Going with the wind

Yesterday we had a very big riding day. We did 120km, the most we did in 1 day so far, and it went very well. It must be said however: for the first time in several days, the wind was a little bit more on our side. Quite literally in fact, on our side, most of the time. Well, there was just almost no wind. And we noticed, what a difference wind makes. For the past days, with headwind, it was constant work to reach only low average speeds. Now, even though it was not even tailwind, we easily did 20km/h and more. With our heavy bikes, and more importantly with the panniers, we catch so much wind that it makes an enormous difference. Not sure if we would have made it with the same headwind we had before.

Riding through a (small) teakwood forest

We visited this wat in a "stonefield", big boulders in interesting shapes and positions

Same wat still

The reason we went that far is double. On the one hand, there was a national park - the Khlong Lan national park - which seemed really nice and we hoped to be able to reach it. But on the other hand, we did not find other options on that stretch of our route. No accommodation, campsites, nothing. While we always have a choice because of the tent, it would not have been that straightforward. And indeed, for the entire 120km (except for the last 5km), we did not see any guest house or any accommodation at all. It must be the longest stretch of road in Thailand without accommodation!

Strange things are happening in Thailand. Is this mad cow disease thing back?

A small part of the Khlong Lan waterfall, impossible to have a decent picture with the entire waterfall (it's 100m high and 40m wide)

Very basic but good it's there! In general, congrats to the Khlong Lan national park management: friendly, good information, very well maintained infrastructure

We also did not see any foreigners, for a couple of days even. Since we left Erawan 4 days ago, we had seen 1 "farang" (foreigner in Thai), in a small town, who looked like he had been there for many years already. This was clearly not tourist area! People often looked at us with disbelief written on their face: "did I really just see this?" - which you would not really expect in Thailand anymore... It's a beautiful part of Thailand, with a lot of possibilities (national parks, waterfalls, caves, lakes, even hill tribes - things that attract tourists to northern Thailand) and still pure and authentic. Nonetheless it makes you wonder (the typical question): would the people be better off if tourism would flourish in the region?... You can have interesting discussions about this, but I must admit that if I see how things are in more touristy areas (heavy competition, survival of the fittest, low salaries, very basic living conditions, drug and alcohol problems, ...) I'm tempted to think many people are happier in these remote parts of Thailand.

Ah, our campsite in the park, won-der-ful!!!

Which brings me to another thought. Most of the people in this region rely on farming for their existence. In this region - and you can almost extrapolate that to most of the regions we have already travelled through - the entire land is used for agriculture. Throughout our journey, we have cycled very few kms through real nature. Beautiful areas sure enough, and even a few days ago it was totally fantastic - yet still mostly agricultural. It's incredible how much land surface is needed to produce enough food for all of us, our food or food for the animals we need for their milk, meat, etc. An environmental scientist we met (Marleen and Sera, cycling from Asia to Europe, were also camping at the park) - calls this the "agricultural deserts", I like that term and I looked it up: "acres and acres of cultivated land lacking in biodiversity or any stretches of natural habitat that support a variety of native species, including pollinators." Sounds about right, I'm afraid...

OK, we've been mostly on nice, quiet regional roads, but here we cross the N1 national road

Fortunately, it's not all that negative. When cycling through Thailand, there are all these national parks, everywhere - there are 127 of them (not 102 as I wrote before; we have been to 9 of them so far), with all protected natural areas covering almost 20% of the country!!! (Note: looking at the entire list of countries there are many countries doing better, surprised to see that). Here in west Thailand, it's literally one park after the other. Besides that, the mountain ranges we've seen while cycling are also mostly covered in forests also if they're no national parks, and very hard to develop for agriculture.

Visiting the Kamphaeng Phet historical park, but first: a banana pancake!

A very picturesque traditional Thai house, part of the park as well

Kamphaeng Phet historical park

Anyway, back to our trip. Yesterday we ended up in Khlong Lan national park as intended, and set up our tent at the campsite. Another wonderful place, I really loved it! They also waived (or forgot to charge us?) the entrance fee, so it became a very cheap night... The Khlong Lan waterfall is really impressive, even in dry season, definitely worth a visit. We had a great night, took a bit more time this morning than usual, and then made our way to Kamphaeng Phet, a good 60km ride. That's a short ride nowadays 😎

Kamphaeng Phet historical park

Kamphaeng Phet historical park; school's out

Kamphaeng Phet historical park, one of the bigger ruins

Kamphaeng Phet is one of the surprises so far in Thailand. The town itself is fine, with a pleasant riverside, good night market, not too big nor busy. But the main thing is, that it is a beautiful ancient city - like the much better known Sukhothai. Only, in Kamphaeng Phet there are hardly any tourists at all (we saw 5 today while visiting the ruins), and the monuments are in more original shape, set in an attractive forested park. Years ago, when visiting Si Satchanalai, I had the same feeling, liked it almost more than Sukhothai, and that is definitely also true for Kamphaeng Phet. Well, we'll see, tomorrow we go to Sukhothai, then we can compare better!