190 km!
A fitting finale.
My longest day ever!
I had hoped to find some place to stay about halfway, but no. So I kept going. Why are all nice restaurants and fine shops on the other side of the highway?
After many trials and errors I finally found a lunch place after 1 pm. By the time I was done it was half past two and I had another 100 kms to Lampang.
In many places in Thailand I have had good use of my GPS with its Thai maps and info that is stored with the maps. I click on an icon labeled 'accomodation' and the GPS shows me a lot of hotels and such that are in my vicinity. But there was nothing along my way today. Sometimes there are 'resorts' or such that has not yet made into Garmin maps, and I hoped something would pop up along highway #1 today. But nada.
It was definitely more downhill than up today. Overall I lost nearly 200 meters altitude. But there were nevertheless a few moderate uphills too. Anyway I started thinking that maybe I could if necessary go all the way to Lampang. Arrive way later than I prefer but still in the early evening. So I speeded up as much as I could. It was a beautiful ride through a national park for hours. Unfortunately that also meant no restaurants and no shops by the wayside. I was nearly out of water, and hungry.
I was overtaken by several big motorcycles that were probably driven by farang the way they honked and waved at me. Many truck drivers honked and waved too. And kids riding in the back of pick-up trucks waved more than Thais normally do. Later as I passed through areas where there were people along the roadside many waved and it felt as if they cheered me on. I felt as a cyclist leading a race. People shouted something at me in Thai that I did not understand but it felt as if they were shouting 'come on, you can make it, it is only another 38 kilometers, go, go, go! I was racing against time and the sunset, doing 30-35 klicks and getting ever nearer.
Eventually I had to stop and put on my bike lights. I have them with me of course but have never had to use them before on any of my three tours.
At around 7 pm I came into Lampang and was caught in some kind of street festival, I thought. I had to get off and walk the last couple of kilometers. When I arrived at Riverside Guest House they told me it was just the saturday evening market, that has become a big thing with Thais coming down en masse from Chiang Mai.
At 730 I pulled in to the guest house and got their last room. Outside bath only but I was glad they had anything available at all. I had hoped there would be a bunch of cyclists in the restaurant so I could buy them all a round of Margaritas to celebrate my long ride. But there was no one at all.
After a wonderful shower I went out and celebrated on my own. The waitress looked a bit puzzled when I ordered one large bottle ice water, one large Leo beer and one Margarita together with a chicken steak. I was so thirsty, exhausted, very hungry and very pleased with myself and that all had gone well.
No comments:
Post a Comment