RISING UP THROUGH THAI

I was keen to know if I could somehow get back into Thailand without a visa (refused at the consulate in Georgetown, Malaysia). I charged North to Pedang Besar border in the NW of Malaysia, and arrived around mid-day on a Saturday. Absolute chaos, as the traffic was jammed all the way for about 5 km along the main road through the town, to the border. Even on a bicycle it took some skilful manoeuvring to squeeze through. Malay exit works on a quick and easy system, but at the Thai entry there were hundreds of people in disorganised que's, so I took up my place at the back. Soon an organising official approached me, looked at my passport, and escorted me to an office inside the immigration building. There I was given a 30 day entry into Thailand (the huge signs on the walls stated that I needed to show THB 10 000 in cash, but nobody asked). So, now I planned to head straight North through the longest section of Thailand - and I figured that I could pull off that move in a month.

In Malaysia the Thai visa is rather more expensive than a place such as Laos, and I was rather pleased to be given half of that time in the country at no charge. So, off I went on my way to the North. I was feeling fairly strong, healthy, and happy.

At this time of year, whatever breeze there was, was mostly behind me. However, it rained pretty much every day in the South of Thailand, and sometimes I had to dress up because I felt rather chilly. My broken arm was not yet properly healed, and whenever the temperature dropped that discomfort would increase. I usually found a dry camp at night (temples or wherever), but it can become a bit miserable waking up to pouring rain, dressing in wet cycling gear, packing wet bags, and heading off into another grey and soaking day.

I still had a problem with spokes snapping on the back wheel of this bike (great - having to remove brake disc as well as cassette to do a spoke replacement). I had run out of spares, and at Phatalung I found a bike shop which had my size of spoke so I bought 20 (turned out to be only 19 - why would they cheat me with 1 spoke?). My Pattaya tyres were wearing out, so before I hit the big Laos Mountains, I fitted good new tyres at Lampang city.

The pictures in this post are just an assortment from this leg of the trip through Thailand. The cave temple is in the Thung Song district, where I have camped before. I was totally unaware of the caves, I did not explore because of the rain (as before). But this time the monk called me from the hall where I was camping, to have breakfast. He lives in the spectacular cave, and also gave me so much T/A food that I had to refuse much of it (too much to carry).

I relaxed a little on the cycling effort for the last few days as I approached Laos in good time. From Chiang Khong town in Thailand I crossed over to Huay Xai district in Laos on 4 July. I was rather peeved at having to pay a hefty price for the shuttle bus across the Mekong bridge between the 2 immigration check points (I had previously cycled across this bridge in the opposite direction). The bus fare seriously swallowed up a good proportion of my survival pennies. It was a very quiet week-day, with no pickup truck traffic from whom I could beg a ride. Now the big hills and huge mountains of Northern Laos awaited me!

Daily distances which I managed to cycle on this leg from SW to NW Thailand (2 025 km):- Hat Yai 95 km; Phatalung 85 km; Thung Song 78 km; Wang Sa 120 km; Lamae 146 km; Chumphon 105 km; Pak Klang 52 km; Huai Yang 117 km; Pranburi 102 km; Phetchaburi 92 km; Potharam 91 km; U-Thong 99 km; Chai Nat 128 km; Khong Wilai 130 km; Tak 110 km; Don Chadi 113 km; Lampang 95 km; District 15 km; Huai Luang 22 km; Luang Nuea 65 km; Chun 97 km; Thoeng 92 km; Chiang Khong 50 km. Total distance thus far is 161 192 km.