Day 20: Ban Krut aka What Does it Take?
[ Sally typing ]
People often ask me, “Sally, what does it take to do a bike tour like this?” I love this question because it offers me the opportunity to talk about how great I am, and how lame they are.
Actually, no one has ever asked me this question, but if they did, I would probably tell them that flexibility is the most important attribute a touring cyclist can have. Not endurance, or any of that crap. You just need to be adaptable, roll with the punches, you know?
Take today for example. Things started swimmingly. We arose after the best night of sleep that we’ve had in close to a week. We stayed at Rachavadee Resort in Ban Krut, throwing down a whopping 2800 baht (about $85 USD) — normally our absolute max is 1000 baht (about $30 USD). This place was so plush! Nice linens, soap included, and TOILET PAPER FOR FREEEEEEE!!!! :) No stanky fish smell, no lingering humidity. The only bummer was some mosquitoes in the room but that was easily remedied by some citronella incense.
We got up, showered in the super fancy semi-outdoor shower. Had a nice buffet breakfast and ordered a massage. Two ladies came and we got simultaneous massages to start our day (this is only massage #2 and we’re at the 3 week mark in Thailand). After our massage, we used their wifi for a bit and then packed up and were ready to move on out, starting our ride North to Khiri Khan where we had planned to catch the train to Bangkok tonight, arriving at 5am tomorrow morning. Around 7am tomorrow, Tommy has to catch a shuttle from our hotel in Bangkok to his conference — the whole reason we’re in Thailand in the first place.
Then…rain. Heavy rain. Lots of it. We wait for it to pass, it lets up a bit, so we ride. About, I dunno…3 km. Then more rain rain rain. We sit, have lunch, wait and wait. We’re bored and bummy over the rain. Do we try to ride the 40 miles to Khiri Khan without really knowing how the weather will be (at times it’s really coming down)? Or do we change plans and instead catch a train to Bangkok here in Ban Krut. Ban Krut is also on the north-bound train line, but there’s only one train that stops in this little town, the same train that we would be catching an hour later up north in Khiri Khan.
We dilly dally long enough (Tommy’s not been feeling great the last few days) and our window of opportunity passes. It’s still raining and by now it’s 4pm, less than 3 hrs of daylight and still bad weather to try and make the trek. We resign ourselves to the option of staying here in town and catching the train here without doing any more serious riding.
So once the rain eases up a bit, we ride into town (which is just a little strip of a block or two of little vendors’ stands). We go to the train station and sit there for 30 minutes or so, no one is in the ticket booth. I walk around to the side and get the guy’s attention through another window, he’s chilling back there in front of a fan in a wife beater. He comes to the front kiosk and tells us that there’s standing room only, the train is full. Do we want to buy tickets to stand on a train for 6 hours? Hmm. No.
What now? Flexibility people! This is what I’m talking about! We roll down the block to a little shop and buy the last 2 tickets on an 11pm bus to Bangkok. The very back row. Which means: no reclining, and we’re sitting next to the dreaded bus bathroom. Should be about a 5 hour ride, but I’ve heard all sorts of stories about travelling Thailand by bus, so we’ll see what happens. Hopefully we’ll arrive in Bangkok around 4am, in time for Tommy to clean up, eat, and get to his mushroom conference.
So originally, we were supposed to ride the final 40 romantic beachside miles of our glorious bike tour. Arrive at Khiri Khan station in time to board the train and sleep in our air-conditioned sleeper car which would comfortably whisk us to Bangkok in the Dramamine-induced blink of an eye. Instead, we will sit erect, smelling the stink of a full bus’s worth of bathroom usage, for a minimum of 5 hours on …a bus. I’m totally not a bus fan and we have avoided them until now. But I will be open minded, I will be flexible.
Peace and bike grease.
1 year ago