Tuesday, January 2, 2018

Biking Day 3: San Kampaeng to Doi Saket

The next day started with a nice road around a lake. When we reached the lake, an important military-looking fellow approached us and insisted we take a picture with him. Sure, we said, as long as we can take a picture with you.


Hey, get out of the road, little fellow!


Buddha is white; Krishna is blue,
Who'd win in a fight? I have no clue.


This may be a good time to mention the great and wondrous squatter. We ran into many of these on our trip. Usually they came along with green buckets to flush and bum-gun sprayers to use instead of toilet paper. Of course, many questions arise upon one's first discovery of this set-up. Questions about aim and balance. Questions about the strength of one's calves and knees. Questions about the hazards of going around with a wet bum all day. One could spend minute after minute pondering the cultural implications of the squatter. . . hours even. . . especially if one has eaten too many bananas.


Okay, let's get a mooove on.


Muang On Cave


In route, we stopped to explore a large limestone cave called Muang On Cave. The cave had some extremely nice stairways.


Inside the cave, whom should we find? You guessed it. . . Buddha. The guy shows up everywhere.


Do you ever get the feeling something big and heavy is hanging over your head?


After leaving the cave, we climbed up to the top of the hill to see a stuppa.
"It was stupendous."
"Although to make the climb, we needed to be as strong as stuppa-man."
"Stop, you guys! Your puns are so stuppa."


Red pick-ups are like taxis in Thailand (although sometimes they are green or yellow). At the end of a biking day, they looked strangely appealing.
"Should we get a taxi? Here is an empty one. It can fit all our bikes. It will only cost three dollars."
"Yeah, dad. You look a little tired."
"No." Sigh. . . "I'm good."


When you needed to refuel, Thailand had a bunch of these little mini-marts. We would often buy chocolate milk, potato chips (not the squid flavor), and of course, sticky rice.


We soon reached our next hotel and enjoyed the best mango, banana, and coconut smoothies of the trip. Also had some splendid phad thai. Here is Leaf and Monet sitting in front of a tropical xmas tree.


This was another easy day. . 45k with some big hills. . nothing too difficult. But we had our big day coming up, 83k with some nasty hills. . . Can we do it? I'll leave you with a picture of Ganesh who was residing next to the stuppa on the hill we climbed. The northern Thai's must really love this guy.


NEXT DAY

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