Just a farang on a bike...

We are 2 cycling days in to the journey...not sunburned yet...in and out of dehydration...

Photos will hopefully come soon when the internet connection is quicker.

Day 1: We left Phuket at around 7:30 am and headed north. Most of the first leg was traffic filled roads, big trucks, sucking exhaust fumes. The scenery got much nicer once we crossed the bridge from Phuket to the mainland. At around 43 miles, we stopped at Muang Thai, and had a leisurely lunch at a restaurant on the beach with a view of the ocean, sand, palm trees and a 40 foot turtle. Lunch lasted from about 11:30-3:00. We have quickly realized that it is suicide to try to ride around midday. Temps in the 95F range, blazing sun, humid...hellish. Going up hills in this heat...I think I know what a car feels like when it overheats. We are trying to drink at least one bottle of water an hour and still it is not enough. So the plan from here on out will be to start early, ride until around 11am, siesta and lunch until around 3, then ride again. After lunch, we rode for another few hours and reached Khao Lak at 65 miles...where we stayed for the night. Khao Lak, not much more than a one mile stretch of road full of restaurants and tourist shops, served its purpose...though hopefully not the norm. Of note, this town had the largest number of deaths in the Tsunami in Thailand. Dinner was pizza and beer...perfect.

Day 2: Free toast and water at the hotel (fancy breakfast) and hit the road at 7:30. Rode for a few hours and stopped at a 7-11 for a water refill and breakfast #2. Thailand probably has about as many 7-11's as the US has Starbucks....really! But they are a great place to get supplies and cool off. The A/C is so cold in the Thai 7-11's...probably colder than the fridges in the place. Beer would stay colder if they just kept it on the floor. We continued on to Bang Wan at the 40 miles...stopped for another 3 hour lunch in a little outdoor restaurant. Noodles, veggies, curry sauce...yum. Five bottles of water later, we were back on our bikes. Another hour and we came to Khuraburi at 54 miles. I think we were probably the only 2 white people that had been through town in weeks...lots of waving and stares. Dinner was chicken on a stick, sticky rice and phad siewe.