To Bangkok and out
Day 40, back on the bikes and we headed toward Bangkok.
Somewhere around 80km later… we decided not to make such an extra huge day of it and stopped again at Petchaburi- a charming riverside centre with very minimal western presence.
Explored the fascinating and ancient nearby caves, Tham Khao Luangand and enjoyed another night at the simple but homely 2N guesthouse, run by a two sisters who spoke quite reasonable English and were enormously helpful in planning our last leg to Bangkok.
Day 41 and we hopped on our bikes at 6am for a very short cruise to the railway station, having decided that a) it was still a long ride to Bangkok and b) one of us was not at all keen to tackle the unavoidable traffic chaos that we knew we’d find in a city of 15 million people!
We’d checked with the station the day before to ensure we could take our bikes, and were told it was a 6:30 departure…but on arrival, firstly the train was an hour late, and then we were told it couldn’t take our bikes!!
So slight change of route and another hour later we were on a different train, hot but not too crowded and took the easy way to the city.
Couldn’t completely avoid riding in the chaos, with a 4km ride from the station to find our guesthouse…somewhat nerve wracking but we survived 😳
And then a few days to enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of Bangkok while we pack up our bikes!
Plenty of time to explore the myriad of alleys and canals and savour the contrasts in this vast city.
Khaosan Road…an eye opener for sure. A bit too loud for me but we’ll worth it just for the spectacle! We found a quieter spot to sit and people watch …and noticed that many many others did the same!
Tuesday we booked a “ hop on hop off” ticket for the Chao Phraya river boat and explored up and down the waterway…stopping off at various spots including the mind boggling Icon Siam with its astonishing array of goodies, and the more haphazard but fascinating ChinaTown where we sampled the street food before boat-hopping back to our lodgings.
A visit to “ProBikes” about 8km across town scored us a couple of large bike boxes for 100 baht each, and a bit of a hairy tuk -tuk ride back, with us precariously hanging on to stay inside as the driver seemed to be treating the roads as some sort of speed challenge…
Neil spent a good while with a toothbrush removing ( hopefully) all traces of dirt to satisfy customs in Oz… then on to dismantling and packing them up ready for our flight tomorrow.
See ya soon!
Let’s go cycling 
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