A day in the life....

And yes, before we set up the Anorak-ometre on the blog, we'll test the waters with a day in the life of some mad farangs cycling round Thailand...

Any good trip starts with good planning. Harriet surprisingly had the map holder installed on her bike and has been dubbed the provisional Queen of Maps pending confirmation on arrival in Hanoi.



A typical day of cycling will starts with an early wake-up at around 5.30am. Getting ready, packing all our 8 panniers and having a light breakfast of fruits and rice cakes (or whatever nice snack we found at the market the day before) means we're out on the road just after sunrise!



A market and Sylv having papaya for breakfast (Harriet eats a surprising number of bananas.. the tastier of two evils!)

When we can, there's a stop at the temple - here's Sylv plying Ganesh with gold and hoping he'll remove obstacles on our journey.


Then it's pretty much on the road until we hit our destination, or somewhere else that looks interesting and has a hotel...



There are regular water and 'comfort' breaks - leg stretching, bum rubbing etc.. and a longer one (where we get to sit down!) at about 9-10am for a big breakfast, often rice and vegetables or noodles as we get to grips with the Thai for vegetarian and 'vegetables only please'.


All being well we arrive somewhere before midday and look for an hotel. This one was a great found: an unpromising entrance gave way to a lush resort, hidden behind the motorway, where we had our own bungalow with terrasse and a massive swimming-pool!

When the roads look too big or busy, we can hop on the train. Thai Trains are fab - we buy a ticket for the bikes (forms in triplicate and fond memories of India!) and then the bikes are taken to the luxury goods carriage and meet us on the platform on arrival (even on the train where we suddenly realised the door at the front of the carridge looked out directly onto the tracks and the engine was nowhere to be seen - slight concern from other passengers but nothing near panic.... zen Thailand).

So far so good - we hit the road tomorrow for the unknown and un-blogged back hills of Chang Mai and work our way down (in theory!) to Sukothai.... farewell Starbucks and Boots, sawadhi khaa hand gestures, smiles and shrimp dust in your dinner!