Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/YTSPA8airRmz1HsD7
I flew from Turkey to Thailand where I spent 5 weeks bicycling from Bangkok to Phuket, which is where I flew home from. I also took a short side trip to the southernmost part of Myanmar, where I would have liked to have spent more time, but the logistics of traveling in that region by bicycle or even by bus discouraged me from exploring the country further.
I had an interesting experience on my first weekend in Bangkok when I was invited to an enormous costume wedding party for a bride and groom who work in the movie business. Apparently lots of Thai celebrities were at the party, where instead of having a DJ who played popular songs, the actual singers got up on stage and performed their own songs backed by professional dancers and a full band. In this way it seemed more like a music festival than a wedding party. During the rest of my trip I often heard songs being played at bars and restaurants that I recognized from a live performance by the actual singer at this party. I didn’t have a costume so I just wore a bandanna around my head, which turned out to be a common costume for other slacker guests because a few decades ago there was a popular Thai rock star whose signature style was a bandanna. When the DJ played an old song by this singer I was pressured to get up on stage with the other guests who had the same costume as me and try to sing along to the song.
The roads in Thailand are fantastic, often better than roads in many parts of the US and Europe. There’s a decent amount of bicycle lanes in cities and parallel to highways and most highways have a wide shoulder to accommodate the slower motorbikes hauling all sorts of cargo. Cars and trucks always gave me lots of space, perhaps because they’re so used to passing 2-wheeled vehicles. Road bicycling is fairly common in Thailand, but long-distance touring is not, probably because of the heat and humidity, which was a real challenge for me. I sweat profusely even in Seattle, so when bicycling in Thailand I was sweating nonstop. In Thailand sweating is not a very effective method for cooling the body because sweat evaporates very slowly in humid climates. Unfortunately, my body doesn’t know this so I just sweat even more to compensate. On one particularly hilly day my shoes were so completely soaked in sweat that it felt as if I had worn them to wade across a river. One of my first long days of riding was especially hot and humid and I lost so much sodium from sweating that I started to get severe muscle cramps when I reached my hostel. I climbed up to my bed on the top bunk to relax for a little while and when I tried to climb down, muscles in my legs, arms, neck, back, and abdomen cramped simultaneously. Fortunately I avoided falling off the ladder by flopping onto my bed, but it probably looked like I was having a seizure. I asked another guest to hand me my water bottle and a little bag of salt that I travel with for this exact reason. For the next hour I lay in bed eating salt with my fingers and drinking water until my muscles were able to bring me down the ladder safely. From that day on I always added salt and electrolyte powder to my water throughout the day when bicycling. Even my cell phone couldn’t handle the humidity and often refused to be charged because it said it detected too much moisture, which on multiple occasions resulted in me having to hand-draw maps and use a compass when riding to my next destination. It was a good experience to not rely on my phone and have to ask locals for directions, but the convenience of mapping apps and GPS is undeniable.
Aside from the heat and humidity, I very much enjoyed my time in Thailand hanging out on the beach, enjoying the beautiful karst mountain landscape, and eating delicious, cheap street food and tropical fruits (especially mangosteen).
