(written by Dave)

Quiet night in the hotel. We were not the only guests but we never heard a peep. We were both pretty tired and fell asleep early. We’ve been setting an early alarm but today we were both awake 20 minutes before it went off. I think we were both a little worried about today’s 100ks which we knew included some good climbing. We headed for the 7-11 across from the market for brekkie and were able to supplement our yoghurt with my favourite doughnut-like things.

We were rolling out of town by 7AM but didn’t make it far before our first photo op of the day. We came across some sort of school where a bunch of young girls were dressed up in some sort of Thai dance costumes and lots of make-up. They were getting ready for some sort of event and their mothers were checking and re-checking them. A couple posed for us, at their mother’s insistence. We think that there may have been a parade as all the girls had on sturdy white tennis/walking shoes. Either that or it was ballet and they don’t change shoes until inside. Either way, we got a nice chuckle out of our interactions even though we never figured out what the dress up was for.

We knew that there would be some serious climbing today and in length we were not let down. The grades however were less than yesterday and we made much better time. It wasn’t easy but at least it felt doable. It was quite a bit cooler as well, which made the effort easier. We had about 20k of flattish riding before we reached the climbs. From here it was more or less uphill for the next 40k, followed by 25k of downhill and then some pinchy rollers coming into Phu Ruea.

Our roadside fruit stands today ended up not being fruit at all. In fact we are not sure what it was that we were looking at. We think that it may have been rolled up bits of pork skin, all strung together and hanging in the open sun/air. As per normal, there was about a dozen of these stands all within a few hundred meters. I stopped for photos but got nowhere on the Thai to English translation. And no, neither of us tried a sample.

We had another stop while climbing where we had translation issues. We stopped for drinks about half way up the climb. It was a mini store, more like someone’s house that they happened to be selling a few sundry items, plus a drinks cooler. We see a lot of these here. We were after cold drinks so we pulled over. What we lacked in common language capabilities the woman running the store more than made up for in the universal language of generosity. Even before we’d dismounted our bikes she had ice in a couple glasses and a bottle of chilled water on her one table. Nancy picked out some iced tea and paid for them. The owner then one by one retrieved some tissue, an ice coffee, an apple and two more bottles of cold water for our bike bottles. Next she sent her neighbour off to retrieve some fresh bananas as we were eating those that we brought with us. She sat with us while we ate and drank – we tried to talk to her but got nowhere until we got her to draw us a map to the next few towns. She was spot on with her distances. Eventually we had to depart. We tried to pay for all of the extras that she gave us but she would have nothing of it. Good byes lasted minutes as she kept waving. We rode away feeling like we’d met an angel, we were sure glad that we stopped. Any readers who feel like offering the next bicycle tourist a cold drink please go ahead as we are completely overdrawn on that bank account.

We stopped for chicken rice at a junction roadside restaurant a little after noon. I’m not sure if it’s the salt or chillies but these are just great tasting and really fill a craving we seem to get riding in the hot sun. Today’s topping included some fresh ginger along with the soy-salt and chillies. We enjoy it just as much.

We had very little traffic coming over the mountain. The last 10k into town however were under construction with some dirt, lots of dust and traffic was picking up. We were pretty happy to pull into the servo where we found an Amazon coffee – our second of the day. Iced coffees really hit the spot. We were not sure where to stay and ended up picking a little resort just behind the coffee shop. The rooms are nice little cabins and pretty cute . We had hoped that they would serve dinner but they didn’t so we ended up walking back into town for the market to eat. There is some sort of model shoot going on at the hotel and of course I had to go out and get some pictures (of the rice paddies). I saw the shoot taking place but I’m pretty sure that it was not Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Thailand as all the models and crew appeared to be sleeping in tents, not cabins.

Tomorrow we have a short ride to Loei, maybe just over 50k. We may take a day off there. Counting forward we only have 4 days of riding left in Thailand before we reach Laos. We are not in a rush now as we have 12 days left on our visas. We are both tired tonight and ready for a rest with close to 500k in the last 5 days, plus lots of climbing.

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