Day 123, 5km. By Chris:

As we chugged out if the mouth of the river and into the open sea at approximately midnight the boat started rocking quite considerably. From this point on I slept very little because all our bicycles had been propped up beneath a thinly stacked 7 foot high pile of bricks. I was convinced these were going to topple over and come crashing down onto our faithful steeds while we were all rolling around in the giant dorm room at the back of the boat. Miraculously this did not happen and we arrived on Ko-Tao island with everything intact.

The boat arrives and is swiftly unloaded

 Amy and I waited until 9 for the shops to open so we could buy some snorkels then we cycled to the quiet side of the island to rent a small bungalow. Those 5km were far and away the steepest, hardest climbs we have encountered in 7000km and once we got to our hut we felt like we'd cycled a 90km day.

Amy struggling to slow down on the ridiculously steep roads (the picture is an injustice to the gradient)

 Here we rested lazily and I shaved off the irritating beard that I have accumulated over the last few months as an alternative to expensive suncream.

The transformation from rugged adventurer to gormless British tourist is complete.

 We only left the comforts of our room for a brief foray into the water to snorkel over a small nearby reef in the late afternoon.

Day 122, 110km. By Amy:

All 5 of us cycle tourers set off together but me and chris were quickly left behind ( I blame our enormous amount of luggage!).

Today was much more undulating than the rest of the coast and because we had to cover a decent amount of ground we were mainly on a bigger road. Still, it was designated a 'scenic route' and followed the coast. Chris even managed to find us a private patch of beach for lunch where I had a swim. The ferry port for the night cargo ferry turned out to be up river, 10km closer than we expected which was a welcome surprise. They even had showers and free coffee at the port which was amazing! 

The car ferry had one truck on it and was otherwise packed with all manner of produce and goods needed on the island. 

We were worried because Jess Danny and Jamie (who had definitely been ahead of us and were aiming for the same ferry) had not arrived. but with no way of contacting them there was nothing we could do. 

They finally turned up at 8pm having ridden 25km too far and had to come all the way back. As the captain aptly put; 'shit happens'. At least there was still space on the boat!

Day 121, 73km. By Chris:

Getting out of the national park was easier than getting in but we had to splash our way along a muddy track non-the-less. The rest of the morning was spent navigating a hoch-poch of small roads and tracks while looking for a roadside 'reverse osmosis' drinking water dispenser, because our water pump broke a few days ago. These machine tend to be hidden away from tourists down local roads, probably because far more profit can be made by selling them bottled water. We came upon one though, and restocked all our bottles for just 4bhat (8p).

We bumped into our cycle-touring friends Jess and Jamie in the afternoon and had lunch with them by the beach. Danny had D&V so had taken the short fast route on the main road. He got to our destination first and had scouted out some cheap beachfront bungalows so we followed the other two and stayed there too. We swam in the sea and after dinner we admired the glowing waves, full of bioluminescence.

 

Day 120, 90km. By Amy:

Today we had a tailwind which was fantastic because I felt like I was super strong! Chris and I stopped on the way out of the park at a mangrove nature trail which was cool and we saw a few macaques. We cycled down to Pretchup-Kiri-Khan a nice town where we could actually cycle along on the firm sand of the wet beach.

 

 On the way out of town we had to register at a security checkpoint which we though was odd but the road went straight through an air base and actually over the runway! 

 

 

Chris tried to take us into the back entrance of the next national park we hoped to camp in but it only really existed in google maps. In reality we had to duck under fences, paddle through rivers and haul our bikes up steep overgrown banks. 

 

 

Our reward was another beautiful white sand beach as far as the eye could see pretty much to ourselves.

Day 119, Rest day in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park:by Chris

Although getting up early on my designated rest day put me in a bad mood, we visited some amazing caves. The first was a gigantic underground amphitheatre, the roof of which had collapsed letting light stream in and plants to take root 100m below. The second was an awe-inspiring collection of stalectites and stalecmites. Alone with our headtorches in the silent cave, we delved as deep as was possible, admiring the glistening, sparkling towers and pools. Bats hung from the ceiling and cave crickets scurried across the floor, eating the corpses of others that had been stepped on by previous tourists

 

This photo does not do the cave justice, until you spot where Amy is!

 

. The evening give rise to a glorious orange sunset that me and Amy appreciated on an evening stroll down the white sandy beach.

 

 

Day 118, 92km. By Amy:

The dual carriageway was the only option for the first 20km. This was made bearable by the fact that 3 other British cycle tourers called Danny, Jamie and Jess caught us up and cycled with us telling stories of there travels. 

The afternoon was much nicer on smaller roads mainly along deserted beaches and through coconut palm groves. We entered Sam Roy Yot national park which was created to preserve its fantastic forested limestone peaks amidst fisheries and salt pans. Half way through the national park all five of us pitched up in a campsite next to the beach.

 

 

Day 117, 90km. By Chris:

We cycled away from Amphawa with coconut palm plantations either side of the road, some leaning worryingly, their ammunition of coconut cannonballs primed to break our necks. The palms soon gave way to flat, hot, grey salt pans stretching to the horizon. Hilarious motorised rolling pins that looked like the cars from 'The Flintstones' were being used to compact the salt. All afternoon the sun fried us - my forearms felt like they were on a grillpan, and I wished it to end. We finished at the popular beach town of Cha-am, where I was surprised but happy to find a cheap room for £8.

 

Cha-Ams beachfront

Day 116, 90km. By Amy:

Getting out of Bangkok involved a 6 lane motorway and lots of traffic but then we managed to get onto the backstreets where the road, almost obscured by market stalls, ran along the railway with no barrier to wandering pedestrians. 

Amy jostles for position while awaiting the lights.When they turn green its every man (or woman ) for themselves.

After this short stint we were pushed back onto the massive road which was now 8 lanes. Thankfully the hard shoulder was an 'anything goes lane' for unusual traffic or anyone who wanted to travel the wrong way down the motorway (which seemed to be perfectly acceptable). After 10km of this we had to detach the trailers and carry our stuff over a footbridge to get back onto the small roads.

After a long busy day we arrived in Amphawa at gone 5pm to find it was where everyone else from Bangkok had come for the weekend. All the guesthouses were therefore full and very pricy. In the end we found a little room with a nice couple who had turned there house into a homestay for the weekend. 

We got cleaned up and headed to Amphawa's main weekend attraction; the floating food market. Everyone from the local area brings there wears in boats to cook and sell to the tourists. It was packed and we spent several happy hours wandering around eating random stuff.

The floating market

Days 114 & 115, Rest Days in Bangkok. By Chris

My first impression of Bangkok as we rode in is that it smelt of sewage, but on a plus point, pleasantly there were no blaring horns, despite a maelstrom of bolshy vehicles. The drivers here drive with their eyes, unlike Chinese drivers who only use their ears. Our first day was spent doing chores. Top of the list was laundering almost everything we have and if the laundrette had demanded double what they initially quoted before seeing / smelling our things I would have gladly paid them. We also bought train tickets back to Bangkok for after New Years and various replacement bicycle parts.

The Sprite bottle proves a useful size comparison for this Bangkok sewer monster

The following day was more relaxing, we walked through a city park where gigantic 2m long lizards lived in the ditches eating discarded bones the size of melons and took a boat up the river to the grand palace. Amy loved this place because it was sparkly and shiny with lots of gold paint and bits of coloured glass adorning all the buildings, while I appreciated the funny looking bushes.

Amy then took me on a nice walking tour of the lesser sights of the city ending at an expensive cocktail bar overlooking the sunset. We did not see much evidence of the recent political unrest other than a bit of razor wire so I was disappointed not to have witnessed at least a little bit of anarchy.

Day 113, 86km. By Amy:

Today we achieved what we initially challenged ourselves to do: cycle from Xian, China to Bangkok, Thailand covering 4000miles :-)

We followed the canals down straight country roads to the city. The waterways were lined with wooden houses on stilts some accessed only by rickety bridges or makeshift polystyrene rafts. 

When fly tipping normal rubbish get boring, the really bad criminals move onto shrines!

We saw more monitor lizards and some pretty big fish as well as numerous birds.

As we approached the metropolis, the idyllic countryside began to fade as the roads got bigger and busier. On the way a nice man on a moped pulled over and gave me a packet of Thai sweets. Chris took us on a diverse route passing through alleys, markets and parks to reach our hostel. We high fived our achievement then had a little rest.

Our total trip distance (km)

As we have reaching our target in good time we have decided to go on a little bike ride! Just a short (500mile) extension of the initial route down the coast to the island of Koh Samui for Christmas where my friend Sally lives. For those who are enjoying the blog we will be sure to keep it going!

However, We would like to thank all those who have supported our journey so far: my parents for regularly updating the blog for us, my uncle Paul who keeps track of us on the map, the many people who showed us kindness on the road and all those who have sponsored us. 

Day 112, Rest day in Ayatthaya. By Chris:

And may I begin by saying a well deserved rest day at that! I admit, after so many days of straight roads heading directly to our destinations more or less as the crow flies, I may have forgotten that we are not crows and neither do we fly. At least we deserve our rest day which was spent sauntering around ruined temples eating ice-creams, drinking cold drinks and resting on benches. Amy said she saw 'giant lizards' in the lakes and canals when she was here in 2004, I did not believe her, until we spotted one swimming around. They were actually big monitor lizards and not the '3m Komodo dragons' she recollected, but I was impressed non-the-less. Because I made Amy walk around all day I promised we'd get a tuktuk to a nice restaurant in the evening where I had a feast of omelettes and Amy had another obscenely hot Thai green curry which made her feel dizzy and her face swell up.

Day 111, 162km. By Amy:

 

Dawn at the campsite

I awoke to the sound of gibbons singing in the canopy and barking deer grazing close by, looking longingly at the tent (now sealed) with its reclaimed food bag. 

Exiting the national park meant a fantastic 20km morning descent through different levels of habitat seeing lots of bird life and macaques (but still no elephants or tigers - Chris even got up pre dawn to cycle 15km and sit by an elephant salt lick but was unrewarded).

The afternoon was spent crossing the hot, pancake flat, shade-less rice paddies of the central plain.

 

Rice paddies being ploughed by a tractor-on-a-stick

 

 Chris massively underestimated the distance to Ayuthya (our destination town) which turned out to be 160km instead of the stated 100km. This meant the last 40km was a terrifying gauntlet along a busy main road in the dark. Every time we stopped at traffic lights or for a drink the mozzies came out en-force to feast on our sweaty legs.

Day 110, Rest day in Kao-Yai National Park. By Chris

Throughout the night we could hear various animals scurrying back to the forest with spoils they had nabbed from careless campers. We heard clattering pans and crunching bags - the forest around the edge of the camp is littered with the remnants if these stolen goods. We packed a day bag and set off past lines of parked cars to walk some jungle trails but found the first trail closed for maintenance. This was excellent news because once we'd hopped the barrier we had it all to ourselves. We marvelled at huge trees with massive buttress roots, vines as thick as me and colossal ferns. Amy's Beady eyes spotted a crocodile in a river and she thought she saw a gibbon in the trees. In the afternoon the trail we wanted was so underused  on several occasions we lost it and had to search the thick undergrowth and clamber over fallen trees, searching for faded yellow markers on occasional tree-trunks. Amy began to tire as the throaty calls of gibbons and croaking of frogs ushered in the twilight. We eventually found the road and burst out of the foliage with a new collection of cuts and scratches just before dark.

 

A massive tree

Me trying to find where the path goes next

Day 109, 74km. By Amy:

Today was an awesome day! We found a overgrown abandoned road / track along the northern edge of the national park which lasted most of the day. We were the only people on it but it appeared to be well used by elephants. You could see where they had come blundering out of the national park to snaffle all the crops within trunk reach through the wire fence! 

On the elephant trail

The afternoon was spent ascending an unnecessarily steep hill into Kao-Yai national park. This was made bearable by the cute macaques on the roadside. 

\Dodging Macaques

We arrived at the campsite on Saturday evening to join crowds of Bangkok weekenders. It was more like a festival than an escape to nature with over 1000 people at each camp and nearly as many in an overflow camp on the hill.

Despite this Chris found us a spot away from the hustle and bustle in the woods on the hill. 

I awoke in the night thinking a drunk person had fallen into our tent. It turned out to be a deer which was reaching through the ventilation hole in the tent porch to nick the food bag!

Day 108, 84km. By Chris:

More boring farmland was the order of the morning for us, spiced only by a few sightings of cowabbits (the cows with long silly ears). Later on i found some dirt roads over rolling hills which were more fun then after 40km of pleasant quiet farmland we inexplicably had lunch sat next to a busy duel carriageway. The afternoon served up a long, hot hill on a said busy road, then more twisty ups and downs through quiet farmland where we were given a bag of apples by a farmer's wife. Before taking them anywhere far i cycled round the corner and checked they were ripe because I am still lugging around the 3kg of green bananas given to us 4 days ago. They are as green and hard as they were at the start and have the consistence of raw potatoes according to Amy who tried to eat one this evening. I am cutting my losses and abandoning them at the small lakeside holiday camp were we finished for the day.

Day 107, 105km. By Amy:

Today was a long day along a progressively more undulating road through fields of tapioca plants. Lots of brightly painted jalopies full of tapioca plant roots passed us at regular intervals with their deafening two-stroke engines. 

We stopped at a little town which seemed to be in the middle of an electoral campaign complete with fireworks which we enjoyed, then ate yummy (but spicy) fish soup at a packed restaurant with funky live music.

A Jalopy

Day 106, 28km. By Chris:

After a short distance we spent most of the day exploring the Phanum Rung Khmer ruins (like Angkor Wat but smaller). The main phallic shaped temple was on top of a hill (a small extinct volcano) which Amy was displeased about, but after weeks of boring flat roads I was very happy to see a some kind of gradient again.

We were going to stay in a hotel this evening, but as we rode over the top of the hill, the scrubland looked ideal for a spot of camping so we struggled through spiky trees and scratchy bushes to get to a small clearing. I quickly regretted suggesting this because the place was full of plants that made me itchy and so many mosquitos that I sacrificed one of our older drinking bottles to avoid going back outside the tent when I needed my evening pee.

Day 105, 91km: by Amy

This man is frequently seen on the mud-flaps of many Thai, Laos and Chinese trucks

 (Looks like the lead singer of the Bee-Gees to me)

. He seems to be their version of the American reclining chrome lady.

 Does anyone know who he is and what he stands for?!?

Today we took the main road to cover some distance (the smaller roads were longer and convoluted). Unfortunately this meant a day with trucks and SUVs zooming past at warp speed. Thankfully there was a hard shoulder/moped lane which we utilised. Lunch was the highlight of the day sat by a lovely reservoir and I finished it off with the most spicy curry of the trip so far. Chris happily had non-spicy pasta.

Day 104, 78km: by Chris

Come morning my left ear-lobe was swollen and Amy's right eye was puffed up as though she'd been punched. The culprits were still trying to escape our room, struggling to stay airborne with abdomens bulging with stolen blood.

The scenery has not changed and it is dead flat. Lunch was eaten in another roadside shelter where a woman stopped to give us 20 green bananas still attached to half the banana tree.

 

Bananas are heavy until they ripen. This will be a good weapon if attacked by dogs.

 

 This means I'm going to be lugging them around for days and days until they ripen, but free bananas are always gratefully received in any state they might be presented.

We found a cheap motel in the evening where I sat bunged up and snotty with a cold, feeling sorry for myself.

 

 

A Thai roadside shelter

Day 103, 55km:

It was overcast and a bit cooler today which made cycling much more pleasant. Since we had planned a relatively short day, a detour was too tempting when we saw a sign to a waterfall around lunchtime.

 

 

The waterfall was a pretty affair with a paddling area and picnic benches in the shade. We made perfect english sandwiches courtesy of 7eleven and rested until the heat of the day had passed before cycling the rest of the distance through flat rice paddies and rubber tree groves to Khun-Han. 

After checking into a motel we went to see the towns one tourist attraction: a temple coated in glass bottles. It was the vision of the abbot and over a million bottles were donated by the towns people to make it come true. Even the pictures and sculptures were made of bottle caps! Recycling at its best.

A temple of clarity

Day 102, 73km: by Chris

Amy was annoyed that it took us 2 hours to get ready again this morning complaining that we'll be cycling in the heat of the day. Unfortunately, 'the heat if the day' runs from 10am to 3pm. Luckily for me the park warden came up and talked to us for 20 minutes so this time he got the blame. We cycled through farmland all day, drank more ice slushies at lunchtime and passed rubber tree plantations in the afternoon. The roads were noisy with tractors-on-sticks, trucks without silencers and teenagers on irritating popping scooters. We were going to visit the ruins of a big temple but it was closed for political reasons but they let us camp at the entrance gate next to a picturesque lake with lovely views of the orange sunset reflecting in its glassy surface. Idyllic, if it wasn't for the mosquitos and the fact someone arrived to turn on a noisy pump right where we were sat.

 

The latest weapon in the Amy-vs-Sun conflict.

Day 101, 15km: by Amy

We cycled the short distance into Phu Chong Nayoi national park which is apparently an unmapped area of jungle at the border with Laos and Cambodia with a large waterfall at its centre. 

We pitched our tent near the visitors centre (again for free). And cycled off map-less to explore the park . Because we'd seen a scout group and a double decker bus full of Thai tourists heading for the waterfall we took a smaller trail and spent most of the day relaxing by a little stream off the beaten track. 

We cycled to the waterfall later in the afternoon. where we cooled off in the plunge pool at the bottom which was full of fish who liked to nibble feet, like a free foot spa. However, being ticklish I stuck to paddling. Chris got his goggles out and dived in. However, by then the fish were not interested, until he started offering them Oreos.

 

 

A Shlongalolo (giant millipede)