{"id":6498,"date":"2025-09-22T00:25:26","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T17:25:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cyclinghome.nu\/?page_id=6498"},"modified":"2025-09-22T04:33:23","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T21:33:23","slug":"thailand","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/cyclinghome.nu\/?page_id=6498","title":{"rendered":"THAILAND"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Arriving Thailand<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

It was a morning that was just like any other morning when we stay at a hotel. We went up early, packed our stuff and loaded our bikes. But there was something different \u2013 it was the last morning on foreign soil. Although we have spent the last days in an environment that is very similar to Thailand, spoken Thai most of the time and seen Thailand on the other side of the river, we were very happy but also nervous when loading our bikes to ride the last 20 km to the border crossing.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Outside our guesthouse in Vientiene and ready to go the border<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Crossing into Thailand would be our 14th border crossing and we stuck to the same routines as usual. Try to get rid of all remaining currency before leaving and we did this by having a wonderful breakfast of grilled baguettes and traditional laotian coffee.
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The ride to the border checkpoint was smooth and took less than an hour. We were wearing our brand new cycling jerseys and we felt like a small professional cycling team in our uniforms\u2026.
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The border procedures were dealt with quickly. In this photo I have entered no mans land while Wej is still technically in Laos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Wej talking to someone at the border. Our Polish friend Bartek is seen in the background<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>All the countries we have cycled through have been countries where you drive on the right hand side. In Thailand the traffic is on the left hand side and right after the border check point on the Laotian side, there is a strange intersection where the lanes cross each other and the traffic continue on the left hand side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Intersection for changing from right hand side traffic to dito left.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>We passed the border on Saturday at 10 AM and there was not many cars at all. We didn\u2019t bother to wait for green light and carefully crossed the intersection against the red light.
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We had been warned by local cyclist about the train tracks on the bridge. They had told us they are very dangerous, but we are used to tram tracks in the midst of the streets in G\u00f6teborg and didn\u2019t think a single train track was much to worry about.
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Wej smiling as she crosses the actual border in the middle of the Mekhong river.
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At the end of the bridge on the thai side.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Saluting the flag of the motherland<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our cyclist friend P\u2019Ben had taken a night train from Bangkok and met us after the border checkpoint on the thai side. He had ordered a grilled baguette and the delivery lady came with it all the way from Sweden.
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We will cycle together most of the way to Bangkok and try to re-live some old cycling memories together.
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Day 161-162 (Udon Thani \u2013 Baan Taen)<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Thailand is home to many Swedish nationals and one thai-swedish family in Udon Thani who follow our blog invited us to come and stay at their house. After having left the checkpoint at the border we decided to hurry to Udon some 55 km further south. Chawee and Sven welcomed all three of us and brought us to a restaurant to meet some more people in the Swedish community in Udon. We have met less Swedish people along the way than we expected so it was great to meet some Swedes again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Loy Krathong is a traditional festival that is celebrated during full moon in November in Thailand and Laos and probably some more neighbouring countries. In thai the word for river is literally translated as \u201dmother of water\u201d and the festival is celebrated to thank the mother of the water for the water that she lets us use. Small and beutifully decorated floats carrying flowers, candles and joss sticks are released on the river. It is a very beutiful sight to see a river that is lit up of thousands of such floats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year Loy Krathong was celebrated while we were staying in Udon. Our initial plan was to take part in the festivities in a public park in Udon, but in the afternoon ut turned out that all of us were too tired to go out so we decided to stay home. We have celebrated Loy Krathong many times before and don\u2019t feel we missed anything more than a good opportunity to get some nice photos to post on this blog\u2026.\u00a0\u00a0The internet is full of Loy Kratong photos so if you are interested, then google it\u2026.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We love cycling on dirt roads. It’s much more fun than riding on ever so good highways<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We stayed with Chawee and Sven for two nights and when we left the first thing to do was to cycle into to downtown to try to buy a road map and reactivate my thai SIM-card for my iphone so that we can navigate by using google online maps.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It wasn\u2019t hard to find our way out of Udon \u2013 what was hardest was to get three people to agree on which way to take\u2026 Once outside Udon our plan was to stay away from the big roads and try to spend as much time as possible cycling on the small back roads in Isan (Thailand\u2019s northeastern region). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We cruised across the Isan landscape and passed numerous small villages. The small road got smaller and smaller and soon we found ourselves on a narrow dirt road which surface was covered of a very soft mix of dust and sand. It was a bit tough but when we wanted to complain we reminded each other that 30 minutes in sand is nothing compared to the endless days we spent fighting the loose sand in central asia\u2026..<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The pavillion where we pitched our tents<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Soon we realized that we wouldn\u2019t be able to get as far as we had planned to and when we cycled into a village we decided to stay there. There was a temple and a school that would provide good camping opportunities, but we decied to ask around anyway. A shopkeeper told us to go to the \u201dphuyai baan\u201d \u2013 village headman (head woman in this case) who had a big field behind her house.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The village chief welcomed us and when she found out that we came from Sweden the welcome became even warmer since her daughter is married to a Swede and lives there most of the year. We were offered to pitch our tents in their \u201dsala\u201d (pavillion) by a pond behind the house. The pavillion had electricity. lights and water boilers and next to it there was an outdoor kitchen where we could wash ourselves. We couldn\u2019t have asked for more\u2026<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Saying good bye to our hosts<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Even if it is winter in Thailand now the afternoon sun is still strong and we try to start as early as possible in the mornings. The family told us which way to go but warned us that the road was bad. It was indeed a dirt road, but the dirt was packed and we had no problems to cycle. After 2-3 hours a steady northeastern wind picked up and since we were mainly going south or southwest it was going to be our day\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u2019Ben has a tiny little MP3 player mounted on his handlebar and it contains lots of classic thai hits. A flat beautiful landscape surrounded by hills, golden fields, no traffic, tailwind and thai hits from the time I was first in the country \u2013 could it be any better\u2026?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We talk too much and cycle too little and didn\u2019t make it to where we had planned to the second day either. When we approached the small town of Baan Taen we decided it was time to stop for the day. People in villages we had passed on the way told us there would be plenty of accomodation in this town. We found one simple hotel that was full and when we continued through the center we cycled past the local police station. Wej and P\u2019Ben have stayed at police stations before so we went in to ask if we could pitch our tents on their lawn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Posing outside the police station with the very welcoming police officers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The officers said it was OK to stay on the lawn but thought that we would get a better sleep if we stay inside the station instead. We accepted that kind offer, and no \u2013 we aren\u2019t staying in the arrest \u2013 we are staying on the floor in the police chief\u2019s office using his internet connection to update this blog post\u2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Staying in the police chief’s office<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Video of Day 162<\/h1>\n\n\n\n

We have taken thousands of photos during the 9 months we have been on the road, but as soon as we entered Thailand the number of photos we have taken have dropped dramatically. Maybe it is due to us feeling so at home that we forget to take photos.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, yesterday we took a lot of videoclips with our iphone. Now we have edited the clips and we are rather sure that this one minute movie will never earn any Oscar<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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