update from the Mekong

A reassurance post to let you know we're still here!.. and have been pedaling happily over hills for the past few weeks... powered by copious amounts of nice food.

We've been visiting along the way - not just random Thai towns where we've found a bed for the night... thought there have been plenty of them! We've been in the beautiful ruins of Sukhothai, through beautiful sunrises over the mountains..

The scenery is magnificent and cycling is such a lovely way to visit. We stopped at waterfalls before attacking a BIG climb on the way up from Phitsanulok

And had a few days rest in Phu Ruea where the national park is beautiful and we were lucky enough to meet Tiger the ranger (true!) who put our bikes in the back of his pick up and whisked us up to the peak - a very steep climb, too steep for a 'rest' day! The views were great from up there, and the creep down with the brakes on was worth it!

Here's Sylv chilling out in front of our Chalet - and the view from the top

From Phu Ruea we made it down to the gastronomic centre that is Loei - veg restaurant and lovely tasty night market with puddings to taste (interesting mixtures of beans, rice, onion and sweetness..)! and then pedalled on to the Mekong...

Chiang Khan was a chilled out little village with fancy hens, good soup thanks to Mr Tu and a nice man who cooked up some fab veg food for us :o)

Here we met Carolin - a 'real cyclist' just on her way back to Bangkok after tackling the mountains of Laos (not on the pink bike you'll be glad to hear... ). We shared routes, thoughts and a slap up dinner on a bench at the market... all very nice!

Then it was off for a marathon ride to Sang Khom - village on the Mekong... with a lovely long chat with Elsa and Ollivier from France (literally... they cycled ALL the way!) and a slap up, tear-jerking green papaya salad lunch along the way for Sylv :o)

We finally arrived and we've settled at Mr and Mrs Toy's bungalow heaven... hammock with view over the river, lots of lovely food and laughter and singing.... might leave tomorrow if we can pull ourselves off the veranda!

A map

In yellow: journey on the train - In green: on the bicycles

And here is a map of our journey in Thailand. Might help to locate us...
We started in Bangkok where we took a train to Ayuthaya. From there we cycled in a few stages to Nakkon Sawan. As the roads were quite big and busy, we took a train from there to Chiang Mai.
Then from Chiang Mai back down on the bikes on smaller B roads through some lovely landscape and hills to Sukhothai.
Since then, we're heading East through Phitsanulok towards the North-East of Thailand to reach Nong Khai by Christmas and cycle along the Mekong Thai-Laos border up to Mukdahan where we will finally cross into Laos. At least that's the plan!
Today we're in a little town just before Phu Rua. And it's hilly!!!

Quiz time

What is this woman selling at the night market???

Yes, there are dog's outfit, to keep them warm in the winter. But when we say winter here it's nothing compared to Europe: it's not very cold. And the great thing with these doggy outfits is that they have holes in the right place to allow doggy to do wewe and poopoo without dirtying the nice outfit, as evident from the picture below.

Harriet's birthday treat... a Thai cooking course!!!

Yesterday, for H's birthday, Sylv 'treated' her to a cooking course (she's been moaning about missing cooking for months..) on an organic farm just outside Chang Mai.

A rare day out, it was really nice to learn about all the various types of rice and other ingredients at the market, we got the chance to ask what was what and find out that the big grey lumps aren't flavoured tofu as thought, but congealed chicken blood... mmmmmmmm, saved from a horrible mistake!

Then, on the farm, we went to pick the herbs, roots and spices we would need like Thai parsley (persil), coriander, ginger and Thai ginger, ginseng, lemongrass, chilli, kaffir lime... such smells :o)

Then is was 4 hours solid graft... 5 dishes in total including a curry, a soup and a stir-fry.... tasting... then noodles and spring rolls and a dessert (packed up in doggy bags as we were about to pop!).

Cute steamer for sticky rice.

Chopping? what chopping?! Ingredients for a Thai soup and for a Pad Thai.

Turning up the gas! And "c'est parti mon kiki"!

The wok mistress, making a nice stir-fry

... and spring rolls

... and some pudding - pumpink in coconut milk

Tasting...

Doggy bags for dinner.... looking like the professionals in the street, everything in perfectly packed plastic!

A final picture for Sylv's fashion competition: Harriet in her organic farm cooking class outfit with our dinner...

food and more food... Thailand

As our gastro-cyclo-tour continues in Laos, I thought I'd better post this one on the Thai delicacies, before they are forgotten for the tastes of Laos....

We appear to be to only vegetarian cyclists in SE Asia who are gaining weight... possibly due to the numerous days off, possibly also because we're finding it hard not to try everything we see that looks interesting and.. or tasty!



We're pretty much hooked on sticky rice for our pre-ride breakfast - it comes in bamboo tubes and has little beans in it...

Brunch is usually pad pak... stir fried vegetables with rice..... here's one of the prettier ones!

There are lots of desserts to try... usually oddly un-sweetened (all the savoury food comes with a generous dose of sugar!)... and we usually can't work out quite what's inside... these were some sort of pumpkin souflees and some gooey rice cakes

these are mung beans in syrup (also available, red kidney beans, tapioca, red rice...) looks weird, tastes good, a bit like the sweet caramelised onion cake we tried! Note the plastic bag - all food in Thailand comes in a plastic bag... salads, sauces, rice, pork dust... everything that's anything is dressed in plastic and a rubber band

Sylv's feasting on the Papaya still

And we tried these little eggs crepes one night... just the once though!

Thai rice cakes are fried and come with a swirl of sugar on the top... light enough to carry on the bikes to keep us going and a bit more intersting than rice cakes at home

We didn't start on this lot... just admired the crystalised fruits from afar - better not to risk liking some things, and the fresh fruit is so lovely here!

Green coconuts are a regular... iced, like all good Thai drinks

We're hunting down the vegetarian restaurants where we can find them.... small quiet canteens run by especially nice people who create non-meat dishes from copious amounts of tofu and soya meat early in the morning and close by 3pm! They're usually near the town's hospital... not sure why...

There's meat on offer everywhere in Thailand and as we ride along it's often a bit like riding through a big communal barbecue with things on sticks roasting all over the place. So far so good though, and the cycling shorts still fit ;o)

Fashion

We wanted to share with you how we look on this trip, the sort of clothes we are wearing, how fashionable we are. So here are a few pictures.

First the cow-girl look adapted for cycling, with the shirt providing shade to the neck area and the arms. Sleeves can be folded up in early mornings when the sun is not too strong. The orange bandana is an optional extra for added style.

Next, the 'sun-sentivive-skin' outfit, perfect for the midday sun, complete with removable yellow sleeves.

More rencently, as a consequence of moving up North, we've seen the 'sleeping gear on a cold train', a special layered outfit, consisting of vest top, t-shirt, jumper, scarf, bathing skirt (for H) and sarong. The ideal outfit would also consist of sandals and socks, as seen before on Sylv.

And earlier, we also had the ashram look, uniquely worn by Harriet.