

lovebruce

We finally did it. We bought a whole chicken and we were about to eat it all.

Today's ride: 32 miles (51 km)
Total: 638 miles (1,027 km)

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Jen RahnI think there's a children's story brewing about the day Baby Choy was born at the tobacco nursery ..
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