Amnat Charoen doesn't have much to offer the tourist and we stopped there because of the distances between Ubon Ratchathani and That Phanom. We couldn't do the full trip in one day. Suppose you could call us soft.
By the time 9.30pm came around last night it was time to call it quits. I had set my alarm for 6.15 to meet Len for breakfast at 6.30am. At 6.45am I heard this ringing and had no idea where it was coming from. I was in a coma. At first it I thought it was my ipod alarm going off. Nope, not that. My brain kicked into gear and realised it was the phone. Who the hell was calling me. It was Len in his usual jovial tone. 'What are you doing aussie, it's 6.45 and you were supposed to be down here 15 minutes ago?' I told Len the alarm didn't go off and I would be down there shortly. I couldn't believe I had made a mistake and not set the alarm. He'll never let me live this one down.
We got out at 7.10am and headed north. We are following the 212 highway all the way to Vietienne in Laos.
After nearly 2 hours of riding at a good pace, it was time to stop for morning tea. This time we couldn't find our favorite 7/11 store and decided to stop at a nice coffee shop Len had spotted. What a nice little place. This lady could speak good English which she learnt at university. I always leave my bike where I can see it when I stop for food and coffee. The photo above is of the coffee shop we stopped at en-route to Mukdahan.
We stopped along the way to take a photo of this entrance into another Wat. Some of the entrances are quite impressive. For a region which is not loaded with wealth, people always find money to build a Wat, Mosque or church. Work that out.
Today was another hot one reaching a maximum of 111 degrees with an average of 97 degrees all during the ride. We rode 92kms on nice roads with a good shoulder and a couple of rolling hills to make us work harder.
The last 5kms I found the temperature to be really taking its toll on me. It didn't appear that hot but I think fatigue might be creeping in. Len is going fine and feeling his legs in this heat. We rolled into Mukdahan around 12 midday. The hotel we decided to look at the day before was the Submukda Grand Hotel. The hotel has a lift and they're allowing us to take our bikes in the room. The hotel costs around 17 dollars for the night with aircon, WiFi, cable TV and I'm not really sure about breakfast.
Obviously this is my room. Nice big bed, nice plastic flowers beside the bed head and of course the most valued piece of furniture in the room, my bicycle. The best thing about having the bike in my room is that I don't have to take the pannier bags off. All I have to do is open them up, find what I want and that will save big time tomorrow morning. The bike just got inside the lift by standing it on its back wheel. Perhaps the Gods are looking down on me. If I had to drag all my gear up 5 flights of stairs I would have been busted.
Now the photo above is taken from inside a cafe we were having a late lunch at. I know it's a bit hazy but you can see the water on the road with ripples all over the place. It was a hurricane was going through the city. You can see the sign across the road that had been blown over and water covering the entire road.
After sitting in the cafe out of the rain we decided to head back to the hotel. When we walked around the corner we could see that the rain, lightning, thunder and wind was not over. The skies were a really dark grey and the rain was starting to pour down once again.
We could hear the thunder and lighning going off in unison, Obviously the storm was overhead. At times we thought the doors to the cafe which was being pelted with driving rain and hail would blow open. It was one of the heaviest storms I've ever been in. As you can see from the above photo the entire awning has come crashing down onto the pavement during the storm. Just to the left of the photo there's overhead beam that came down blocking the road. Signs were hanging from buildings, the rescue squad was guiding the traffic and the place was in darkness. The power in the town was down and this meant no lift, no air con and no TV. I wasn't too worried about 2 of them, but no air con in a sweat box is going to be hard night.
After about 2 hours of no power in the town we went back to the hotel. Climbing the stairs to the fifth floor in darkness was not a problem, what my major concern was getting down the stairs with pannier bags, front bag and a bicycle in the morning, and in darkness.
To top off my day, as we got back to the hotel the power had come back on. No walking the stairs this time. As I entered my room I was busting to go to the toilet. Now, you're not going to believe this but the due to the storm, the wind has blown through the toilent window and slammed the toilet door shut, braking the handle. Now I can't even have a pee in my room. Talk about shit happens. Yeh, only to me. And to make things worse, Len thought it was real funny and offered his room at a rate of 3 dollars a pee. I politely told him what I thought about his kind offer.
So after trying to tell the reception staff that the door to my toilet won't open and I need to go to the loo, I finally got someone up. After taking the entire lock off the door and replacing it with a new one I was now able to relieve myself.
So while this is all going on, it was now after 7pm. We were both getting hungry and needed to buy dinner. We walked the streets and couldn't find a place open. This was not a good day. We ended up going to the 7/11 store and buying some rice dishes heated up in the microwave. Actually they tasted better than some of the crap we've been fed by restaurants.
Back to the hotel to eat my meal, do some reading, and relax. Tomorrow we are riding to the town of That Phanom about 50kms away. I don't need to be doing long rides in this heat.
And that's a photo of my cycling buddy playing in the water.
Well another long day in the sun. Until tomorrow, safe riding.
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