Day 76 – Meaung Nong Khai to Mueang Udon Thani and Beyond
Started late, as we only planned to ride to Udon Thani today. We managed to reach Udon Thani by noon and after we visited the post office and TAT Office we had to decide what to do.
Firstly, leaving Nong Khai we were chased by a dog 10kms out of town. He was coming fast, and at top speed he was keeping up with us at 40kms/hr. This pooch must have done some serious training is all I can say.
I used the Chamios Butt’r for the first time ever. It said “use generously,” and not knowing if my generous was the same as everyone else, I put an Aussie 20 cent piece worth on my hand and rubbed it on the rough/coarse skin where the abrasions have been during the past weeks.
I really don’t know if it helped. We did 80kms today and I usually don’t have any problems with my ass, back, or hands until after 110kms. So I guess we will see tomorrow if today’s effort makes any overall difference to me.
I purchased some gloves a while back to replace my slowly falling apart FOX gloves that I purchased 4 years ago in Australia. I loved them and they served me very well. These new 300 baht ‘GIANT’ logo (made in china) have died already, total crap. I think I used them for 20 rides at most. I cannot believe that Giant would allow their logo go on something that bad. Or maybe they were a pirate copy, which does happen here.
The days have been blurring into one. The roads have been less interesting in Isan overall. We’ve not ventured off into the back-lots because the Google maps routing has been less reliable in this area of Thailand. It’s not that we mind riding on dirt roads, but if rain was bucketing down on the previous night than the next day’s ride ends up being just mud, mud, and more mud. And that’s something that we’d like to avoid if possible.
