All those phanoms

Time flies when you're having fun! 3 days have passed again. And while there is not that much to write about these days, they were really great! Let's dive in - and get ready for lots of photos!

A stroll on Mukdahan night market

And dinner (chicken rice, Thai version)! For about 1 EUR per person, great food!

With banana pancake as dessert

Our rest day in Mukdahan was exactly what it was supposed to be: a lazy rest day. It's not that we really needed a day off - it's just nice to do that from time to time. Now, Mukdahan was perhaps not the best place to stay for a day. It's really a rather boring place. Although... we had everything we needed for a very successful rest day. It went like this: sleep "late" (that means waking up around 7.30am or so); have a slow breakfast; the coffee at the breakfast place was not so good, so after that we cycled around and went to another, better coffee shop; a little bit more cruising around town, then lunch at a very nice riverside restaurant and enjoyed a long lunch; then another good coffee; and of course, a (really good!) foot massage!

Mmmmmmm breakfast in Mukdahan!

After the foot massage, it was mid afternoon, too hot to move around. So we stayed at our hotel for a while, some reading and resting. Late afternoon I even went for a short run; I'm still transitioning into running in my running sandals, and that needs to go gradually and consistently - so I'm trying to keep that up; not so easy in combination with all the cycling. And finally: dinner, this time at the night market. In the mean time, we got our laundry done, so that is done and will not be needed again for a while. We're actually doing a little hand wash every day (which is why you always see us wearing pretty much the same clothes on the bicycle), but it is still good to get the laundry done properly from time to time.

The Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, from Mukdahan to Savannakhet in Laos.

On the way to That Phanom, exactly halfway, we found this fantastic coffee shop in the middle of nowhere - called Back Home. Perfect coffee in a beautiful setting, friendly service - we even got a free piece of mango cake from the owner

The next stop, after Mukdahan, was That Phanom. It was only a short and easy ride, 51km, but a very nice one. We had a little headwind, nothing to complain about. The road was a comfortable, small road with very little traffic, and we made a few side tracks to go even smaller and nicer. One of the places of interest we passed, is the 2nd Thai-Lao Friendship Bridge, 1 of only 4 bridges across the Mekong between Thailand and Laos. The Mekong forms the border between those 2 countries for almost 1000km, and currently there are only 4 bridges. Yes, there are also some ferry crossings as well, but these are just small boats crossing the Mekong.

What a wonderful day!

We saw several monks walking along the roads the past few days; they are probably on some kind of pilgrimage?

Yes, that's the way we like it!

All along the Mekong there is this path (we also saw that on the west side, when we cycled there in 2017); unfortunately, for cycling, you can't rely on it. Sometimes it is full of rubbish, or overgrown, and sometimes it just ends. Yet it can be nice for short stretches at times.

Yes, it was only 51km, but we still deserved this treat - mango bingsu!

A Christmas outfit, anyone?

Our guesthouse in That Phanom, nice stay.

That Phanom is a small but pleasant town, with a very nice vibe. We stayed at a charming guesthouse, a heritage house with some comfortable rooms - seemed like we were the only guests. Towards the evening we visited the Phra That Phanom Temple, a very famous temple and important religious site in Thailand. It supposedly enshrines some holy relics of Buddha...

That Phanom riverside

"Shopping" street on the way to the Phra That Phanom Temple

Street view

Worshippers at the temple

Phra That Phanom

A tourist trying to memorize the Thai alphabet

Would you like to be the electrician to sort this out?

Another Buddhist temple

That Phanom riverside, where we had a fantastic dinner with Mekong fish (plaa nueng manao) and som tam

And then the third day, another slightly short (57km) and very smooth ride, To Nakhon Phanom. Looking at the map a day before, it seemed hard to avoid riding on the much bigger road 212. It's not that bad to ride on these big roads, just much less pleasant than many of the small and quiet roads. So I planned a different route for the day, avoiding the 212 as much as possible. The end result was, that we haven't followed the planned route at all. From the beginning, we found really nice roads and almost trails, that gave us perfect cycling conditions. Most of these roads are simply not on the maps (not on Google Maps, maps.me, OutdoorActive, Gaia GPS...)! In the end, we did not ride at all on the 212, and we had a perfect day on the bike!!!

For more than 10km from That Phanom, there was a real cycling lane in quite good condition!

Fish farms on the Mekong

Even a dedicated bicycle lane on a bridge!

All along the route today, there was a lot of (small scale) farming. The vegetable farms all looked green, healthy and well taken care of.

Cycling in paradise!

A wat as a perfect location for a break.

The only surprise of the day: there was a bridge, yes, but not really usable.

Luckily plan B worked perfectly.

The convenience store is on its way to you

And then, the last kms before Nakhon Phanom, cycling lane again!

At Pakgaya guesthouse in Nakhon Phanom. Looks more like a Mediterranean place! Nice, big room, very affordable, and super friendly service (and oh yes, small detail: a nice coffee shop just in front)

So then, Nakhon Phanom, a bigger town. But this one is a real pleasure, totally something else than Mukdahan. Also, the scenery is stunning, with of course the Mekong riverside, and on the Lao side a magnificent karst mountain range! We enjoyed a good walk to town, and strolling around the night market on walking street - including a good local meal (khanom chin, yummy).