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Blog
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2022 VeloViewer overview
The excellent Veloviewer program/app takes all your Strava data and turns it into really useful charts.
2022 Overview
But to put it into perspective this is the distance plotted against the previous 9 years so still a long way to beat the record-breaking 2020!
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Mini tour to Laos
With the wretched CoVid restrictions slowly getting lifted especially with my 3 jabs and almost certainly a mild bout of it we thought it was time for touring, one of my original ideas for moving to Thailand 2 years ago.
My truck was booked into Ford Phetchaburi to get the smashed rear light and damaged front bumper fixed so we loaded the bikes complete with camping kit etc and started the ride to Laos from the garage.
Leaving Ford to start the ride to Laos It was a relaxing afternoon after 1.5km we found a Sushi place followed a few km later by a stop at Merci Papa for a gorgeous fruit salad
In all we rode 43km in an elapsed time of 4.5 hours so less than 10kmh 🙂 so definitely not Audax speeds but very pleasurable. Graham & Frances take note 🙂
Tomorrow it’s just over 100km to meet the group near Don Mueang the camping starts Thursday!
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Digital Thermometer Instructions
Finding it difficult to take my body temperature tests twice a day, for the14 days I’m in quarantine, with the digital thermometer supplied by the ASQ Legacy Hotel in Bangkok. I thought I would work out some instructions. None were supplied and I have led such a sheltered life. I have never needed to take my body temperature in the past 74 years 🙂 So with a glass of warm water & Google, I started playing.
Thermometer supplied by The Legacy Hotel at Bangkok - Press the button once the display should show a temperature & battery level.
- Press the button again the display should now go blank.
- Insert the thermometer under the tongue at the back of the mouth.
- Press the button for 60 seconds (actually, 7 seconds is enough in my tests with warm water).
- Release the button and remove it from the mouth.
- You should now have a temperature, Hopefully not above 37.5 degrees! The maximum tolerated by the Thai government.
Interestingly whilst in the UK to get the twin jabs I never once had my temperature taken whereas before I went here in Thailand every shop measures your temperature!
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Getting knifed in the garden.
The resident gardener decided we needed to plant a row of The King 9 miracle grass, otherwise known as Vetiver Grass along our new fence to help prevent soil erosion this is where we have built the ground up higher than our neighbour. My task was to remove the mile a minute vine from the fence. I chose to use a sickle 🙁The inevitable happened and I knifed myself with the sickle. While leaning over the fence cutting & pulling the vine from the chainlink fence the curved blade went in near a knuckle and appeared on the other side between my index & ring fingers 🙁
We rushed to the local hospital who popped in 4 stitches at the entry point and one incredibly painful stitch where it came out. All for 810baht (£18)
The wounds are now healing well and when I returned I managed to finish the hacking, with a more conventional straight blade and all the grass was planted 🙂
The Fence 
The Sickle 
Checking the damage 
Stiching me up 
Blade exit point 
Blade Entry point 
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A years cycling in Thailand
Sabai Sabai I started this post on the 4th of January 🙂
2020 was a fantastic cycling year for me, blowing away all my previous mileage records :-). Thank goodness I moved to Thailand, in January, away from all the CoVid lockdowns in Europe.
9 years of cycling in Veloviewer According to Strava I rode 18,220Km that’s well over eleven thousand miles at an average speed of 21kph (13mph) with 82,456 metres of climbing (27,000ft). Pretty good for a 72 year old who also designed and had a house built at the same time.
As you can see this year is not looking so good for cycling. Three months in and only 2,300km ridden, a good 4,500 km behind last year as I said sabai sabai
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88 days in Thailand
I’ve now been in Thailand for 88 days and this is the first time I’ve been near my blog! Which is to say very unusual for me as is riding 6600km (4,125 miles) in the same period. Not sure if the cycling rate will continue at such a pace with, as in the UK, all Audaxes stopped and the daytime temperatures reaching 40+ in the late morning.
With a lot of help from a very friendly Thai Lady, I managed to extend my 90-day visa to a 1-year retirement visa which if I pay an additional 3800 Baht (£94) when I next leave the country it will be converted into a multiple entry visa. Which given all the COVID-19 virus stuff is very useful.I made the decision to stay here in Bangkok rather than go into isolation on my own in the UK. interestingly as of today Thailand with a similar population to the UK has a total of 2,169 infected with 10 deaths against the UK’s 42,000 infected and 4313 deaths!
Almost Immediately after I arrived I failed the Sai Yok 600km audax due to a total lack of sleep on the plane and not been acclimatized to the afternoon heat but I still managed to ride 180km. The following weekend I successfully did the Kaen Makrut 400km in just over 23 hours with its two mega hills and very few/no supplies at the control points.
The star attraction for me was the Isan 2020km audax, awesome and very well organized and I did it comfortably in 160 hours the worst part by a long way was the 11 hours it took me to ride/walk the 80km from Ban Tat Kloi to Ban Kok Ka Bouk.
Two weeks later after doing some rides exploring Roi Et and then Ratchaburi we did the Ayutthaya 200 BRM audax a lovely easy ride (apparently Thailands first-ever audax route) but with a rather unfortunate abrupt ending at dinner after the event 🙁 🙁
I then decided to take a bike tour on my own with my pannier from Bangkok >> Na Rim beach >> Chantaburi >> Sa Kaeo >> Bing Nam Priao >> The Khun Dan 200 audax >> Ayutthaya – Wattha Sung >> Kamphaeng >> Bantung >> Nakorn Lampang >> Lampang 200km test audax ->>Chang Mai then an overnight train back to Bangkok to try the Tha Chin-Mae Klong 400 Audax which I DNF’d by 5km due to punctures and my miserable attempt to repair them! Thus making a rather epic 2,339km in 18 days! and apart from the audaxes with all my baggage!
Back in Bangkok life eventually returned to before the dinner episode with the help of my bike box 🙂 although we now have the COVID-19 closing all the shops, bars, etc, fortunately, the Rembrandt Suites is a pretty decent place to be although a real pity the pool is closed 🙁 -
Return to Thailand
A longer trip this time and hopefully some longer Audaxes I’m booked into the ISAN 2020km on 02.02.20 and this weekend I’m attempting a tough 600 Starting from Sai Yok with over 6,000 metres of climbing 🙁So should be very interesting! The rest of my time will be spent exploring the country by bike, train & car.
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Return to Chom Bueng in daylight
View from my 7th floor bedroom After a couple of very relaxing days at the Zen Hotel and where better to stay in Nakhon Pathom than with a Cafe Amazon, a 7-Eleven and half a dozen foot and leg massage places within a few yards of your 7th floor bedroom overlooking The Temple for £25 per night 🙂 The massages are also a total bargain at 400 baht per hour (£5).
Wit Pimkanchanapong reminded me that the starting point for the Chom Bueng 300 audax is the same temple that was used as the final staffed checkpoint at 318km on last weeks 400. I plotted out a cross country route which turned out to be a delightful 43 mile ride some on gravelled tracks but mainly country lanes past historic Buddhist Temples and the rather unique channelled fields.
All with a warm breeze pushing me along what could be better?I arrived on time at the Big Bear Homestay very spacious indeed but I guess the kitchen and dressing room won’t get much use 🙂
With the bike cleaned and oiled I’m now ready for the rather hilly, just over 11,000 feet of climbing compared to my last 300 The Everyone rides to Skeggy 300 which had just over 5,000 feet of climbing and took Sally and me 18 hours or so to do it!
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