Ayutthaya by Kayak : 4

I made it!  Also, the barge I overtook has caught up.

The last day, woo, this has been hard.  And, a hard last day of course, 34km, and oh my god, the current actually seems to be against me?  Is it tidal maybe?  Certainly not implausible, I am only a few meters above sea level...  Well I just have to keep going.  The river is kind of industrial today, I see many warehouses or granaries, and there are massive barges and tugs to pull them.  I paddle alongside one tug, pulling four barges filled with sand.  I am actually slightly faster than it.  I'm still going at sunset once again, but I make it to my resort - I can rest tomorrow!  The resort is on the river of course, and a charming little place it is - a traditional Thai wooden house largely built up on poles, yes this means my room is pretty pokey, but there is lots of communal space so not a problem.  They also have a large wooden boat that you'll be able to sleep on once they've fixed it up!

My rather nice resort in Ayutthaya.

Do I do sightseeing in Ayutthaya?  Well obviously.  It is punishingly hot, sweat drips from me as I wander about, but I want to try to see most of the notable sights, of which there are many.  This really is a big place, built within the naturally defensible confluence of the Chao Phraya and Lopburi rivers, with a canal dug to the north to complete the defensive ring around the city.  It is a good hour to walk from one side to the other, and probably less than half the space is filled by the modern city, much of the rest is essentially an archaeological park.  I can believe this was one of the world's great cities back in its heyday.  Nowadays, of course, what mainly survive are the ruins of temples, and in terms of sheer physical mass it rivals Angkor Wat.  However, the lack of good building stone in these parts means the structures here were largely built of brick, with decoration added in the form of stucco that has largely gone.  What is left are the bare bones of chedis and massive brick walls, it is certainly impressive but not really as picturesque as the enigmatic stone faces, apsaras etc. at Angkor.

One of many temples - the praang can be seen to the right.

There sure are a lot of old temples though, and many of the chedis are impressively large, and interestingly rather different in style to what I have seen elsewhere.  In particular, I'm used to chedis being basically bell shaped, but here they tend to towering cylinders with domed tops, so let us say, shaped like, er, a cucumber.  I wonder if perhaps this type of chedi, known as a 'praang', was making some subtle statement about the 'power' of the great kings of Ayutthaya?  Speaking of whom, there is of course a massive palace complex, although pretty much none of it is intact.  I pass tourists taking in the sights on elephant-back, well why not, but of course what I need to do is see at least one temple from my boat, fortunately the very impressive Wat Chaiwattanaram is only a short paddle from my resort.  This is the way visitors would have first seen Ayutthaya back in the day, roads not being much of a thing in Thailand in those days.  I don't spend long on the river, and paddling back against the current is a little annoying, but it was worth it.  Wow I am tired though...

Well, this was a good trip, Ayutthaya is amazing, and I did in fact largely enjoy the kayaking, sunburn, blisters and all.  I guess for any future trip I probably should accept that trying to do much more than 20km in a day is not smart.  Also I need to get waterproof SPF50 sunblock in advance!  Or, maybe even some stylish lycra leggings, dear god. 

The same temple, as I travel past it in the traditional manner.

Ayutthaya by Kayak : 3

Embankment construction.

The service station hotel has pad Thai for breakfast, this is good.  I'm not loving the walk back to the river, but only 20km to paddle today, yay.  There is even some current!  Still lots of embankment construction, and in typical Thai style, an army of people are installing reinforcing bars for concrete, though there are plenty of big machines moving earth and rocks too.  I make good time to Singburi ('Lion Town'), and reach my rather nice hotel for 4pm.  Two vouchers for welcome cocktails you say?  It has a bar too, and there is yummy crab curry.

Another day, I am still broken, I buy some SPF 50 sunblock, better late than never I guess.  Well, I have to keep going, 27km today, not so bad.  The river still has a bit of current, and still new embankments are going up.  My legs are a mess of blisters and wounds, every time I leave the water there can be sharp sticks, and my skin tears like wet paper.  It won't kill me, I'm sure.  I make good pace at least, I think I am building muscle, and today I reach my resort before 5, and can actually get some rest.  Google thinks there are a couple of bars, 1 and 2 miles away respectively, well it's nice to walk after sitting in the boat all day.  The route is along the embankment, interesting, I can see that if the water ever got this high, it would be well above the surrounding land.  There are also many barking dogs, I remember one of the good points of kayaking, namely that the wretched creatures can't get to me on the water.  Of course the bars turn out not to exist, back to the resort with beer and food from a shop it is then.

Floating cabins.

Day number 7, only 18km, not really easy, but at least reasonable, but there is not much current and once more my pace is slow.  I see many houseboats at the riverside - well, not houses, I think most are the rooms at various resorts - good if a fishing holiday is your thing.  I keep going, to Aang Torng ('golden basin'), then have a km or so of walking to my hotel, then oops, one end of the road is blocked by a six foot gate.  I pull myself over it with no trouble whatsoever, I think I have indeed built muscles.  I am maybe trespassing on the property of the Thai tax office, but security guard seems relaxed about it.  The hotel room has subdued, multicoloured lighting, a very bouncy bed, and can be booked for a three hour stay, hmm.

Looking quite tanned here.

Ayutthaya by Kayak : 2

Large clumps of water hyacinth.

The owner of the homestay comes to watch me inflate the kayak, he says he might buy one, and why not.  Apparently I am not the first guest with one here.  He also gives me some water, which is nice, though I still don't want the noodles he went to buy for me last night, in a bit of a misunderstanding - I was in fact capable of walking to a restaurant.  Anyway, a shorter day today, only 27km, but still hard work.  My suntan lotion is not working, my ankles are badly burnt, and I have blisters on my hands from the relentless paddling, but still I keep going.  It's pretty at least, there are hills to either side, and many birds, a small one hovers over the water and then dives to catch a fish, most cool.  There are many guys fishing with nets too.  My destination today is another resort in the middle of nowhere, and when I arrive they tell me to go away, won't listen to my Thai, and can't even read the name of the resort, in Thai, on my phone.  Well, I work it out... There's nothing here of course, so I walk 5km to Uthaithani, it's worth it for beer and tasty fish curry.

Now this is getting ridiculous.

Ugh, last night I was thinking about when I needed to start, and misread my plan, it's not 28km today but 33km - 28 was the date.   There's no current at all, such hard work to keep moving, and I'm still not going fast enough.  There's really a lot of water hyacinth floating on the river, I worry the way will be blocked.  Well, I keep going, but this is so hard, it's breaking my brain, I forget my hat twice when I stop to rest and have to go back for it.  I paddle as the sun sets, into dusk and then darkness.  At least, I'm into Chai Nat now, a proper city so there's plenty of light, enough to avoid the water hyacinths, and also thumping music from an evening Zumba session - popular in Thailand - spurs me on.  I reach my hotel at 7:30, a nice riverside place, where the staff marvel at my insanity.  I then find a bar, on the river of course, although I'm too tired to drink much.

That damn dam.

The hotel staff watch me put up the kayak, and off I go, 35km today, oh dear, and there are other problems too.  Such as, 5km into the day, water hyacinth does indeed completely block the river.  Well, I had to get out at this point anyway, more or less, there is a dam coming up soon, the only one of the trip at least.  But, now I have a km or so to walk, boat in the bag it is then.  Turns out the blockage is less than 100m, the plants are pushed up against a floating bamboo barrier, I guess this stops them reaching the dam.  Well, I reach it, then on the other side is some kind of secure area?  OK, it looks like I can reach the river on the other side, so I cross  the dam, and then walk through a temple / golf course, a path leads down, but... there's a tributary before the place I thought I could get to the water.  I can't even get to tributary, between me and the water there is head high grass, argh.  OK, back over the dam, I walk through the security checkpoint, it seems unmanned, a bit further and there are stairs down to the water, yay.  But, it's 3 hours since I set off, and only 6km done, well, no choice but to keep slogging on.  The river is different now, much narrower, but sadly still has no current, though at least there is no water hyacinth!  A lot of the banks seem strangely high, embankments tower many meters above the river, separated from it by sandbanks, and indeed I pass beach play areas.  New embankments are under construction, maybe they are planning a new dam?  Ah, but this day is so long, I am broken.  I paddle into the dark again, and leave the water at 7:30.  It's a mile walk to my hotel, delightfully situated in a motorway service station, I buy beer on the way as I'm not confident anywhere will sell me alcohol there.  Well, it does have a shop at least, where I buy a 'tasty' microwaved burger...

Ayutthaya by Kayak : 1

Setting out from Nakhon Sawan.

Another Thailand adventure!  I wanted a change from cycling, so it is time to break out the inflatable kayak.  The plan is to paddle from Nakhon Sawan to Ayutthaya, which was the dominant city state in the region until the Burmese razed it to the ground in 1767, by all accounts a very interesting place.  So, a long train ride from Chiang Mai, a familiar hotel, then the next morning I'm pumping up the boat alongside the Chao Phraya river, which is considered to have its source here, at the confluence of four tributaries.  From here it flows south to Bangkok, I am not going quite that far though...

I have a long day ahead, some 35km, and this is hard work.  The river is mostly very broad, but it sometimes narrows and there's quite a current, this is good.  Sadly the kayak is not healthy, it's slowly deflating, I have to stop to pump it up every two hours or so.  Well, I make it to my planned stop just before sunset, leave the kayak and check into the nearby homestay, but then I get confused when owner shows me a better way to river, now I can't find the boat, oops.  I end up putting it in its bag in the dark...  As is often the way with kayaking, the homestay is near the river but not anything else, I have to walk a mile to find food...

I took quite a few photos like this.

The owner of the homestay comes to watch me inflate the kayak, he says he might buy one, and why not.  Apparently I am not the first guest with one here.  He also gives me some water, which is nice, though I still don't want the noodles he went to buy for me last night, in a bit of a misunderstanding - I was in fact capable of walking to a restaurant.  Anyway, a shorter day today, only 27km, but still hard work.  My suntan lotion is not working, my ankles are badly burnt, and I have blisters on my hands from the relentless paddling, but still I keep going.  It's pretty at least, there are hills to either side, and many birds, a small one hovers over the water and then dives to catch a fish, most cool.  There are many guys fishing with nets too.  My destination today is another resort in the middle of nowhere, and when I arrive they tell me to go away, won't listen to my Thai, and can't even read the name of the resort, in Thai, on my phone.  Well, I work it out... There's nothing here of course, so I walk 5km to Uthaithani, it's worth it for beer and tasty fish curry.

Selfies in the kayak are not easily done.

Cycling Chiang Kham to Chiang Mai

Wall with peacocks.

I'm really not feeling much like getting back on the bike, but no help for it, I need to head south.  I guess I am on my route from 2018, but in reverse, it doesn't feel terribly familiar though.  More of the same dry looking fields and low hills, and even a small hill is hard work.  I find myself stopping for a rest at regular intervals, I fear I am a bit out of condition...  Well, it is hot too, and indeed there is a wind against me at times.  Well, I keep going, cross into Phayao province with little ceremony, although later on there is a symbolic wall, with peacocks, at a high point among the hills - peacocks are the provincial animal, it seems.  And of course I am heading for the provincial capital, also named Phayao.  No energy for walking around the lake this time, I lie down for a bit before heading out for dinner.

At Phayao.

As I did five years ago, I head to the lake and take a photo or two, no time for fish feeding though, I need to get on.  There are big hills between here and Chiang Mai, and while I am feeling a bit stronger, before long I am pushing the bike up.  There are at least fine views over the quaintly named 'dinosaur forest', but it's hard work.  Lots of province boundaries here, I briefly pass through Lampang, then back into Chiang Rai.  I am not even going as far as the day I rode down to Phayao last time, maybe 15 km less, but the hills don't seem to end, in the event it is nearly 6pm when I roll into Mae Chedi - an actual town, rather than the previous 'resort in the middle of nowhere '.  Hmm, on the last trip I finished a longer day at 3pm?  Well, maybe this way was more uphill, or maybe I am getting old...

Seems to be holding up well.

The last day!  Probably a good thing as I could use a rest, but first there are of course more hills, indeed I start by pushing up a steep slope away from the resort.  Before long I pass the little place in the middle of nowhere I stayed last time, seems it is for sale.  Then a little past that, people are still boiling eggs in the hot springs, and the half built Angkor Wat themed... thing, is still there.  I guess it was also planned to be a resort, and kind of typical of Thailand that after five years it has neither been finished, nor demolished.  Onwards, more pushing, lovely mountain scenery, and I don't make much effort to go quickly.  Sure is nice to reach the highest point, these last few days have been hard work, but it is mostly downhill now.  Checking my blog entry from the previous trip, I am expecting to leave the mountains with some 30 km to go, but no... 25 km left, I am still going up and down, same at 20, then finally with about 15 km left I hit flat ground, and an easy ride into the city.

Well, this was all good fun, even if maybe I am not quite as fit as I should be!  Much of the route was through lovely country, and it was interesting to see a few new places.  I should probably do this again some time, not least it seems I missed a few sights, noticeably that White Temple in Chiang Rai.  I imagine I'll come up with a different route next time I go for a ride though, however before that - a different form of transport.  What could it be?

By a hot spring.

Cycling Mae Suai to Chiang Kham

Many things were at the temple, and most of them were blue.

Day four of this little trip, looks like an easy one on paper, only 50 km, this is good as I feel a bit tired.  Well, no help for it, and before long I am into the hills again, but it isn't too strenuous.  The road I'm on follows the River Lao, a substantial watercourse which actually flows north to join the Mekong rather than south through Thailand.  So, my route is flat enough, and indeed more downhill than not - very pretty too, the only downside being a lengthy section where they are widening the road.  And after a while I hit flat terrain, an easy few km from here to Chiang Rai.  I've been here before a couple of times, never by bicycle though, good to be back anyway.  Off to a bar near my hotel, and they are having a concert, well that works for me.

Chiang Rai seems a good place to take a day off, not least I feel a bit broken after days of mountain riding.  Plenty to see here, although annoyingly the most famous attraction, the White Temple, is some 16 km away, I rode past it yesterday but I really don't have the energy to go back.  Well, there is a Blue Temple too, or to use the real name, Wat Rorng Siua Dten, that is, 'dancing tiger creek temple'.  It is just north of the city, and indeed, very blue.  From there, a quick ride along the River Gok (yes, usually transliterated as 'Kok', haha, but Gok is closer to the actual pronunciation), and I am at the 'Reed Garden'.  This is a park near the university, and it was recently the location for the city's flower and art festival - while titled the 2023 festival, it ran from December 30th to mid-February.  There are still many flowers, and indeed art installations such as a giant tortoise, well why not.  Do I find another bar with live music in the evening?  Yeah, maybe...

It is a tortoise of unusual size.

Back on the bike then, for a long day, 80 km, but not a problem after a rest.  My route takes me along minor roads with little traffic, through a part of Thailand unlike any I've seen.  It's dry, almost arid, there are fields of plowed dirt, and wooded areas seem kind of sparse, unlike the lush jungle I'm used to here.  Unsurprisingly it is not a densely populated region, just a few small villages which at least is enough to keep me supplied with fluids.  My destination today is Chiang Kham, I was here 5 years ago, on my way to my failed attempt to cycle into Laos...  Seems like the place has grown a bit, I can't find the bar I went to then, it might be shut in fact, but not a problem, easy enough to find another.  They provide me with beer, tort man bplaa, and 'cheet born' - that is, fish cakes and cheese balls.

Not sure it rains much here.

Cycling Chiang Mai to Mae Suai

Setting off from Chiang Mai.

Back on my bicycle again then - well, one of them anyway.  The plan is for a nine day trip north of Chiang Mai, taking me out to Chiang Rai before turning back south.  This is mountainous country so it should be good exercise!  Not so hard on the first day though, I ride through flat plains of paddy fields, following the route I took to Phrao a few years back.  This time though, rather than turn right I keep on north, with hills closing in to either side.  Before long I am climbing, it sure is pretty, and actually not too bad, I very briefly push, then roll down to meet a river, which I then follow upstream.  This is actually still the Ping which runs through Chiang Mai, it doesn't look navigable here, but it is most scenic.  Eventually I reach flat ground again, and a little way on today's destination, Chiang Dao ('Star City'), a nice little town surrounded by hills.  And why yes, there is a bar.

Lovely mountain riding.

Only way out of Chiang Dao is up, and sure enough I am soon back in the mountains.  It's hard work, but lovely country, although the hazy air means I don't have a great view of the hills.  I guess this is due to the hill farmers clearing land by burning it, a practice the local authorities put up many signs about, but don't actually seem to be able to stop.  Well, as I climb the air clears and now there are stupendous rock formations towering to either side, it's very impressive.  And, the road doesn't get too steep, I manage to pedal the whole day, it's tiring though.  Today I finish up in Chai Pragan, not a big place and my accommodation is a few km away.  A pretty big hotel, seems to be there mainly for Chinese visitors, something to do with a nearby language school.  Well, easy enough to ride back into town for a beer or three.

Onwards, mostly to the east today and more hills of course.  Kind of rolling at first, and with groves of fruit trees it could almost be southern Europe, well except for the buffalo anyway.  But I keep climbing, past hill tribe villages, plenty of cleared land on the hill tops.  Some parts of the road are too steep for pedalling, but it's worth it for a glorious ride along a high ridge with lovely views.  The roll down the other side is fun too, down to my rest stop for today, Mae Suai.  From the pronunciation this should mean 'pretty river', but the second word isn't quite spelt right - maybe an archaic spelling?  Tiny place anyway, there is at least a restaurant next to my resort, but it shuts early, back to my room with beer from 7-11 it is...

A view!