4 days intermezzo

Last time I wrote, we were still in Phon Phisai! Meanwhile, we are 5 days further; probably one of the longest writing breaks I ever took while on the road. Writing just didn't happen. So, without further delay, what have we been up to?

Our guesthouse in Phon Phisai, it was a very nice place to stay at the riverfront

From Phon Phisai there was no other option: it was riding on the boring 212, whether we liked it or not. And we didn't. This was a really boring stretch of road, with a lot of traffic - at least compared to what we've been used to in the past few weeks. And so much traffic makes it so noisy! We seemed to have forgotten about that... For a while it was just: switch of our minds and pedal. Luckily though, the scenery was still fine, and there was a broad shoulder for comfortable cycling. So, no complaints. Our reward, after 23km: a really nice coffee shop! And then, from that point onwards, we turned into the much smaller and quieter 3040 all the way to Nong Khai, another 22km. This was again nice, smooth riding, with little traffic, beautiful views and friendly people!

Road 212 when leaving Phon Phisai, not too bad yet.

Suddenly there were multiple stalls, one after the other, selling... bananas!

OK, much better, nice scenery! There were some rice paddies with freshly planted rice here, while it's mostly the dry paddies in this season throughout Isaan.

Mut Mee Guesthouse, still a favourite among travellers in Nong Khai

Nong Khai is probably one of the most visited Thai towns by us. We were there the first time in 1993, when backpacking. Then we visited several times from 1996 to 1999 (including with our parents and family), when we lived in Thailand. Then again in 2011, travelling in the region, in 2017 on our long bicycle trip, and again now. Nearly always, since 1993, we stayed at Mut Mee Guesthouse. Also this time, and it still is a very nice place, still with the same owner, still going strong! Although the public has evolved too, it's no longer the young backpackers who stay there, but let's say the older backpackers (we were probably younger than the average age).

Nice promenade on the riverside, about 4km long

The day of our arrival we still had a lot of time left, and we enjoyed good coffee and a fantastic foot massage - more about that later. We went to the train station to book our train for the day after - only to learn that we could not buy tickets in advance. And so, the next day we took a train from Nong Khai to Khon Kaen: 2nd class, 140THB (about 4 EUR), an ice cold airconditioned train. We lived 2,5 years in Khon Kaen from 1996 to 1999, and we wanted to visit some friends there and take a little trip down memory lane to visit the town again. It was really nice; very nice to visit those friends, and also to visit the town which we once knew that well. It has changed a lot, has become much bigger but also much nicer, a happening place it seems. Happy to have been there again!

Nong Khai station in the morning

Trainwash

Fancy coffee shop in Khon Kaen; looks a bit like Ipoh or Taiping in Malaysia

Lunch with friends

Khon Kaen has an attractive and pleasant night market, with lots of food stalls. We didn't have food there, but passed by - it was indeed still attractive!

Khon Kaen city view; it's a pretty busy city, with a population of about 500000

Just for laughs

And dinner with friends (old colleagues!)

Back in the station, ready to go back to Nong Khai

We stayed one night in Khon Kaen, then took the train back. The train back was a local train only, 3rd class: 35THB (1 EUR!) for 3 hours of train, not airconditioned and therefore so much more comfortable - at least in this season of course. The train was pretty full, and it was a smooth ride. So, we were back in Nong Khai by noon. We enjoyed the rest of our day there, with a nice lunch, good coffee (of course), and even a real run this time - a good fun 15km run along the riverside. The weather had become much cooler meanwhile, and in the evening while we had dinner on the night market, we were really cold - hadn't brought any sweater or so. That won't happen a second time.

I just can't help it, these electricity wires are asking to be photographed all the time

I mean...

A chopstick factory?

On my 15km run

The Nong Khai night market, very nice, very cold in shorts and T-shirt

A floating restaurant, I think pretty much all existing colours can be found there

When we walked through Nong Khai during the day, we passed the massage house where we had had the foot massage 2 days before. One of the ladies came running out, telling us to come inside. We first found it a bit weird, it was almost as if she needed us to come for another massage. Then she made clear however that there had been a problem with the payment. We had first tried to pay by card, that was refused by the system, then we paid cash. However, according to them, the payment by card did go through, so they wanted to return the money to us! They were so happy to see us, and be able to sort this out - incredible! We checked our account, and did not see any transaction there, so refused the money. The next day however, we checked again, and indeed, apparently the transaction did happen! We had no other choice, then to go for another massage. Only, this time, probably by a misunderstanding, we had a Thai massage (intended another foot massage with back and shoulder), and it was super painful!!! Ouch! Next time back to the regular foot massage...

A quaint coffee shop with delicious coffee

What happens in this smallroom...

So yes indeed, you read already between the lines, we stayed another day in Nong Khai. We enjoyed it so much, and were really happy to just hang around another day. Get up a bit later, have a nice breakfast, go for another run - a sandal run this time, and the rest you know by now: lunch, coffee, massage, night market. We finished our stay with a glass of red wine in a cozy bar, where they had made some fires to keep the guests warm.

Trying to keep us warm

And then finally, today, we got back on our bikes, and continued the cycling journey! We did a nice 54km to Ban Phue via mostly small and enjoyable roads, and checked in to our hotel by noon. We immediately went for lunch, and then rode to Phu Phrabat National Park - 14km from town. There are so many national parks in Thailand, and they're just always worth visiting. This one had a lot of these weird rock formations again, like Phu Pha Thoep last week (but nicer in fact!), formed by glacial movement millions of years ago. On top of that there were some prehistoric cave paintings and it also had some fascinating religious history. Very interesting visit, and nice to be in nature for a few hours.

Cycling with our jackets on in the morning. The temperature goes down to 11C at night, and today it went up to 23C. Fantastic weather in fact, just a bit cold in the morning.

The Mekong, for the last time on this trip - probably.

Major crop in this area: tobacco.

We cycled through this village where it was all about woodworking, and there were dozens of companies selling small wooden houses like you see at the back in this picture.