The Queen of Sweat

January 5, 2026

Kanchanaburi to Ban Pong

Dear little friends,

After our little foray into the tourist ghetto of north Kanchanaburi yesterday we were really grateful that we had picked the hotel that we did. It was one of the nicest ones we’ve ever had in Asia, in that everything worked, there were no stupid plumbing issues or noise, everything was thoughtful, comfortable, well-maintained, pleasant. So rare. And yet such a nice place was set in a down home Thai neighborhood, with a small market and modest housing, it’s a real Thai neighborhood and feels very authentic.

The morning started with the first muesli breakfast in weeks. We don’t know where all the papayas in Thailand have been hiding but they have been as scarce as hen’s teeth and when Bruce scored not only a papaya, a mango, and bananas yesterday we had a breakfast feast in our room.

The measure of a good hotel is that you feel a little pang when you leave. The measure of a good trip is that the pang fades in the first few moments on your bike when you turn a new corner and wonder what the day will bring, and what you’ll see.

We crossed the bridge (not THE bridge of course) over what is now the Mae Klang river and skirted a beautiful jungly mountain. The road was narrow and there were a ton of sand and gravel trucks but once we cleared the sand and gravel operation things quieted down. In fact they were really quiet because we passed an enormous Chinese cemetery and a Thai cemetery and then more cemeteries in various levels of upkeep.

A Chinese cemetery. Always they face east and if they are on a hill that is even better so as to catch breezes.

If people have the money they have these monuments made to hold their ashes. We haven't seen a lot of these in the north but they are very popular in this area.

It seemed that this area was an auspicious place to be buried or have your ashes interred, and build grandiose temples, both Thai and Chinese, some tucked into the mountainside but hard to photograph what with buildings or power lines blocking the view.

Truck owners sure like to jazz up their trucks.

Most of the day was spent following along the river through small villages, temple grounds, yelling at dogs, looking for lunch, doing some navigating. Our grandson was starting a new preschool this week so we wanted to stop and Facetime with him to wish him well. He was excited and nervous, but also focused on showing us how he gets dressed for bed all by himself. He has a little song that he made up with nonsense words to go along with the pajama donning, I hope I don’t have to memorize it, the only song I can remember all the words to is ‘Happy Birthday’.

There are so many random shrines that we don't have any clue as to what they are all about. This one is for guys with glasses?

And this shrine! There is a lot going on here.

Part of the Mae Klong River which further upstream in Kanchanaburi was the River Kwai.

We're seeing lots of these monuments to hold the ashes of the deceased.

We are now heading eastward and south and heading into the outer limits of what will be the Bangkok megalopolis in a couple of days. But for now it’s still villages, farms, irrigation canals, and we leave the mountains behind again. On the other side of the river were huge sugar processing plants, they have a distinct molasses smell which is kind of fun, but the factories themselves look like something out of a steam punk video.

Factory for making sugar from sugar cane.

There was a promising looking lunch place where we stopped for pad siew. This has become our default food option for several reasons. One, it’s really delicious, two, everybody knows how to make it, and three, it always contains at least one vegetable and often several vegetables. The lunch maker’s husband urged us to park across the street in his shaded parking garage where he also keeps many cages of various pet birds that he proudly showed us.

This was hanging on the wall next to the table where we ate lunch.

Image not found :( — We love these signs on trees along roads which we don't understand. You see one and then you never see that one again.

Between Wat Wai Niao and the river Mae Klang.

Thai Buddhist spirit house on the left and a little Chinese shrine on the right.

The Thais are very industrious when it comes to trying to tame rivers.

The guesthouse we had in mind is out there in the farms and irrigation canals, it’s quite the complex, with many different rooming options to choose from. We weren’t sure there would be a room for us but the advantage to ending your riding day in the noon-ish hour to get out of the heat is that we’re usually the first people to check in and they come up with a room for us. Our 500 baht room includes breakfast tomorrow, there’s time to do some laundry and hang it outside on the parked bicycles in the hot breeze, time to rest and write and nap.

Yes, I do laundry nearly every day. I’m the queen of sweat and so I hit the sink with a packet of grossly perfumed laundry powder and try to get everything drying in the sun so I can bear to put it on again the next morning. While I’m sloshing my things around by hand, wringing them out, wrapping them in a towel and standing on it to get as much water out as possible, I think of my washer and dryer at home with great fondness and gratitude. There are laundromats here and there in Thailand, some even have dryers. But often if you send out your laundry to be done you’re going to see your unmentionables hanging out to dry on a rack in the lane for all the world to see. And I don’t carry enough clothing to build up a pile of laundry. Every day it is.

We were tired and didn’t feel like going out to look for food and we had had a substantial lunch and there would be a good breakfast in the morning so it was banana-and-Clif bar dinner. More and more cars were arriving at the guesthouse and by bedtime it was nearly full. You make a good breakfast, people will stay at your guesthouse even if it’s out in the sticks. Remember that.

Today's ride: 33 miles (53 km)
Total: 1,004 miles (1,616 km)

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Marsha HanchrowI've never heard anyone else say they roll their hand washed clothing in a towel and step on it. I do that with sweaters, unless I actually do a delicates load in the washer.
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