Thai Cycling (again) : 1

The giant Monkey Pod.

So, about time I had another adventure of some kind eh?  Well, here I am cycling about in Thailand again, what can I say, it may not be the original of things I've ever done, but I do like this country, it is both civilised and cheap, the roads are good and I can be pretty confident that wherever I end up of an evening I will find a decent hotel and some tasty food with a few beers to wash it down with.

It does help that I already have a bicycle in this country, still parked where I left it a month or so ago in Chiang Mai, but I'm not going to start riding from there.  Rather, I take the train down to Bangkok, with the bike in the guard's van, and then ride a little way through the capital - easy enough early in the morning before the traffic builds up.  I'm heading for Kanchanaburi, so I need to get to Thonburi station, and I am expecting to have to wait there for several hours before the 13:35 train leaves.  But in fact there is a train waiting at the station, this one isn't publicised on the internet but it is perfectly serviceable, and gets me and my bike there in a couple of hours or so.

Wat Tam Gaeow - that is, Crystal Cave Temple.

Nice to be back in Kanchan after three years or so - even so, some of the bar owners here remember me!  Some development has happened, generally of a good kind, new bars and restaurants, and for instance the giant Monkey Pod Tree a little way out of town has acquired a charming garden and walkway to surround it.  I check out various cave temples, including Wat Baan Tam, which has the usual long staircase leading up to the temple proper, but in this case they've built a giant Dragon through whose belly the staircase passes, surrounded by murals detailing the history of the area, very cool.

Insane looping water slide.

A fine relaxing time is generally had, I of course revisit the local water park where once more, I am pretty much the only customer.  This time, being able to read Thai, I can report that the three hundred and sixty degree loop water slide claims to accelerate you to fully sixty kilometres per hour - 'sadly' it is still not operating...  I do notice that for all my ability to read the language, speaking it here is not too easy - the local dialect seems to be substantially different to what I have learned, sometimes I figure out that they are simply dropping a syllable I'd expect to be present, but often I can't figure out a word people are saying.  Hopefully things will improve as I move north.

In the belly of the dragon!

Photos to go with this post can be found here.