Wollongong the centre of the Universe.

 Today was a nice sleep in to 6.30am.  Breakfast was a little slow at the Boonsiri Boutique Hotel in
Si SaKhet.  We rolled out at 8am and once again Len and his Garmin directed us around streets and eventually onto the 226 heading towards Ubon Ratchathani some 72kms away.

Like usual we just rolled along with the headphones belting out Susan Boyle and some other nobodies accompanied with a nice tailwind.  About an hour into the ride it was time for the Aussie morning tea stop at 7/11 and the Amazon coffee house.  Inside the coffee shop was a large notice board, well at least I noticed it.  I thought it was for anyone to write a comment on, so I did.  See above. I couldn't think of anything else to write.  After all, it's true and everyone knows that, even Len.

After filling the bottles it was time to get back on the road for another hour of being cooked in the 100 degree temperature.  The sun was now belting down big time and my satnav was reading 110 degrees.  Now back home, I would be sitting in the pool or having the air con on, certainly not riding my bicycle. But this is a holiday and you have to be challenged at times.

After a couple more refill stops we were now 20kms outside of Ubon Ratchathani.  Along the road we came across this huge Budha sitting atop of a new building.  To guage how big this Budha is we were bout 50 metres away.  It was massive.

Enough culture for the day.

We rolled into Ubon around 12.30pm after a nice ride.  Len led us directly to a hotel he had stayed at some time ago.  It use to be called the Montana hotel, but had since changed it's name to Ubon International Hotel.  After Len paid his money for 2 nights I asked them where we could park our bikes for the next 2 days as tomorrow is a rest day.  The reception staff said the bikes would have to be left outside.  Now these bikes cost a lot of money and for the hotel not to allow us to put them under the stairwell and completely out of the way was a joke.  They insisted they be left outside in the carpark.  This was totally unacceptable to us, because if they were stolen the hotel would not care less.  Perhaps they care now as we took back our money and moved onto the Sri Isan Hotel down the road.

Eventually we got our room with the usual Wifi, air con, cable TV and the market just across the road.  Tonight we're going to walk to the market and take it easy.

Both Len and I are slightly tired after all that riding in the sun and need a rest.  Tomorrow is our rest day.

So, at this stage I have no idea where we're going next.  We might pull out the map tonight and work on distances for the next couple of days.  We will enter Laos in the next week.

Today we rode 72kms, average temp 99.3 degrees with a max of 113 degrees.

Safe riding and good health to all my friends.