March 10, 2020
Day 16 - Furnace
Phut Thaisong to south of Khon Kaen
The heat turned on. Big time. It was already a scorcher yesterday, but today was even hotter. Right away someone told me, "You should be getting up at 5am and riding early before it gets hot." A quick look at the forecast showed this was the beginning of the full-on hot season and it would be going on like this for months all the way until the monsoon kicked in. Make no mistake about it, this was now the Thai summer.
I wasn't ready for it. There was no way I was getting up early either, it's not my style. The first two days of this were alright as a novelty, but when realizing how long this would go on for, it began to give me a whole new level of respect for the locals and how hot Thailand really gets. You see for most of the time I tour in the 'cool season' of January, or during the monsoon in July and August. In those seasons it's either not as hot or there is cloud cover, but now it's just full on blazing hot sun.
The day started with a checkpoint actually, and it was for narcotics. Today was the only time riding in Thailand for all these years that I've actually been stopped at a checkpoint on a bicycle where it's serious. Most of the time I'm waved through with smiles or if I'm stopped the police give me water or ask for selfies. Not this time. The first cop pulled me aside and grabbed my arm and sternly asked me all sorts of questions. I had no idea what to say except answer them truthfully but was stunned as to why this was even happening. After he was satisfied, some others came over and they wanted fist-bumps and selfies including with the boss. I saw the word 'narcotics' on his uniform so it became clear what this was all about.
They kept saying how hot it was. Surely someone out riding bicycles here in the middle of nowhere could only be high on something. As time went on it got unbearably hot, and the water and juice stops were becoming unbelievably frequent. It was already 100 degrees by only 10am so this was a bad sign for sure. Locals were all taking shelter and watching me ride by with amazement. I didn't know what was happening either.
Eventually it got to be too much. With only 30km or so to reach Khon Kaen, I saw a luxury 'Jasper Hotel' and threw in the towel. I said I'm stopping here for the night it doesn't matter how much it costs. Turns out their first offer was 1300 baht at the premium suite but they quickly dropped it to 500 baht in the normal rooms when I asked about it.
Today's ride: 85 km (53 miles)
Total: 1,393 km (865 miles)
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