Sunday, November 4, 2007

The biking has begun!


We've got two days of biking under our belts now - 80km yesterday to Sing Buri and 120km today to Nakhon Sawan. The guide book descibes N.S as "an unwelcome sprawl" but after sweating it out on the main highway with trucks thundering past, I can assure you it was not unwelcome at all.


We're getting into the swing of things, like starting at 5am to beat the heat (didn't help us avoid a good heat rash though from todays 30+ degrees). Yesterday and half of todays ride was pretty rural through the rice paddies, but this morning we hit highway 1. This involved negotiating 10 lanes of traffic - the adrenaline increased our speed.
Have finally found the rumoured cheap hotels - 290bht tonight which is about $10-11 for a pretty decent hotel room with aircon, ensuite, free bottled water... The food is going down pretty well too, with nice meals for 1-3 bucks each. Snacks are bit dubious but todays rice crackers with "flossy pork" hit the spot. Last nights mini octopus with legs dangling was hard to get past the lips but not too bad once in there.
Tomorrow we're off to some place starting with K which is a bit of a change of plan from the place starting with P. Seems like it will be a nicer spot and a shorter ride (another 120km).
Bye for now and thanks for all the comments - keep 'em coming!
PS, Nova the bells have been attached and used sporadically. They're good and loud which is certainly a requirement here

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

How are the thighs of steel?

Mirrol said...

Hi, Great to get the real biking news.The food and roads sound like enough to be getting used to at the moment.Hows the language going?M

Richard said...

Buon giorno Claudia and Damien!! Wow this is a very cool web site! The photos are great and the travel stories are fantastico! Heat sounds hideous - I guess you're drinking gallons of water. Pleased the food is up to scratch and the hotels sound very civilised - air con even!
I'm so relieved you're not road kill yet - although it sounds like you have nerves of steel and no doubt your reflexes are like elastic...
We have been thinking of you every day and wondering how it's going.
We have only 24 days left in beautiful Venice - where has the time gone? Feeling extremely rested and stuffed with culture!
Rua and David stayed with us this week which was good.
Take very good care of your precious selves!
Lots of love - Mum / Barbara