Cycling Southeast Asia : 5

Animals paying homage to Taksin the Great.

For the third time, I ride to the old city of Sukhothai, but this time I keep on, along a broad highway leading west towards Myanmar - I am not going to get that far, this time.  There's little traffic, I am passed, slowly, by several improvised lorries - what look like basically the wheels, suspension and engine of an old pickup truck with a much larger body built on from steel bars and wooden planks.  Destination today is the town of Taak, once again the capital of a province with the same name, I cannot seem to say this word right, people ask where I am going and then look blankly when I say the name.  I pass a monument to King Taksin the Great, governor of the province at the time of the sack of Ayutthaya, who rallied the Thais and declared himself king - the monument is a copy of a bigger one which is Taak's main tourist attraction, that and a historic suspension bridge over the Ping river.  Taak doesn't seem to be very set up for tourists, I check in to a hotel which is very posh compared to the one in Sukhothai, but then struggle to find a restaurant, eventually I eat at an even posher hotel, it's only me dining and the food is expensive and actually not that nice, but never mind.

Islands in the Ping.

Next morning I visit the Taksin monument, actually the English signs call it a shrine, and indeed there are locals paying respect, the people in these parts are descended from animists and ancestor-worshippers and sometimes it shows.  I ride along the Ping, the same river as runs through Chiang Mai though much broader here, it is very pleasant barring the dogs that sometimes dash out to bark at me.  Hills are crowding around the road now, I know I will have to cross mountains to get back to Chiang Mai, but not today, the road stays flat, it is a long day though, and my stomach feels rather odd.  There's no big city for me to stop in tonight, instead I end up in the small town of Toen (pronounced 'turn').  It is little more than a truck stop, but there's a hotel which is very cheap and perfectly serviceable.

I think I might need to lower the saddle a bit...

Onwards, I head north on route 1, I'm really not feeling good now, painful stomach cramps strike at intervals and I have to stop and sit down, still I keep going.  The surrounding terrain grows more and more hilly, there are no more plains or paddy fields, instead steep wooded slopes rise to either side.  Still, the road maintains a manageable grade, and I keep pedalling.  Late in the afternoon I stop for a snack at Thailand's ubiquitous convenience store, 7-11, opposite yet another massive statue of a legendary king, this time Naresuan, he of 'fought the crown prince of Burma to the death on elephant-back' fame, they sure love their statues of kings here.  Pulling away again I realise I actually have a puncture!  First one of the trip, but it's easily fixed, and not actually that surprising as the tread on my rear tyre is getting very thin.  I finish the day in Lampang, this is a big place, and I'm still feeling pretty grim, so I decide to take a day off.

On the approach to Lampang - big place for horse and carriage riding it seems.

Photos to go with this post can be found here.