Bob on a Valley Spokesmen Ride in Thailand 2005

Our Northern Loop (Orange Line)

January 29 - Chiang Rai to Phayao - Today was cycling day 11 - 63 flat miles - Weather high 60's to high 90's - It's warming up!!! Part of the ride was through a nut tree grove. We weren't sure what the nuts were. When we stopped at a roadside stand to see what they were selling, the nuts were in long, large, brown pods. We were afraid to try any. I had two flats today. Most of the roads are fairly clean but we ran over some glass today which caused my problems. I'm getting pretty fast changing my Bike Friday tires. I'm spending part of tonight patching tubes. Because of my flats and the lead group missing a turn, our ride split up. By the time we regrouped, we had gone 88k. We decided not to stop for lunch and snacked on bananas and Cliff Bars instead. When we reached our hotel, I showered and went down to its cafe and had beer with the rest of the group and some fried rice with salty fish. Yummy!!!!

Tharn Thong Hotel Restaurant

Horse and Cart in Pamphang

January 30 - Phayao to Lamphang- Cycling day 12 - 87 miles - Weather upper 60's to low 100's. Yes, it's getting very hot. We left Phayao at about 8:30 to try to get in some miles before it got too hot. Coming out of town, we passed a large reservoir with lily pads floating along the shore. The ride took us through some very flat country until we reached about 80k. Then we started to climb a fairly gradual grade. Had lunch at the summit at 90k. The temperature had climbed to the mid 90's, so we were pretty drained when we got there. The summit was in a dry forest. Not sure what kind of trees they were but they definitely were not evergreens. They had very broad leaves. The rest of the ride was downhill, flat, or slightly uphill with a headwind. My thermometer hit 40c at one point. We are now back in the same hotel that we were in on cycling day 6.

Local Woman at Lunch - Long

January 31 - Lamphang to Phrae- Cycling day 13 - 68 miles - Weather mid 70s to high 100's. This ride was a reverse of cycling day 6. I don't know how I did it, but I recorded one less mile in this direction. It didn't feel like it though. The climbing and the temperture made it harder. We made it, though, despite the sizzling heat. Why does it always get hot on the climbs? It was a pretty ride. We passed varied scenery from flat valleys to fairly steep mountains. We saw orange groves, pineapple trees and lots of other crops. We stopped for lunch in the same place as before - near Dick's inlaws' house. It's a covered outdoor roadside cafe run by one of the local girly men - yes there are lots of gay men in Thailand. The food was very good. Some of us had a noodle soup with lots of veggies, pork and fish balls. We were really dragging at the 80 - 90 km point. We didn't see any raodside places to stop for a cold drink until about 100k. The water in our water bottles felt like hot tea. We had a excellent dinner tonight which cost us less than $4 each. That's pretty typical.

Furniture Hauler


Furniture Finsher

February 1 - Phrae to Uttaridit - Cycling day 14 - Phrae to Uttaradit - 47 miles - Weather mid 70's to high 90's. I usually don't consider 47 miles as being a short ride, but today was an exception. We left Phrae at about 8:45. After leading us out of the city, Dick asked us all to stop at a roadside furniture store while he looked at beds, tables and other furniture for his new house. All the furniture is made out of teak and it's beautiful. The prices are good, too. We looked around while he priced things and then we were off for the last summit. All of us were looking forward to the summit because it was the last one, it was a gradual climb (no small chain ring) and it had Thai iced coffee in the rest stop. After two coffees, we forced ourselves back on our bikes and rode the rest of the way into Uttaradit. We paraded to the hotel for the last 3k.