Dave Cycles Asia: Thap Put to Ban Ta Khun

Feeling the heat today. Found myself stopping regularly for refreshments; the camelbak water not only tastes like crap, but it was so warm I found it almost undrinkable. There seem to be small shops almost every 5km though, so I have been taking full advantage, and downing 2-3 cans of whatever sweet, cold beverage I can lay my hands - hourly. I passed through bamboo forest for most of the day, and by lunchtime I was exhausted so I pulled in at one of the numerous road side eateries. There was a Thai guy who spoke good english, and he quizzed me about my adventures and filled me in on his own situation. The cook made a nice meal of fried pork, with rice and vegetables and I watched on as some local bhuddists traded small talisman'.

Naturally I was invited to join in. It was quite amusing, they were pawing over them with keen interest, some using eye glasses to examine the finer details of what looked cheap tourist souvenirs. With the english speaking Thai now absent, I couldn't quite grasp exactly what was going on here. I know that the southern provinces of Thailand have a strong muslim influence, but perhaps this is the transition area to bhuddism, and they feel the need to overtly display their faith?* I hung around for a while, largely to keep out of the heat and pushed on to an abandoned service station where I dowsed myself in water and sat in the shade for about an hour. It was hard going most of the way, short climbs and then short descents into a headwind. I was actually aiming for a town called Phanom today, but when I arrived there was no hotel. I didn't really fancy camping in this heat, without access to showers etc, so after about an hour of riding around saying 'rohng raam' (hotel) I was told to ride 10 km north to Ban Ta Khun where I secured accomodation, and now find myself finishing this blog over a couple of singha's. Cheers.