We decided to sleep "in" till 6:30 this morning, grab breakfast downstairs at the hotel and leave around 7:30. Glad we left when we did as it was a brutally hot ride today...the sweat would drop onto my handlebar bag and it wouldn't even dry...it was that humid. Before I left the hotel, I'd decided to leave the new pair of hiking shoes I'd bought in Pak Chong when we went on the park tour as I didn't need them (I don't need another pair of hiking boots) and hell, I only paid $13 for them. So I left them in the room. Colin left his room shortly after I did, and one of the bellboys was just coming out of my room with shoes in hand, and Colin told him, no he wants to leave them. So we put our bags down in the lobby and headed for breakfast. I come out to get my bags..and the shoes are lying next to my bags. I spy a bellboy, walk over and hand them to him and say...yours...I don't need......and he looks at them, them me and this big huge grin breaks across his face and he's thanking me profusely...some things are just priceless in life...this was one of those times!
We hit the road toward Bangkok in rush hour traffic, again riding on a major highway with trucks and cars whizzing by but giving us wide space in the bike lane. We stopped at 25K as I was sweating so hard I just needed to down a bottle of water so we found a gas station and stopped. Felt good to just get off the bike and chill (warm) out. We finally rolled into Ayyuthaya around 11:00 a.m. (love those damn tailwinds!) and found a decent hotel for 500 baht a night (about $15). We checked in then rode over to the train station to see about getting our train tickets in advance for Friday but they told us we couldn't get tickets till Friday. So at least we know that we can get our bikes on the 10:28 train on Friday. This will be a lot better, as we'll arrive at the train station in Bangkok about 4K from the Marriott where I've got reservations and all my bags/bike box stored.
We rode around in early afternoon checking out the ruins, but man, it was just so friggn hot that we decided to head back to the hotel for a nap in AC and wait till later.
3-4-08
Well, I went online to check the blog and re-read it when I discovered I'd not finished the "draft" of the last day's ride!!! Sorry about that to anyone who ends up reading this blog again!!!
Anyway, we arrived in Ayyuthaya on Feb. 12, and found a great little guesthouse in a garden setting for I think it was maybe 500 baht a night. No squat toilets! Ha!
We booked the rooms for 3 nights as I had to be back in Bangkok on the 15th to check into the Marriott (ah....a real hotel and a Suite!!) as I was flying back to the U.S. on the 18th. So we got up the morning of the 13th early and headed out on the bikes for a tour of Ayyuthaya's surroundings. Man, it was incredible.
This is an ancient head of a Buddha which is believed to have been stolen many years ago from the main body of a Buddha in a temple. They think possibly that the robbers couldn't carry it very far due to weight or were discovered, and dropped it and the nearby tree grew around it. It's a very moving sight to see.
Ancient Wat temple at Ayyuthay Thailand...13th century.
We rode the bikes out to the ancient King's elephant Kraal which is where the King had all the state elephants stabled. It was a great ride out there, passing local villages and food stalls (and lots of chicken on the grill!!). We finally came to this large area with teakwood fense posts and old statues of elephants. We came to this central area with a small restaurant and this huge area where there were maybe 40 elephants chained to these poles. What was amazing was there was a newborn baby elephant lying down on the ground under it's mother which we learned was only 3 days old. It finally got up off the ground, waddled around under the mother elephant and found mother's nipple and started feeding...it was just a very moving event which I captured on video on the digital camera. 
This little guy was just so cute. He would get up, wander around and follow two other young baby elephants. Finally, the mother would walk as far as the chain would allow her, and she would reach the baby elephant and gently nudge him back to her. It was so cool to watch!
This little guy was just so cute. He would get up, wander around and follow two other young baby elephants. Finally, the mother would walk as far as the chain would allow her, and she would reach the baby elephant and gently nudge him back to her. It was so cool to watch!
We had a blast just sitting there watching the baby elephants and nursing ourselves in local "soda water"................
Ah....Chang beer, the beer that made Thailand famous! Ha!!We finished up the last day in Ayyuthaya visiting the most famous Wat of all and for the life of me...I cannot remember the name and would have to look it up...something Chat....naya.......I think!! But the least damaged and most intact..........
We loved this Wat!!
Well, that about wraps it up. The next day on the 15th, we took the train from Ayyuthaya to Bangkok...a 1 1/2 hr ride which was uneventful. We did one last bike ride from the train station in full out Bangkok traffic which by now didn't even faze us one bit. Rode the bikes down to Wireless Road, past the U.S. Embassy and hit rush hour traffic stopped dead in it's tracks. So we opted to walk the bikes the rest of the way to the Marriott which was only maybe 5 blocks away.
This ended one of the best adventures I've ever done. Fortunately for me, I had a great easy going bike partner to ride with, listen to my whining and bitching (I hope it wasn't too much Colin!!!) who took it all in stride and laughed it off. I think we hit it off pretty well together. Actually the longer the trip went along, the stronger we got and where we (I mean I!!!) struggled riding at 20K an hour in the middle chain ring, by the end of the trip we were crusing along nicely at 28-30K an hour in brutual heat and in the large chainring.
I learned a lot about bike touring and especially about myself during these past 4 weeks on the bike. First of all, I learned that I don't need a lot of STUFF to get by and I sure don't need backup bike stuff. But more importantly, I learned more about myself and how easy life can really be without being incumbered with Stuff and that includes not only emotional baggage but stuff baggage. I had a lot of time to think on this ride. Coming off my mom's passing away Sept 30, I had a lot of time to reflect on that, how much I really miss her, talking with her and hearing her voice. Something I'd not heard really since 1992 when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. I also learned just how simple life can be as witness by the endless number of small villages we rode through in Laos with people who had smiles on their faces but didn't have IRA's worth a million and appeared to be happy. So I'm more thankful than ever for what I do have, for the great life I've led, the adventures, travel and what I've seen and places I've had the opportunity to see in my life. As Jimmy Buffet once said..."it's been a good life all the way".
So Colin my man, I'm looking forward to our next sojurn trip next year, down into Southern Cambodia, the length of Vietnam on the Western side, western Laos and back. But can we Please stay off the mud gravel roads next year??
Peace.
Len
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