Riding the White Line

January 14, 2020

Khemmarat to Hat Salung

We really like Khemmarat. Of course our view is influenced by the wonderful time we had in Khemmarat five years ago with the walking street in full swing for some of the best tray food of the trip as well as a procession the following morning as we were leaving which we stopped to watch and everyone was so welcoming. It was a procession for two men who were going to enter the monkhood with some nice music accompanying.

This time Khemmarat was more subdued. The walking street with its great food was elusive. We simply and quietly left our “V.I.P.” bungalow, (which I started calling our V.I.D. bungalow - Very Important Decision bungalow), around 7:30, took a right and were instantly on the road we would follow south. There was no procession this time but the town and its residents still seemed really nice. The town looked about the same as before, no, maybe a little better. Khemmarat is a small town. If more tourists knew about Khemmarat it could easily be a draw with its beautiful antique teak houses and shophouses devoid of paint or updating. It has a great waterfront with a temple right in the center or it all.

Leaving our V.I.D. (Very Important Decision) bungalow finally free of decision making and ready to have a great final part of our trip.

Actually just a little south of town there are quite a few small boutique guest houses suggesting there are tourists occasionally but we have never seen them.

With our Very Important Decision under our belts we were free and ready to make the most out of the rest of our trip. Not everything had been decided but we felt good. We were just going to continue riding and see where we ended our trip. Sometimes things evolve on their own and on their time. Being on bikes tends to make whatever evolves more fun and unpredictable. The main thing is that we are free to either grasp what comes or ride on by. We were going to see how we felt and where the roads would lead us. Simple as that.

The small road we took along the river was once again beautiful and peaceful but we had to turn towards the main road after only three miles. The Mekong, which was heading more east than south at this point makes a big loop and then heads more south again. We were going to cut off that loop by taking 2112. I would like to someday explore out into that loop on the really small roads out there near the river because it looks like really interesting and wild territory. But that takes more time than we felt we had. We were going to take a more direct route to a remote and wild enough place as it was.

Andrea the Navigator; the one with the map on her phone.

As I said, after only three miles we turned towards 2112 but immediately entered a paradise of newly planted, bright spring green, rice paddies. Water gurgled from one to another and the loveliest music of our trip washed over the entire area from loudspeakers. We know we are way out in the most rural of places if there are loudspeakers on tall platforms. It is a way for the local people to be informed of news and announcements and it’s all interspersed with mellow, old time, Thai music. The loudspeakers only operate in the early mornings.

So in the cool refreshing morning air we rode through the essence of rural Thailand while smiling at the lovely music and waving to farmers. The tiny concrete road zig-zagged the patchwork of paddies. We were floating. I heard Andrea say, “The engineering of these paddies is brilliant. It probably has taken centuries to get them just right.” It’s true, the water levels of the small plots were all different. To think of clearing the land, plowing with one blade and water buffalo, making the little clay dams surrounding each paddy, directing irrigation water from wherever; it was a tremendous amount of work. But oh so beautiful for us to ride through.

Over by that temple are loudspeakers with the loveliest music wafting over the rice paddies and directly into our ears.

The road through the rice paddies did a bit of zig zagging as well.

It's hard to convey how peaceful and beautiful riding on this road was with the early morning sun, the best of Thai music and green in every direction.

Then we were on 2112 Hell, not because of traffic but because the surface of the road had deteriorated so badly. It was as if the asphalt had been mixed wrong. The stones were still sticking in the asphalt for the most part but the rest had worn away and had collected on the side of the road as a ribbon of black sand which eliminated the possibility fo riding on what shoulder there might be. The road surface was rough!! The painted white line along the edge of the road was the only part of the road that had not deteriorated. The white line was super smooth but it was an inch above the surface of the rest of the road. That’s where we tried to stay as long as we could. I found that when pedaling I could’t balance on the line well but coasting I could go many meters without falling off. It was good practice but actually I would much rather have had a good road. The road was so rough that I wondered how much life was being eaten away from our tires. I thought that if we were going to have a flat this was going to be the place.

So, notice the roughness of the asphalt in the lower left of the photo.

This time of the year most of the tributaries to the Mekong are not flowing.

Small-time charcoal manufacturing. We see these little "ovens" here and there. They jam them full of small diameter logs, light them on fire and immediately tamp it down by sealing it with the door that is lying to the right. The wood smolders - no flames - for hours making charcoal.

The surface of this road was occasionally smooth but those stretches were all too brief and we still practiced staying on the white line.

But the loudspeakers continued down the road for miles and we were able to listen to nice music while riding the white line. We would leave the range of one loudspeaker and enter another’s. They were not saying or playing the same things. We entered one area where a man was listing the names of people and how much money they had donated. For what?! I’m assuming it was for a temple but actually I have no idea. It could have been for a new school they were building. The amounts of money donated meant that people were poor. That was no surprise looking around at the houses. This is an extremely poor and remote part of Thailand.

A pretty good lunch stop. I ordered pad Thai from this nice woman and she made us khao pad - fried rice. Oh well, it was delicious. Maybe she didn't have any noodles. Maybe she told me that too. Maybe I don't understand sometimes!

A beautiful orchid just hanging out in front of the restaurant in bright, hot, full sun.

Five years ago we had gone past an odd tower under construction at a temple. Back then we stopped to watch young men (kids) hoisting pails of cement by rope up many meters. It was the oddest tower we had ever seen at a temple.

Well folks, they finished the tower! It’s still odd and ugly but a marvel at that. I had to check it out. Andrea was reluctant but followed.

I'm staring up at the tower in amazement that they had actually finished it.

The perplexing tower has been completed.

Inside the room on the main floor we realized pretty quickly, from the portraits of an old monk, that the tower had been built as a memorial to an important monk. There were lots of Buddha statues and other odd offerings making up a shrine of sorts and there was a large, long, glass case and holy s$#!, that’s the monk’s body inside! He was lying down all mummified but also covered in gold leaf!! - the only thing stranger than the tower itself!!

Inside the entrance on the ground floor.

I've never seen a gold-leafed corpse before. I have never even considered it before!

We went up the spiral staircase and walked around each floor which consisted of a roundish room with more shrines. There were also a few windows for the view. I was amazed at how many floors there actually were. I knew the thing was tall but it seemed to go up to the heavens. Each floor was slightly smaller until at the top floor it was rather claustrophobic. As I gazed out one of the small windows I was remembering (which I shouldn’t have done) the kids hoisting buckets of cement up on ropes five years ago. I started seriously questioning the stability of the tower and the more I thought about it the more I wanted to take the elevator down as fast as possible, but then, inside the elevator I started questioning the safety of it! AAHHH!

I like these little homemade rugs that we see everywhere in Thailand.

There was one of these rugs on every floor.

These are some sort of rock formations which have been gathered near the Mekong. They are pretty rare which is why they are placed on the shrine.

We were deposited back down on the main floor safely, of course, and I was so relieved that I put seven Baht coins into a donation slot. Seven Baht is the exact amount of coins we have found on the road so far. The donation slot was in the outstretched hands of a cartoony monk figure and when inserted a recording of a long chant by a monk erupted loudly as a thank you. It seemed to go on forever. I stood there in fake appreciation and respect because there was an attendant there who, out of boredom and curiosity, was watching everything we did. I stood there for the longest time waiting for the recording to stop. I wondered if it was an actual recording of the gold leafed monk himself, when he was alive. I finally couldn’t wait any longer and I said to Andrea, “We’ve got to get out of this tower.”

This is probably the tower's best angle. From this perspective it doesn't look too odd.

As we rode away I was certain that my name would be read by a monk on a loudspeaker in the morning, “Boot Malmmon. Jet Baht.” And all the rice farmers will stop for a moment in their fields and wonder, ‘Who’s he? and What a cheapskate!’

The day wasn’t over, not by a long shot. We had more bad road to ride and more white lines to try to ride. We were heading to one of my favorite places on the Mekong; The Narrows, as I call it. It’s a place where the entirety of the Mekong River flows through a solid rock narrow spot several hundred meters long but only maybe 50 meters wide. On shore there’s a tiny settlement which feels more like a hill tribe village. The residents don’t seem Lao or Thai and even their language seems like an archaic combination. The area is called Hat Salung, we think. Since the last time we were there a new resort, Nat Channa Resort, has popped up and that’s where we headed first.

Good luck!!? Does that mean we will need all the luck we can get in order to be safe where we are going?

The temple in the tiny village of Hat Salung has a lot of these monuments containing people's ashes.

Funerary containers at the temple in Hat Salung.

The Nat Channa Resort was really nice and for 600 Baht ($20) breakfast was included. There was an option of 500 Baht and no breakfast but we were far from all markets and stores which meant no papayas or anything else so we opted for breakfast to be included.

After we moved into our beautiful room we went exploring the wide rocky area near the Mekong. It’s a unique area of smooth, flowing-like, solid stone. We tied up our bikes to a railing on the promenade and then hiked across the rock. The entire area is under water in the rainy season, which is hard to imagine since it’s such a huge area.

Way out there is the Mekong River. We left our bikes here to have a picnic while we ventured out across the rock.

Obviously the river gets pretty high in the rainy season.

The large pool just downstream from the narrow gorge. These are tourist boats which suggests at times a lot of tourists are here taking tours in the river. None when we were there however.

On the way out to The Narrows we passed some perfect frog ponds.

Out there somewhere is a deep narrow gorge of swirling waters. This entire area is completely underwater in the rainy season.

There were perfectly formed holes in the solid rock where a stone of some size and weight got deposited in a depression in the rock and with just the right amount of current the rock swirled in a circle a million times eating a hole into the solid rock below it. There were a lot of the holes, some so deep that the rock that made the hole was still inside trapped for eternity and drilling its way down to China, or, I guess since it’s a different hemisphere, drilling its way down to California.

Rocks grinding their way to the other side of the earth.

I love this area. The solid rock reminds me of the canoe country I know and love so well in northern Minnesota and southern Canada’s Quetico Provincial Park. Also, the rock surrounding Lake Superior.

It’s a long scramble across the rock to the river in the heat but eventually we came up to the deep channel. It’s not anything you want to be careless around because if you fell off the cliff into the river you would drown for sure. The water boils all through the chute and is mesmerizing to watch. The river has to be quite deep in order to accommodate the entire Mekong. It doesn’t seem like such a thing would be possible so it must be very deep. The opposite stone cliff, which is in Laos, looked so close I convinced myself I could throw a stone across. But when I attempted, first bragging to Andrea to, “Watch this!”, my stone fell pathetically not even a tenth of the way across. Andrea said, “I couldn’t even see where it hit.” That was because it fell so short it was still in the shadow of our cliff! I barely saw where it hit the water and I was standing much closer to the edge than Andrea. All my perceptions became skewed. Short is long, rocks grind holes in solid rock, up is down, China is California, smart is dumb. I really had to be careful jumping around on those rocks.

There is a man fishing with a pole on the Lao side just to the right of center in this photo.

The entire Mekong River is in this narrow portion. That always amazes me having seen other areas of the river not far from here that are a mile wide.

I admire these bushes for surviving in the toughest of conditions. They are completely under water with great current for months every year but the roots hold somehow. Then they go months baking in the sun on rocks without any rainfall.

The chute of water empties into this wide expanse which also churns and swirls as the river reorganizes itself. The bamboo 'hitching post' is used to tie up fishing boats and traps when the river is near the top of the gorge in the rainy season.

Tapping this 'blue steel' area actually did feel and sound like the rock had turned to a thin layer of metal.

We sat for a long time pondering this magical place. It felt like it must be a sacred area for the native people. There must be a lot of spirits residing there and it would be fun to talk with the fishermen about that, the people who risk their lives in tiny boats. I can’t imagine navigating such currents in tiny, narrow, wooden boats that they paddle! And they do it when the water is much higher too! Maybe I was feeling the spirits of all the people who have drowned there through the centuries.

As we walked back across the solid, smooth rock we noticed some of the surfaces were as if they had turned to metal. The sun’s intensity and the heat we were feeling made this idea believable. The surfaces glistened like blue steel in the sunlight and Andrea told me the thin surface of the rock had in fact turned into metal. Up is down, short is long, asphalt is rough, white lines are smooth, mummified monks are gold leafed and rock is metal. I love this spot on the Mekong. If I tried to jump across that channel I’d probably make it.

lovebruce

We seem to encounter flowers we've never seen before every single day in Thailand.

Today's ride: 26 miles (42 km)
Total: 1,156 miles (1,860 km)

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Jen RahnBruce - I love your genuine fascination with things that many people would never notice. Your open appreciation of the travel experience (and life in general) is rare!

I wish college students preparing to go overseas were required to read your and Andrea's journals.
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4 years ago

Bruce LellmanTo Jen RahnThank you, Jen. Thank you for noticing and thank you for commenting. You really understand what we are trying to convey in our travels. There are definitely a lot of things in the world with which to be fascinated.
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4 years ago