We set off in the early morning from our place just 10 km into Thailand from the ช่à¸à¸‡à¸ªà¸°à¸‡à¸³ border crossing. I had the great idea of trying to take a shortcut we had heard tell of. I don’t know if I picked the wrong road, or if the shortness of the route got lost in the potholes, hills, and rain. Rather muddy and wet we finally found a place for breakfast. Shortly after breakfast more rain drove us under the roof of a supply store. The owners were friendly, made conversation, and brought us water. We moved on.
We made good time along 24, stopping for a late lunch of ลาบ and ต้มปลา. After lunch we continued to move along. About the time we might have considered stopping for the day, Ubon was tantalizingly close (40km). We couldn’t stop.
My hands were quite tired of gripping the handle bars so I was riding without holding them when a large truck went by close and fast. The wind rocked me and I went for the handle bars and the brakes. I locked up my front wheel and despite all the extra weight of my bag on the back wheel I became aware of being a good deal higher than my handle bars. Before I could correct anything I was on the ground with my bike behind me. I’m not entirely sure of all the details. I do know by the time I went down I had slowed down considerably so there was very little sliding and scraping. Just a jarring of the wrists and a skinning up of the palms. Far less serious than it could have been. After a minute or two of settling we were back on the road, I with a pair of Mark’s clean socks between my hands and the handlebars.
As darkness was settling we pulled into the Warin Big C. We consumed a medium pizza, a pan of baked rice, fries, and wings. Refreshed we finished the journey in the dark (with both head and tail lights).
The extra push at the end put blisters on my seat and a tingling in my hands. Hopefully they’ll clear up quickly.
Leave a Reply