Day 38 – Nakhon Pathom to Samut Sakhon
After all the amazing riding we’ve had the last 50km of today’s ride have been shit, busy, loud, dusty. If I had to describe it in one word – Bangkok. We’re on the edge of town and industry is everywhere, lots of people riding bicycles here but mostly factory workers. It’s also hard to find accommodation, it’s more pricey, crappier and smaller. I am very much looking forward to getting on the other side of Bangkok and away from this crap.
I look at the people, workers really, and wonder if they have ever seen the beautiful things that Thailand has to offer and if they ever will in their lives.
They do bicycle, not by choice but out of necessity, unlike most of the people we have met so far who have relatively expensive bicycles and are cycling for pleasure.
Do ANY of these hard working Thais cycle for enjoyment on their $100 bikes? Do they enjoy the feeling of freedom cycling brings? I see them riding mostly heavy, fat tired single speed bikes. They have little air in the tires and no oil on the chain. Often, I see two grown men on one bicycle, the captain working while he chats casually with his cargo.
I wish they knew what it was like to have a tandem where the load is shared, with air in the tires and a riding position to make them a stronger rider. They all sit low o their bikes, with their knees rising above their waists with each pedal stroke. If I rode their bicycle my long legs would be around my ears. Do they just see their bicycle as a tool to get around? I guess I need to ask someone who is riding with a smile.
We made it to a hotel, a love hotel in Samut Sakhon… at least we can cycle the bike right into the room. The ‘nice’ hotel, which cost twice the price said they had no room for the bike (plenty of outside space everywhere) but gave us their personal guarantee that it would be fine, which I’m sure 99.9% of the time it would be… but I’m not going to risk it.
I don’t know if they understand the concept of a guarantee. I can’t really see the manager giving up 6-9 months worth of wages to make sure we get our money to replace a missing bicycle… personal guarantee, means squat.
Anyway, we saved 500 baht on the room, it is way crappier than last night but not much nicer than one I looked at yesterday for 1,200. It’s amazing how the price of a hotel room can vary so much while there remains no perceivable standard.
We took a 6km short cut today over the bridge that was under repair. It went over the main number 35 highway from Bangkok, it is an awful road. I hope tomorrow we can avoid it all together and find a route that gets us to the other side of the Chao Phraya river using a ferry. Fingers crossed.
