Knots of our own making

November 15, 2022

Singburi to Sankhaburi

Dear little friends,

The clouds opened up right at bedtime last night and it bellowed and blustered and water dropped in sheets onto the roof of our strange palatial hotel. Our room was lovely, by the way, spacious and spotless and had a great view of the odd grand entrance and empty parking lot. The bikes were under a roof in the outside parking area and were fairly dry in the morning.

It was with some trepidation that we went down to the included breakfast. These can go so many ways. But it turned out fine, there was jok and some curries and gross Nescafe, enough to keep body and soul together. There were some people there too, which was good because eating in a gigantic breakfast room of polished marble and heavy chairs with just the two of us is a recipe for misbehavior.

Mischief lives in a bowl of Thai chilis.

I guess it’s time for me to discuss navigation. I finally put a phone mount on my bike because I knew we had to do a little riding in Bangkok and stopping at every odd-angled corner makes for a tedious and overly obnoxious ride. I wasn’t planning on using navigation aids after that though. Wrong. Here in the central plains the land is dominated by water, water, and more water. Most of it seems to be in the air or oozing from my pores but enough of it is on the ground that canals go hither and thither and if you’re not riding along a canal or river or stream you’re in the middle of a rice field and the next bridge is five miles away. So you’d best have a route.

I’m back to using Pocket Earth, it really does give us great rural routes that are easy to follow. There have been a few glitches when some of these roads have washed out and we had to backtrack but we can’t blame Pocket Earth for that, the flooding is barely over. The phone stays in its handlebar mount and nudges us toward our destination and meanwhile I take very few photos with it, so we’re going to have to rely on Bruce’s for the most part.

One of our washed out routes. Good fishing spot though.

It’s unclear why this toilet is placed here but traffic slowed down to see if the photographer was going to use it.

Through villages and rice paddies and very very quiet back roads, it’s all great. Except: I’m too damn hot. How hot? Well, I have a simply ridiculous capacity for sweating, I’m the most undainty person in the world when the humidity is high. Bruce is hot but his shirt is not clinging to him and every exposed inch of skin is not beaded up with sweat and sunscreen. I think it’s gotten worse over the years. It’s an issue. There are electrolytes in the water bottle and frequent stops to make sure my core stays cool. Iced coffee or tea so I can pour the ice into my water bottle, too. It all helps. But it really is interfering with the joy I feel in these beautiful settings.

The other thing interfering with my joy was sliding on some mud on a canal path as I tried to avoid motorbikes that we’re coming from both directions. Road rash! But only on one knee and both motorcyclists stopped to make sure I was okay. I’ll spare you the usual documentation, you’ve seen a skinned knee before.

So, Bruce is not allowed here. Moving right along, then.

We stopped opposite a temple newly painted bright yellow-gold. I spied an ice-tea vendor and we plopped down in her shade and while my tall plastic cup of tea sweated in the humidity we Facetimed the granddaughters who dashed upstairs to show us the little tree that Mama put up in their bedroom. Such a world that we live in, where we get to see our little ones dancing around with joy from such an incongruous and muggy spot. The tea-maker went back to her sewing machine while we loudly talked to the wee ones.

The goal is to be done riding by noon or 1:00, and we made our goal to the little resort by the road we’d been aiming for. The sweet owner put us in the quietest bungalow in the back and after a few hours of showering and cooling down we were able to venture out for dinner. There was a little lane through the forest to get to the food vendors and we rounded a curve to see something we’d never dreamed we’d see: monkeys! A mama monkey and her baby looked at us and we looked at them and then they scampered off and so did we.

After our dinner we picked up some Lactasoy from the 7-11 and returned to the Sabaidee Guesthouse (coincidentally the same name as our Etsy textile shop) and encountered yet another monkey on the way. This time we were cool about it, like we see monkeys all the time.

Back in our little bungalow the a/c blasted straight down onto the bed and we couldn’t seem to aim it any differently so we moved our pillows down to the foot of the bed. The blankets provided were these weird large terry cloth sheets so it was time to pull out and open up the sleeping bag I haul around for just these occasions at $9 guesthouses and use that instead. Then it was time to let Pocket Earth make us a route for the next day, through villages and along canals, following the way water commands us to go, from the air to the ground and back out my skin, each pearl of sweat standing up on my arm a tiny, watery planet.

Today's ride: 29 miles (47 km)
Total: 104 miles (167 km)

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Brent HirakSo glad you are staying hydrated! Enjoying these entries like a child
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1 year ago

Jen RahnWonderful that you got to Facetime (what a verb!) with the girls. What a great way to stay connected and share stories as you pedal along.

I admire all the ways your joy remains intact through the heat and sweat!
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1 year ago

Rachael AndersonI don’t know how you manage with the heat and humidity! You are much tougher than I am. Your photos are wonderful and you got to see monkeys!
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1 year ago