January 2nd: Udon Thani to Nong Bua – 49 km

Day 81

Maybe it’s the cold nights and comfortable beds, we get up and out later and later. Today we planned on a 76 km day but only made 49km.

We were unpleasantly surprised in several ways today. First, it was hot and humid. Second, we had a long uphill climb. Third, a group of police officers stopped us in the middle of 1 and 2, neither of which put us in an entertaining mood. We may have lost a bit of endurance during our long rock climbing stay and our legs were lumps of clay. So in the middle of our misery, a truck full of police officers pulled over on the shoulder in front of us and jumped out. My first thought was that we did something wrong, or they wanted to check our documents. Then we saw the camera. One officer kept motioning to my trike and saying “picture picture”. I wiped the sweat from my face, and told him no. I started to ride off but Cher was still trapped on the other side. A few minutes later she appeared and told me that she was busy giving them a lecture on how rude it was to stop us for pictures in the middle of an uphill climb under the blazing sun. We afterwards both admitted it wasn’t really a big deal, but when you’re hot tired and mashing up a hill in the afternoon sun, the last thing you want is being stopped for pictures.

We arrived in town without further incident and both agreed that we would get up early tomorrow. Weather calls for 32 C. or 90 F. and sunny. However it will be 35 C. / 95 F. in two days. What happened to our sweet autumnal Cantaloupes and Honeydew Melon days? I guess there’s a reasons why we’re surrounded by coconut palms, banana trees, and tamarind trees.