Vientiane, Laos – Bangkok, Thailand

Vientiane, Laos – Bangkok, Thailand

Roughly 1 week of cycling.

~ 750 KM

Crossing the Friendship Bridge was synonymous with being sent into some kind of Star Trek transport machine and ending up in the mid-western United States. My first stop:  7-11, ubiquitous in Thailand, and well known for putting a little extra sugar in their machine-vended Thai ice tea. I actually tried to self induce vomiting my first day in Thailand because I drank two of these consecutively followed by a cup of their iced coffee. 

This was northeastern Thailand and the terrain is flat, flat, flat. Camping was not too difficult to find in these parts as towns were at least 10 KM dispersed, leaving space for huge cow pastures. With 6 lane highways and a steady stream of traffic coupled with road side department stores, KFC’s and large gas stations, I really did feel as if I entered another continent.

The cycling is incredibly easy and I would average about 110 KM a day. The route followed highway 2 all the way into Bangkok. With more time it would probably have been a good idea to have gone through the Northwest, making a huge detour through Chang Mai and maybe even Pai – but this would take at least a month to complete.

There is nothing remarkable about this ride into Thailand. The largest cities, Udon Thani, Khon Kaen and Nakhon Racthasima were medium sized with somewhat modern architecture, and nothing to really attract a traveler. Each city and each small town, however, had a wonderful market. The absolute best part about cycling in Thailand is that you can be a glutton and not feel but a slight sense of guilt – I ate at least four meals a day. The food is absolutely amazing, cheap and easy to purchase. I am a big fan of breakfast so I would have two every day. The first consisted of hot coffee and milk with a plain fried pastry good for dipping; the second would consist of a more traditional local breakfast – either curry and rice, noodle soup, or fried rice with a glass of iced water.

Entering Bangkok was a bit of a rodeo. At about 25 KM from the city, you are immersed in a concrete jungle and there are no more road signs that point to “Bangkok”, only signs that point to different suburbs and districts within the city. The traffic was relatively insane compared even to Beijing and Ulan Bator, both notorious for traffic jams. I had to pretend I was a scooter, which there are plenty of, and ride slowly at the tail end of the pack. Bangkok is a wild urban metropolis, with good and evil existing side by side (it’s very common to see a Buddhist monastery and a “John” with his escort at the exact same time). 

I did not feel an overwhelming sense of completion upon entering Bangkok. The city immersed me within her and I had no choice but to embrace its chaos and to defer any effort at introspection. After two days in the backpacker’s Mecca of Khao San road, I travelled to an island on the eastern side of the Thai Gulf, Koh Samet, to relax and try and analyze the past five months of travelling and cycling. With a motorcycle and an ocean filled with bright green coral, no type of reflection ensued here either. 

So I here I sit in the streets of Kathmandu, after a 5 hour flight from BKK International, with no resolve, but a continual, seemingly endless adrenaline rush that will send me into the hills of the Himalayas. It is here, I think, that I will finally be able to quietly contemplate and fully complete this cycling journey, Baikal to Bangkok.