December 15, 2012

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The morning started out well. We were cheered going up a steep hill by a bunch a Thai farmers. How can you not love a place when people cheer you on? Thai people are all really friendly. We are constantly getting waves and thumbs up. People honk at us to yell hello or ask where we are going. Little kids are the best though. They are all super excited, waving, blowing kisses.

The plan for the day was to get back on the highway and go to Sangkhlaburi, about 50 miles away. Getting off the dirt road was nice, but the highway was very hilly. We had to take a break around noon, as the heat was becoming unbearable. We found a little rest area at an immigration checkpoint and decided it was as good a spot as any to stop. We got a couple Cokes and then hung out reading in a covered area overlooking the river.

Nice place for a break

River

At 3 it was time to finish the last twenty miles. Our host at the Hidden Holiday House had warned us about three big hills that we would go up and back down and back up. We had already gone up and down several large hills and we hoped we were through the major climbing. A few kilometers from our rest stop we began to climb, and around each bend the road kept going up, up, up.

The hills were brutal. Again we were stopping after every switch back to drink water and take a break. We crested each hill, then immediately lost all the elevation we gained on steep descents.

By the last hill my legs had turned to jello and I hated everything everywhere. At one point, I was really upset and Chandler started singing “misery makes memories”, I didn’t know if I could handle any more hills.

Finally, the top, only to go all the way to the bottom again

It was such sweet relief when we were finally over that last hill with no more big ones in sight, but we still had several more miles to go. We stopped at a 7-11 at a highway intersection and had our favorite snack of juice and Ovaltine cookies, then headed into Sangkhlaburi.

Buddha welcomes us to town

It was getting dark by the time we made it to town. We didn’t know where the guesthouse we planned to stay at was, so we spent a while roaming around trying to get oriented. We actually ended up on the wrong side of the lake, in a Mon village. We were able to cross back to the main town over a large handbuilt wooden bridge. Finally Chandler found the guesthouse, but just our luck, they had no rooms and we had to keep looking. I really started to lose it at this point. We had just biked 46 pretty difficult miles and I was only interested in a shower and pineapple shake.

Chandler was able to keep it together and found us a bungalow at a homestay nearby. We had a simple dinner, watched some incomprehensible Thai TV and went to sleep.

December 14, 2012

The morning started with instant coffee and a hardy meal of rice and omelette. It was then time to hit the road. We were able to take a “closed” paved road from the park to a fork in the road. The way we came was about 4 miles or we could take the 1.5 mile shortcut the GPS was suggesting. We opted for the shortcut.

Of course it was uphill the whole way and on a narrow little trail I’m sure only the locals use. It was extra gravelly, meaning I had to walk my heavy bike up most of it. But in the long run, it did cut out some hard miles of steep ups and downs.

Not the happiest camper

We had been warned that the steepest sections of the road were paved and right when we finally connected with the main road, it was paved with concrete. Oh no. It started out gradually steepening, but then suddenly the road seemed to go vertical, which continued for a kilometer or so.

I didn’t know if I could handle another monster so early in the ride. I noticed I need a few miles to warm up before I can efficiently go up steep long hills. Luckily, this was a short hill with a nice long flat portion at the top to cool down on. The road was nicely shaded by jungle on either side. We took a little break to drink water and Chandler said based on the map we had another 300 meters of vertical before we were on top of the plateau.

I kept waiting for another giant hill, but it never came. Even the paved sections weren’t too steep. I did see this guy though. Anyone want me to big him home for you? Thank goodness for zoom. For scale, its legs were broader than an outstretched hand. Yikes.

My new pet

Being on the plateau was wonderful. Not too humid or hot. We had no problem riding the entire day. The only thing we were wishing for was pavement. Riding on dirt roads all day is definitely an arm workout, and pretty dusty when a rare car would come by.

Rubber tree?

Limestone mountains

Quiet beautiful riding

We didn’t really have a plan for where we were going to sleep except at one of the national parks. We got to the visitor center of a park with lots of caves. About ten people came out to greet us. They gave us cold water, maps and a place to rest. It took two of them and the two of us about 20 minutes to figure out their park was closed and there was another park up the road that was open. They showed us pictures of the inside the caves including one of a giant stalagmite that is “#1 in the world, 62 meters.” The caves are only open in March and April.

We finally got to the park that was open and were escorted to the area we could camp. The park staff tried to tell us they would put our tent together for us. We politely declined which led to much confusion. Four of them looked on worriedly while we set up our tent. They gave us pillows and blankets. They also thought we were crazy because we weren’t cold. We were clearly the only visitors at the park.

Chandler went down to check out the waterfalls while I relaxed in the tent. While he was swimming with a few locals in one of the pools he noticed a park ranger watching from the edge of the jungle. Chan walked down the river to the next waterfall and the ranger followed, but kept his distance. A bit weirded out, Chan asked him where the tallest section was. The ranger then proceeded to sprint down the river with Chan barely able to keep up. After a very rapid tour of the rest of the falls he led Chan back to the road and left abruptly. The whole thing was a little strange.

Anyways we met another sweet stray dog to end the day.

December 13, 2012

Today we took a break to relax. We slept in late, maybe until 7am, then had coffee and breakfast at the restaurant in the park. We did a short hike to see all the stages of the waterfall. Two stray dogs accompanied us. It was nice to have dogs around. We named them Stumpy and One-eye after obvious physical features.

We read a lot, went swimming and made friends with the other stray dogs roaming the park, Mama and Stumpy the Gray. We also prepared for the next couple of day by buying lots of snacks, instant soups and 6 liters of water. We don’t know what the next national park will be like or if there are towns between the two.

Guard dogs

One stage of the Mae Khamin waterfall

Hiking trail

The tallest waterfall stage

December 12, 2012

We started off the day with strong cups of nescafe instant coffee, which absolutely needs sugar even if you usually take coffee black.

The biking was hilly, but nothing compared to the day before. Our destination was the Mae Khamin Waterfall, which is on the west side of the Si Nakharin Reservoir. Our route led us roughly along the eastern shore. After about 7km we took a spur road down to the water where a small ferry carried traffic across the narrow neck of an inlet. The ferry cut off about 20km of road which meandered along the edges of the inlets many fingers. After a 15 minute ride we had the daunting job of climbing back up to the road grade a few hundred feet above the reservoir.

Ferry ride #1

The army we met along the way

After a few more warm km of riding and a detour into the sleepy administrative town of Si Sawat, we made it to another ferry spur road. This ferry cuts across the width of the reservoir and is the only access to the western shore north of the dam.

The first kilometer of the road was concrete that quickly yielded to a rough unpaved water damaged track. I wasn’t totally sure we were on the right road.

Finally we popped out at the top of a hill overlooking two bright blue ferries. As we approached, something didn’t seem right. Once we got down to the water we realized there wasn’t anyone around, tarps covered the ferry engines, and it didn’t look like we were going anywhere soon. We spotted an old woman laying in a hammock on the porch of her small house above the ferry landing. Chandler went to talk to her, but she threw her hands dismissively at the two ferries, then at him in an international gesture of “go away!”. She rolled over in her hammock and that was the end of her assistance. This was the first unfriendly person we have meet in Thailand.

Considering the time of day and that we had already rode about 35 miles, we were not interested in turning around. We had seen a sign up the road for Camping Meeting #2, a weekend retreat type of place that was deserted. We figured we would hang out there until we could come up with a plan, then ride somewhere when it cools down a bit. At this point it was looking like our options were reduced to backtracking for two days to the highway, or riding further north and crossing some mountains into a completely different part of central Thailand. Chandler heard a motor bike and decided to go down the road a little further to see if he could find someone else to talk to while I rested.

Chandler met a kid who basically understood we wanted to cross the lake. He led us back to the abandoned ferry landing and after about ten minutes of hand motions, pictionary type drawings of ferries, and some horrendously mispronounced Thai we figured out that a ferry would come whenever a car showed up on the other side of the lake, maybe today sometime.

Reading

After an hour or so, the ferry showed up with a single car on it. The operator motioned that he would leave at two o’clock, in about twenty minutes, and took off on his scooter. We sat on the ferry and he returned around 2:20. “No car” he said. “OK, we’ll wait” Chandler said. “No car” he held up two fingers, “baht”. There were no cars, and we hadn’t seen a car on our side in the few hours we had been there so we agreed and essentially chartered the ferry to cross just for us for 200 baht, around $7 USD. The ride took about a half hour, and now we were back on track.

While waiting we broke into our food stash and discovered a new snack, which hasn’t caught on in the states yet. Chocolate Cheetos!

What could be better?

Ferry ride #2

We rode the last 7 km or so going up and down steep hills until we finally made it to the National Park entrance.

So tired

We paid our foreigner entrance fee of 200 baht each, rode up one final huge hill and pitched our tent in a huge grass field overlooking the reservoir, right next to the Mae Khumin waterfall. We went for a swim in one of the waterfall pools then had a basic, but very good dinner at the park restaurant (same prices as anywhere else, less than 100 baht for dinner for two). Then some rest.

December 11, 2012

We slept until 6am and then hurried to get going thinking we had overslept. When we went out side, we found the gate closed and no one at the front desk. We had to wait until 7am to pay. We wandered around looking for food near the bridge, but no vendors were out yet.

Heading out of town

We decided to just get out of town and hopefully find something to eat along the way. On the highway to Erawan National Park, Chan spotted a curry stand and after using my vegetarian sign, found something I could eat. Sweet fried noodles and eggs with rice. I didn’t eat eggs before this trip, but decided I am already so limited, maybe I should include them in my diet. Thank goodness I did, everything has eggs.

We made pretty good time on the 40 miles we wanted to cover. We were on the highway, but it wasn’t too bad. Many busses passed us, shuttling tourists from Kanchanaburi to Erawan, which features a supposedly beautiful waterfall. We had been tipped off that there was an equally nice, or perhaps even more beautiful water fall on the north western side of the large Si Nakharin reservoir which saw much less tourist traffic. We figured we would push just a little bit further to get to an area away from the tourist hoards at the park.

Road hazards

Si Nakharin dam

It was already 12:30 and we were hitting the hottest part of the day, but we thought the big hill and 13km would only take an hour. Wrong. We ended up leaping up the hill shade patch to shade patch. Even the smallest shadow cast by the lowliest bush was sweet salvation from the intense heat. I thought my skin was frying off my body. It was so hot we ended up drinking all of our water and I might have cried.

Eventually, we had to take a serious break. We sat on the side of the road and ate peanuts and a pomelo, a fruit similar to the grapefruit. After about 30min of rest we decided to give one more push. Our GPS showed that there was a fire protection unit just a half of a mile further. We weren’t sure what that was, but we hoped it had some water.

Pomelo

When we got to the waypoint, the only thing there was a spirit shrine. However, it turned out to be the top of a pass. This was completely unexpected and a moment of true bliss. We cleared the pass and flew down the other side. It was awesome. We made it to the next town and began looking for a place to stay. This was a resort town on a lake and the first places we checked out were over $100, so we ended staying in a small family run restaurant with a room to rent. Not bad, there was a shower and a fan, and a pretty nice view.

Front porch view

Our new roommate

We had a nice meal of tom yum soup with fresh fish and huge chunks of fresh ginger along with an omlette for dinner. We read for a little bit then crashed for the night.