Simply cycling around
Wow, I don’t know what happened today. I felt I was in Singapore again. The haze was very thick, I saw lots of people wearing masks. Today the road was much easier than yesterday certainly because I’ve stayed on the main road which is in the valley. This evening I wanted to sleep under the roof of a huge open hangar but the woman I asked the permission to offered me a room with a bed for the night. Thanks!
Last step towards Laos. In few days I will be cycling across the Mekong. I repeat myself I know, but I’m still waiting for these famous hills situated on the north of Thailand where I’m now. Effectively, today was definitely not flat but that’s because I chose purposely a little road that goes through the hills (see the map). I could have been straight to the north an avoid that but it would not be interesting. I don’t like when it too easy ;-)
Mmmh, delicious day today :-) The last night at the temple was pretty quiet. After breakfast we cycled few kilometres before we stopped to visit a temple. There was another gigantic statue of one of the three famous monk from that province. After that, we kept on cycling until we reached a very nice coffee shop. We stopped there maybe 3 or 4 hours :-) Later this afternoon we travelled a bit further expecting to find a temple I’ve spotted on Maps but that time it did not work. The people from the place where we ate told us that temple doesn’t accept people to stay overnight. We had to find another place then and it was not easy…
Today we finally left the Ping river and joined the Wang river for most of today. In fact, the ping river is the one that fills the Bhumibol lake. We will follow it again later before reaching Chiang Mai. The goal for today is to reach the bottom of the mountain range that creates the natural limit between the Lampang and Lamphun provinces. It will be our first climb for this trip (and the first for me too for the whole Thailand). If we get there tonight we will be able to start the climb tomorrow morning when the temperature is still fresh. 17km is not that much but I don’t know how Pita can handle that. Well, I’m sure she will but that’s more a question of time. The more early we start, the less we will be hit by the heat. Simple logic :-)
This is another windy day in my favour today :-) So before it stops I’m using it as much as I can! This morning was cold but the rest of the day was perfect. I met a couple in “Salt Creek” who offer me a hot drink and invited me at there place :-) They live on the northern side of Adelaide so I will see them in few days time I guess. Very nice!