Day 61 – via Mukdahan
Today, we made it to Mukdahan. We started late, waking up around 7am and getting on the road before 8am. We planned to ride 50kms or more and stay somewhere near Mukdahan, the provincial capital.
That’s pretty much what happened, but we did ride on another 30kms out of town to reduce the distance of tomorrow’s ride. We’re in some random little down call Wan Yai, about 2kms from the mighty Mekong river in a lime green resort, or maybe love hotel.
The staff are friendly and it’s a decent room for only 300 Baht. We even got a couple of free bottles of cold Coke from the lady, we must have looked tired or hot when we arrived.
Today we overpaid for breakfast, 100 Baht for a couple of bowls of noddles. Natt complained about the overcharging and the lady had the nerve to tell her that was the average price ‘around here’ which made me laugh. Maybe it was the average price ‘around here’ if you’re an overcharging racist. Anyway, it does not matter. The experience just left a bad taste in our mouths, no pun intended.
We found a decent quality 20″ tire in the local bicycle shop in Mukdahan. It was 600 Baht and rated to a PSI of 100. It looks like a high end tire should, so I hope it works that way. I inflated it to 70 PSI (double the rating of the tire we had been using for the last few days) and it felt like we were floating on air, or maybe that was just the tailwind.
We ate lunch at a strange little place called “Wine Wild Why?” I had seen it listed in the Lonely Planet the night before when I was looking for accommodation. It was their ‘Top Choice.’ The food was good and the owner was very friendly and chatty and the vibe was interesting. Anyway, if you’re rolling past it do pull in and say hello.
The Mekong river is the highest I’ve ever seen it. The river looks good and healthy. We’re looking forward to riding along it tomorrow as we head towards Nakhon Pathom, our 37th province. Only 3 more provinces to go and we’ll be at 39, which means our trip is 50% complete.
