(written by Dave)

No really, today is our last day in Kanchanaburi. While we had planned on leaving this morning, we just didn’t feel ready regarding the flood situation. When we checked the web first thing this morning we saw some disturbing news about the complete inundation of Nakhon Sawan, one of the towns just north of us as a result of levy failures. We don’t plan on going through Nakhon Sawan city (we knew it was having trouble and mapped a route around it already) but we have to go through Nakhon Sawan province and had too little information about the rest of the province. While we checked the web for other news Nancy came up with the idea of hiring a private van to take us round the worst of the flooding and that seemed liked something that we should check out.

So, after breakfast, we headed off to “Good Time Travel”, an agent recommended by Lonely Planet. They were initially focused on getting us to Bangkok but on doing some checking they discovered that the only way north from Bangkok was flying. No bus, no train. We hate dismantling the bikes for flying so we pushed them on using a private van and simply heading north. Here again, they were not too supportive as their drivers “didn’t know how to follow small side roads”. Eventually after a few more calls, they discovered a driver that would take us to Chai Nat, a town east of here and south of Nakhon Sawan, for 4,000 baht. This was a little more that we wanted to pay but more importantly we thought from info on the web that Chai Nat was in pretty bad shape as well, as it also sits on one of the major rivers. We also weren’t sure what the situation was on the east side of the major river systems that run north-south and didn’t want to end up in a worse position that we were if we would be if we followed the original plan. We decided to do some more research…

Back at the hotel we called the TAT (Thailand Authority of Tourism) for several of the provinces north of here. They didn’t always speak great English but they were all most helpful in giving us flood/road information. We were able to check the status of most of our planned roads, plus qualify some of the planned lodging. The TAT offices assured us that the areas we intend to ride are not flooded and that our proposed route should work. It finally looks like we have all the information that we’re going to get and it is time to get moving. For sure, for sure, tomorrow morning, we’ll strike out. Unless it rains really heavy… (it’s been sunny here for the last two days).

Aside from looking at the Internet and maps for a good part of the day, we still made it out of the hotel. Feeling a bit peckish on the way back from the travel agent, we stopped at 7-11 for some snacks (junk food?). The photos below show the highlights. I especially enjoyed the Mellon Kernels, otherwise known as watermelon seeds. And the big sheets of spicy nori (seaweed) were also quite tasty.

Also while out we met a new friend. We were walking past a woman’s clothing shop and heard a deep Aussie voice shout out,” where are you lovely people from?”. To our surprise the voice didn’t come from a man but rather a woman. Meet Andine, a 69 year old former Aussie bloke, now living in Thailand as a woman. Turns out that Thailand is much more open to different lifestyles and Andine had decided to settle here. We had a nice visit and learned a bit about cycling in Thailand as Andine is a member of mountain biking club in Bangkok. At the time we were looking for a taxi and Andine happily volunteered to drop us off where were heading for lunch. Just goes to show that you can’t always judge a book by the cover.

While out for lunch we also spied a couple bars that take cheap drinking to new levels. No, I’m not talking about cheep sparkling water, I’m talking cheep alcohol! I got a couple photos (see below), one which included a chap from the UK, now living in Cambodia. He was more than happy, quite proud actually, to have his photo taken in front of the “shoe string” drinking sign.

Finally, just so that our route is noted somewhere, here is the schedule for the next few days :

14/Friday – Dan Chang
15/Saturday – Guesthouse outside Lan Sak
16/Sunday – Hotel on Highway 1, north of Nakhon Sawan
17/Monday – Kamphaeng Phet

From Kamphaeng Phet we should be clear of most of the flooded areas all the way up to Chiang Mai.

On the 14th and 15th we have shorter day options as well, should weather or roads cause us delay. The short town options are:

Between Kanchanaburi and Dan Chang – Nong Prue
Between Dan Chang and Lan Sak – Ban Rai

Naturally, we will be monitoring the flood situation closely and will adjust plans as required. Check in tomorrow for a post from somewhere else, most likely…

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