Leg 2 Fish bowel water bottle 2/03/2011: Bangkok to Saraburi 110.37km

The first days cycling and the start of the ‘next leg.’ For the first time since I have been travelling there is going to be a little army of us, well three at least. I and Russell went round to meet Loon but attempting to rest my bike against a concrete block, the concrete block fell and turned into sand. Before anybody had the chance to get angry I ‘did one.’

I met Russell and Loon for breakfast then we got going. Finding the way out of Bangkok was a lot easier than finding the way in. I managed to learn one road and it seemed to be able to lead me anywhere. The traffic was of course busy and the air was thick with pollution. The riding was frustrating, we would cycle for an hour then stop for half an hour which then turned into an hour! It was great to see how Russell was coping on his light weight fixed gear bike, the answer was pretty good, going up over a fly over I was going hard to get it out of the way before my luck with cars ran out, anyway Russell on his little fixed came flying past I was sadly impressed.

At one of the stops today I decided to check out my water bottle which I have been using for two years now, rubbing my figure inside it felt a bit slimy, investigating further I realized it was covered with algae, the green stuff that grows inside your fish tank and in fish ponds. The bottom of my water bottle was particularly bad, big chunks would break off and float around, it’s all got to be extra nutrients.

Riding along I was up ahead and to entertain myself I got into the slip stream of a slow moving truck (well 35kmph isn’t slow for me). While towing behind another truck went to overtake trying to squeeze through a very tight gap indeed. I had said Thai’s were good drivers, well not this one, attempting to overtake both trucks scraped the side of each other in turn knocking bits of truck into my path.

With about 5km to Saraburi the wind suddenly changed direction and was refreshingly cool, the fact it was a head wind didn’t bother me at all. Hitting the town we pulled into the first hotel we saw, it was very flashy, marble hall a guy who opens the door and carries your bags up stairs sort of place. Inquiring about the price it was 450 baht for a twin and they would let all three of us stay in one room. Clambering the bikes into the lift (makes a change to lugging the things upstairs) we got into our room which had satellite T.V and 2 double beds. Looks like we’ll be getting cozy tonight. We then went through the routine of food and as I was determined to cut my costs down (I only had 400baht for today) I had search for the cheapest food and for once I managed to stick to my budget. A few nights camping and I should even save some money.