Day 127 – Lampang
Today was our last big hill, it was mostly painless but slow… a long incline that lasted forever, especially with 15kg extra back on the bike, but it was rewarded with a long and steady downhill for around 20kgs down the top of what I believe is the central plains.
Ride was fine, the welcome was great. We ‘happened’ to bump into another cyclist. Natt asked him where the post office was, and if they had any bicycle shops in Lampang. He informed us there was and he’d take us to them.
So Hai, our new friend, lead us to the post office and then admittedly by his own admission small bicycle shop (I Love Bicycles) and we enjoy a gaffee yen (iced coffee) together. He made a couple of phone calls and the owners of www.lampangbike.com arrived at the bicycle shop and we did some photos and chatted.
His shop was small and had only been open for 12 months, but what it lacked in stock, it makes up for in spirit. Their collection of gear is eclectic but able to order in stuff you need. So had a look around and relaxed.
I must admit I will never tired of the niceness of Thai poeple, strangers that have only heard about our story thru a little self promotion come and lift our spirit and give us a hand, these little ‘at a boys’ make the riding a little easier. Make me happy!
Today it 7,600 kms we’ve traveled in just over 4 months… that more kilometres than a lot of people do on their commute to work in their, car, bus or bicycle each week. I believe that pretty much anyone can do what we’re doing but I also think that it does take some effort to do it under your own steam.
I will be very proud of myself for two reason when I finish this trip, one I would have cycled around 9,000km in 5 months and secondly I will have visit every province of Thailand a country that I truly love.
When people ask me have you need to Thailand, I was not say yes… every corner, plus I think this has inspired me to dig deeper into some corners that I didn’t know existed.
Lampang has some donkey sized horse dawn carrages that people can hire to get around, must more interest that the loud and polluting Tuk Tuk we’ve seen on other provinces, maybe a little later we’ll go for a ride and see what the story and history is, but for now we’ll just relax out of the heat of the day.
