Deep Into Isaan

After cycling several days along the Mekong, it was now time to leave this attractive river and travel more inland; deep into Isaan, indeed. Isaan is still the poorest region of Thailand, and we saw that clearly. It's all agriculture, small scale, often probably just enough for people to sustain themselves. There is no "in your face" poverty, hard to tell when just passing through though. You could also see that people were living in much more basic conditions, sometimes more shacks than houses. You'll notice from the photos as well. Nevertheless, this is the "true" Isaan, very remote, very desolate at times.

Breakfast at our charming "Mediterranean style" guesthouse in Nakhon Phanom

From Nakhon Phanom we started by following the incredible dedicated cycling lane for 13km, all the way until the Thai Lao Friendship Bridge (this is bridge number 3 of 4 - remember the Mukdahan bridge in my previous post). After that pleasant, comfortable part of cycling, we had no other choice than go to the "highway" 212. As I wrote before, it's surely not that bad to ride on (it's also not a real highway as we know it), there is always a good and wide shoulder to ride on, and typically very little traffic too; just less pleasant than small roads or surely, the cycling lane.

Some shots on the cycling lane out of Nakhon Phanom

While you don't see many on the photos, the cycling lane was actually quite well used that morning by cyclists, so it has a positive effect on the locals too!

This must be one of the most cycling friendly towns in Southeast Asia I would think

The Third Thai Lao Friendship Bridge, with the karst mountains of Laos in the back. But no, we're not crossing the bridge, we're staying in Thailand!

Cycling on the major 212 "highway, with a comfortable shoulder to ride on and no traffic

Just another 20km or so, and we arrived in Tha Uthen. This place had a super nice vibe about it, the kind of place where you wouldn't mind hanging around for a while. That was not our intention after just about 30-something km of riding, nevertheless we found a very nice coffee shop Ha-O and had one of the best coffees so far on this trip. We felt like staying a little longer, but knew we had a long day ahead - we did 95km in the end - so we got on our bikes again.

Tha Uthen - check in here please! Yes, wouldn't mind to, very nice little town with a fantastic view over the Mekong!

Grazing buffaloes on our way out of town

Another 13km on the 212, then we expected to go on a smaller road - the 2032 (typically, the more digits, the smaller and more local the road is). However, our 2032 was a small road being converted into a much bigger road - in other words, there were roadworks ongoing. Luckily the traffic was very light, otherwise it would have been a bit uncomfortable. Now it was OK, just a bit dusty at times (yes, it was a wonderful shower once we arrived).

Roadworks on the 2032, otherwise fine for cycling

At the village where we had lunch

Charming lunch restaurant, nice food for again 1 EUR per person

After a nice simple lunch in a charming little restaurant, we continued to Sri Songkhram, the district capital (still a small town though). There was some kind of festival going on there, something fishy - literally, because it was all about fishes. Lots of people dressed in traditional outfit, market (of course, nothing happening without a proper market), beautifully decorated floats (praalwagens in Dutch), and to make it complete: an elephant walking around on the street. You see this regularly in Isaan - or at least we saw it regularly when we lived here, mahouts strolling around with their elephant in town, going from place to place, and people pay for food for the gentle giant; we even had one in our garden in Khon Kaen when we lived there. We enjoyed the scenes, continued slowly, and from there headed towards a nice, totally remote guesthouse in a small village some 20 more km down the road. 95km on the counter for the day, it went really smoothly, a nice and easy day on the road. We have now done over 1000km this trip, another 1000 or so to go!

Drink stop at the Amazon (this is the Thai alternative to Starbucks); Stroopwafels, really???!!!

Isaan scenery

Baan Muang where we spent the night

Short video of the Sri Songkhram festival

It was amazing how there was this small, nice guesthouse in the middle of nowhere. The hosts were super friendly, trying to communicate in English (and me trying my best in Thai), taking care of us very well. They even served home made pizza!!! OK, it was their own style, not very Italian, but it was nice and definitely the dough was delicious. The best part: this was the most remote and unexpected location for a guest house, but the bed was maybe the best one we've had so far, not super hard as usual (hard mattresses are the standard in this part of the world, not always comfortable for us not being used to it), really comfy - all for a great night of sleep!

At the Kanchanawadee guesthouse

Oh yes: more than 1000km on the counter since the start of this trip

At the village

Fruit and vegetable stall

Village school building

The next morning, 7am, we're on the road again! It was a cool morning, only 17-18C! Even a bit chilly to start cycling; however, that did not last long. I had found a nice route direction Nong Khai, but it was a bit more "adventurous". It started with a simple dirt road, which became a pothole ridden single track after a while. Well, pothole; it was all cow or buffalo hooves prints where once was soft mud, but now hard baked soil. Very rough... Nevertheless, that only lasted for a few kms, we crossed an old, narrow bridge and then we were on good gravel roads and sealed rural roads. We crossed very remote villages, deep inside Isaan. People here were clearly not used to seeing farangs, and definitely not on bicycles. We heard many oohhhs and owws when people saw us. The looks were mostly surprised, confused, maybe a bit timid and possibly people felt a bit ashamed of their very simple living conditions. Very different from what you would be used to in Thailand!

Good morning Isaan! Beautiful off road cycling.

Bumpy at times...

No comments with above photos, I guess they speak for themselves!

This was really an incredible day, fantastic cycling, the kind of day why we absolutely love doing this. There is no other way you can experience a country this way. We did a magnificent 82km, finished in a small town with a cold drink in a nice, "fancy" coffee shop and found ourselves, once again, in a very nice guesthouse (for 12€!). The rest was... a well deserved lazy afternoon! What a beautiful day this was; not to forget, the weather has become what you can expect in this part of Asia at the time of the year: 28C (instead of the 33-34C we've had for a while now), so nice, so comfortable.

Coffee stop! Typical Thai coffee shop, nice coffee (although, almost unavoidably drinks are sweet), and such friendly people. The guy was a cyclist himself, gave us a handful of tasty bananas which we "had to eat" for energy! Nice!

Well well, clouds! We haven't seen that for a while.

Salt mining! Most of Isaan is on the Korat plateau, which used to be a shallow sea many millions of years ago. In some places, there are thick layers of salt in the earth, or springs with salty water which is then used to evaporate in these typical salt basins.

Christmas is everywhere in Thailand, very funny! We would almost get in the mood.

And then finally, the last stretch of this part, back to the Mekong: to Phon Phisai. We still took our early start as usual, even though we knew it was going to be a slightly shorter day. The morning was even cooler than the previous one, what a pleasure! We did 66km today, and arrived at our destination by noon. Nothing very special or remarkable this day. Another day of really pleasant riding however, on smaller secondary roads, with varying landscapes. A lot of rubber plantations though, many still with young trees, seems like that is a growing activity here. And with that, we're back at the Mekong - once again!