Day 21: Khemmarat - Had Salueng - Frankie goes to.....Indochina

January 9, 2018

Day 21: Khemmarat - Had Salueng

Routing: #2112

The place I am staying at tonight was always on my must-do list since I came here first in 2012. The problem is to find it. On Hway 2112 there will be just one small blue sign for a left turn to"Hat Salung". In the village itself everything is in Thai script only but the excursion boats have it in Latin script on their roofs saying "Had Salueng". That´s why I am using this particular spelling. I can´t remember how I found the place in 2012 but this time I recognized the turnoff immediately. You come up one of these steep ramps approx. 37 km south of Khemmarat and there is a little village on the "summit". The first sign sends you down to some resort but you continue about 200 m further. As you can see the sign saying 80 km to Khong Chiam there is that little blue sign I was talking about. From here it´s just another 3 km down to the river. If you are looking for it on the internet: Next door to where I am staying (a restaurant with just three rooms in the back) is the Song Khon Resort which is featured on google maps. Why so many words on that place? I hope the last two photos will give you an idea why I admire the place so much.

Not so much to say about the ride today. The first hour out of Khemmarat was simply horrific. Terrible surface and straight into the gusty wind which was back to the "regular" northeasterly today. But then - at km 11 - the surface improved dramatically and at the very same time the road does a 90 degree turn to the south which gave me a full tailwind for the rest of the day. So there is some fairness in cycling!

When I came to the Had Salueng restaurant (right next to the red roofed viewing platform) the owner did indeed recognize me straight away. Maybe because of the cargo bicycle, maybe because I had four portions of his outstanding khao tom phla (rice soup with fish) when I stayed here for two nights in 2012. Even more likely because of my Leo bill back then.....

So a full afternoon at the place that condenses everything I like about the Mekong.

One of the many ponds along the #2112. I guess they have them for irrigation reasons. And to keep the buffaloes happy

That´s why I disliked the first 11 km so much. This is the worst surface to be on

And that´s one of the reasons why I definitely preferred the rest of the ride. One of the freshest colours I know

And I did like my day on the bike despite this

Shame! They were just about to be fully open

When you ride along the Thai border there will be heaps of those checkpoints but I never ever got stopped. If anything they offered me some water

This friendly lady in Had Salueng was more than happy to introduce my to her weaving skills. I felt obliged to buy one of her scarfs - a great thing to have at 35 degrees C

Static position no. 1 right in front of my restaurant / accommodation. No desire to move around a lot.

Static position no.2 back in the restaurant

Today´s ride in a larger scale again as I will have my last full day in Thailand to Khong Chiam tomorrow. From there I will move into Laos (Pakse).

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 1,661 km (1,031 miles)

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