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@ough
It's now been two months in Thailand, and it's easy to see why it's such a popular cycling destination. Roads are good, train network is good, food is good, accommodation is plentiful, people are nice.
We took trains to the South and slowly made our way up from there. Loose route was Nakhon Si Thammarat, Chumphon, Hua Hin, Kanchanaburi, Uthai Thani, Kamphaeng Phet, Chiang Mai, and Nan (where I am now). Met plenty of other cyclists here, each one with a different itinerary.
I liked the mid-sized towns the most. Places like Uthai Thani, Kamphaeng Phet, Prachuap Khiri Khan, Sukhothai. Picturesque, 'normal' cities with cool night markets. There's one tonight in Nan, we're looking forward to that.
I liked the touristic towns a lot less. After a while in SE Asia, it feels like we've been to the same place many times over, foreigner zones where you find the same things over and over again. In the beginning we loved these places, a slice of home comforts in another country, but now we're avoiding them entirely. I'm definitely not a hardcore traveller, I don't have a fascination with the tiny villages in the middle of nowhere where there's no electricity or hot water, I carry a tent but I don't usually enjoy camping, but still, I'm ok without sourdough and yoga when I'm traveling. I think Thailand made us feel like this because you see so much of it. I might be totally off here, but it felt like in Vietnam we were visiting a country and seeing it as it is, whereas in Thailand it's as if the country caters to you the visitor, which is sometimes less interesting.
That said, some of the touristic programs we did were absolutely stunning. Waterfalls and caves so beautiful I'd do this again just to see them once more. It is also nice to be in a country where things are easy, and there's fresh coconut and Khao Soi :)
One last note about the burning season: the air gets really polluted. There's a thick haze all the time, so we get to the top of climbs and can't see shit around. It's quite annoying. From what we hear it goes on for two months, Feb and Mar, and it's quite terrible in the North (where we are now). Check out this pic at the viewpoint on top of a mountain:
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