Monthly Archives: February 2014

Day 89

We had a rest day and I learned a little about the sex trade in Thailand. From Wikipedia I learned that the sex trade is seen as necessary because of the view that men have insatiable sexual appetites and it’s better that they get it out of their system in an impersonal encounter rather than a long emotional affair with a woman on the side. There is also the problem that in poor rural communities women are expected to help provide for the family and prostitution is considered an easy way to make some money. The inferior social status of women, coupled with an acceptance of prostitution, leads to young women being forced into it. There have been campaigns directed towards changing social acceptance of the sex trade. But with continued poverty and the popularity of Thailand as a sexual tourism destination, the campaigns have done little to stop it.

I often wonder how people see Cher and I. We only have hiking clothes to wear when strolling around town, but we still receive some long looks in many small towns.That coupled with the amount of signs, in English, in many local hotels where no one speaks English, that say you are not allowed to bring prostitutes into the hotel has led me to believe that not all of those looks are of the curious sort. Cher has been mistaken for being Vietnamese, Lao, Thai, Filipino, and Japanese. So every where we go she’s a local girl with a white guy. On the other hand I could be completely wrong and the only time that we could understand what people thought of us, a woman in southern China asked if I was her father.

Day 88

We are getting into and out of the groove depending on the day. Travel fits dancing metaphors quite well, although it’s more like dancing on a first date where your date wants you to dance and you can’t say no. Sometimes the music is perfect. The mood suits you, the beat is just right and all you have to do is let go and the rest takes care of itself. On these days the road is smooth. Hills give you enough speed to coast to the top of the next apex. A perfect lunch spot appears when you’re hungry and that clean hotel you need is right where you expected it to be, for the right price. Your date is impressed that you dance so effortlessly. Did you take lessons? She asks you.

Other days you want to rock it out but only country music is playing. You dance anyway, and you do so begrudgingly. You step on your partner’s toes, you’re out of sync with both your date and the music. You lurch around the floor like you’ve just learned about this new fad called dancing. You kept going when you should have stopped for lunch, the hotel you wanted is overpriced and there isn’t a restaurant nor store within half an hours ride. You try another place around the corner but it’s filthy and the owner is chuckling to himself like a lunatic. You end up backtracking 20 km to a hotel you passed up as not far enough and you eat lunch at 7-11 with the other tourists. But like a date, in the end you find that even though you stepped on their toes all night, your date is going to throw you a bone for trying. You roll into a little bungalow across the road from the 7-11 and it’s everything you need, AC, wi-fi, clean, quiet and cheap. You decide to rest there because you got lucky and your date promised breakfast in bed!

To elucidate we followed signs for a homestay, each promising “it is just 1km ahead!” for about 20kms. When we got there it was overpriced, and in the middle of nowhere. We backtracked and found a crazy man chuckling to himself who showed us a frightening filthy room that was also overpriced. We then backtracked even further to the first place we saw when we arrived in town but decided to press on because, well, you know, never stop at the first option you see. After a long day of traveling and backtracking, it was everything we asked for.

Day 87

Back on it! Maybe it was because of the good night of rest or our proximity to our climbing destination Chiang Mai, despite the heat and the distance there was a certain excitement in the air.

Upon reaching the planned destination for the day at the 60km mark, we could only toil on, passing many inviting hotels along the way under the torturing afternoon sun. Why? Because we made the made a stupid mistake of not taking out cash at the seemingly ubiquitous ATMs. And we spent our last Baht on some snacks. It turned out that the ATM we passed was the one and only before Uttaradit 30km away. With zero Baht in our pockets, we pressed on in 34°c heat till we reached Uttaradit.

Soon we found we made another mistake – we hadn’t planned on arriving in , nor stopping at Uttaradit. Without the help of the almighty Google Maps, we didn’t know where to go, as we’ve learned many Thai Hotels are tucked away on the outskirts without any signs in English. We ended up spending a lot of time looking for buildings that appear to be hotels. Multiple air-conditioners in the widows, signs that read squiggly, squiggle, squiggle (in Thai) Wi-Fi, squiggle 24. We discussed memorizing the characters for hotel but there are hotels, motels, guest houses, home stays, resorts all buried in a lot of other complicated script advertising various amenities. Our winning trick is looking out for keywords, such as “24” (24-hour check-in/room service), “Wi-Fi” (almost all Thai hotels offer free WiFi) and very often a red arrow, have led us to our lodging.

However, this was not the case in Uttaradit. After spending an hour wandering around, we found nothing. Eventually we had to resort to the old-fashioned human-to-human interaction by asking locals. Of course, we were directed to the most swanky hotel in town – Friday Hotel.

Many fancy hotels quote a price that includes an overpriced breakfast. At Friday Hotel, we were quoted 800 Baht with “complimentary” buffet breakfast and 450 without. For 350 we could have 3 large meals. Venturing just outside the hotel we found a local market where 20 Baht gets you a bag of prepared food. With several bags and 150 Baht later we had a feast.

These markets are everywhere and perfect if you can’t speak Thai. All you need to do is just to point and pick and you are guaranteed authentic local fair. Remember the word “phet” for spicy, with some body language the venders will know what you’re getting at and point out the ones that are spicy and non-spicy. I like spicy food, but even mildly spicy by Thai standards is at my upper threshold.

Day 86

Semi-rest day. We are not really physically exhausted, but we are a bit weary. The on-the-go mentality is hard to maintain when the journey becomes monotonous. Accommodation is easy to find, the road is smooth and straight forward, and the people are nice enough to let us mind our own business. We only need to be the mechanical engines of our trikes. In some ways when the going gets tough, we get to be the pilots guiding our battleships through adventures, and at the end of the day every everything feels like a reward. Our previous 2.5 months were filled with little adventures and adversities that made most days satisfying, but since we entered Thailand, everything becomes easier. This is also the longest stretch that we’ve had in one country since we left Hong Kong. We might need to find some intermediate activities between the climbing destinations to spice up our pedalling.