Ratchaburi > Damnoen Saduak Floating Market > Nakhon Pathom, M.J.Bike (75km)

First day travelling towards Chiang Mai. Today we left Ratchaburi with Pita, Kate and Grandin. On the way we visited the most famous floating market in Thailand where we had a brunch. Then we kept on cycling towards Nakhon Pathom and reached Grandin’s friend’s house. His friend invited us to stay for the night. Khunoi owns a bicycle shop. He is specialised in rebuilding Retro bicycles. That evening, he proudly showed us what he does which was very impressive.

Map.

Back to this morning in Ratchaburi, Grandin has an issue with the cassette of his bike so I try to find out where it’s coming from. After dismounted everything, cleaned and put fresh grease where it needed, the problem still remained unfortunately.

I’m cycling again with Kate and Grandin who are following.

Pita is leading the way. One of their friend joined us for this morning trip.

Here I am :-)

We are getting close to the floating market.

Thanks Kate for sending me this picture :-)

Here we are!

Let’s have something to eat.

Brunch time :-) What is this? This is dry organic mango. The taste is not as strong as the original fruit but it’s tasty.

That’s Thai news in case you are interested ;-)

Let’s have a look to this market.

This is the main Street where most of the sellers are. The market starts very early morning but now it’s noon so most of the tourists and sellers are gone already.

You walk few metres away from the crowd and there is no one.

Only few boats keep coming to the same street.

Interesting to see a street like this. It’s like the city is flooded.

Today, the people who guide the tourists across the market (for something like 700 baht) use boats with engine (longtail style). The street is narrow and every boat is queueing behind each other. I told Pita that it would be better if they still row. It would be silent, more authentic and especially healthier! But she said that they want to make more money so they must be faster. Always the same finality… “Time is money” apparently. I think this is the biggest problem of this world.
Back to the picture, fortunately there is still some rebel who keep rowing and help this site to remain historical, a bit.

Nice bridge over the river, or Street whatever you want to call it :-)

I’m back in the crowd.

Lots of stuff to buy here but I need nothing :-)

On the river there is no rule of right or left like on the road. You go where ever you can :-)

Mango, banana, coconuts, they got all!

Ah! Here they are! The snakes that I’ve never seen in Thailand yet. Well I’ve seen a few until now but all dead on the side of the road. These ones are big and alive!

What happens if I want the chips on the last boat? I through the money first? Do you prefer coins or paper?

Large choice!

Back on the road! After the floating market, the floating plantations haha :-)

And a break… What?! Already! Yes!

Mouhaha! I did it! I brought Kate and Grandin on dirt roads haha. They usually stay on the highway which I don’t like very much. My GPS helps a lot as usual so here we are. This bamboo sculpture is a fishing system in case you wonder.

Kate looked up the tree we stopped next to and pointed a fruit. “This is nice one. Can you catch it?”. ” Yes!”. Hmm, it taste a bit like… I don’t remember… haha. It was sweet but not too saturated. 

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We finally reached Grandin’s friend place, Khunoi. Him, his wife and two of their three daughters live and work here. As I mentioned in the introduction, Khunoi is specialised in building retro bicycles. He imports old bikes, partly broken or only unused from Japan and give them a second chance!

When a client comes to him to buy a bicycle, Khunoi takes his mensurations like would do a tailor. If the person cannot come here, they exchange by emails. After that, he will choose the frame that fits the person best and start building a new bike.

He keeps all the functional parts in a bucket, clean every surface millimetre after millimetre. He doesn’t hesitate to pull apart the wheels, completely, and cleans spoke after spoke, brushes the rims etc… Well everything! Then he buys online (I guess) the missing parts, fit new brakes, new tires, new handles. When the bicycle looks like a bicycle again, this is where his second main job starts: He measures each piece of the bike and adjusts them precisely so they will fit perfectly the client. Many client come to him after they bought a bike because the machine who does that did not do a good job. Once the bicycle passed through Khunoi hands, the client rediscover it with joy! Khunoi said he his the only one who works this way in the world, the world! I’m not 100% convinced about this but for sure, he put his heart into each of these bikes and makes sure they ride perfectly.

These ones are ready to be picked up. Khunoi said he used to have orders booked for a year in advance before he stopped working that way. Today, if he receives friends like us during his working hours, he stops everything and enjoys the present moment.

Since all these years he has been developing his technique to set up the perfect bike. He has done some tests with real people to understand and improve the way he set up his bikes. He keeps everything in a book, communicates a lot on Instagram and Facebook. Pretty interesting guy, passionated about Retro Japanese bike that one day, maybe, will be buy again by some Japanese, haha. It’s a very good way to recycle and Thai people love his work! Good on you Khunoi!

Tonight we will stay here. Khunoi offered us to pitch our tents and hammock in his garden and office. We won’t sleep alone because they have 7 or 8 big dogs and even a giant rooster haha.

What is that? Aaah, I don’t remember the name Kate told me but it’s eatable apparently.

That’s inside…

Just have to take of the kind of roots that is around and be careful with the stones. For the rest this taste like dry plum. Quite good! Good night!