We left Ban Phue not as early as we have been doing before, as the days are much cooler at the moment. We still found ourselves cycling in a "cold" morning wearing our jackets. To make things a bit unusual - one has to be adventurous sometimes - we already stopped for a coffee after around 5km on the road. The coffee shop was there, too attractive, calling our names and gently asking us to please come and have an early coffee. We happily obliged. After that, we cycled more than 40km until lunch. It was pleasant cycling, on gently undulating terrain - which is more attractive than just plain flat because of the variation. The scenery was definitely beautiful, rural, yet as usual there were quite a lot of trucks on the road. These trucks are usually really driving carefully - at least with regards to us, cyclists - but nevertheless, they're still very big and heavy when they pass by!
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| Good morning, time to leave! |
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| Pleasant roads, I love those trees! |
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| This coffee shop was calling our names, after just 5km on the road! |
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| A short climb, a little wat to celebrate the end of the climb - and some trucks passing us (and honking loudly, I guess to salute Buddha) |
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| Isaan the way it is, riding through a charming village |
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| Sugarcane, it seems like it is harvest season! Isaan is a major sugarcane producer, we see fields everywhere - and trucks heavily loaded with the juicy sticks. |
After lunch we took a very small dirt road for a little while, a shortcut to the unavoidable major road 210. As usual, riding on this road was a bit less pleasant, with lots of trucks heavily loaded with sugarcane. The scenery was definitely still beautiful, now with those mountains that were promised appearing clearly on the horizon. We made a stop at a temple, where we climbed a mountain with a Buddha on top as a reward - and a magnificent view over the surroundings. We arrived in Ban Erawan (same name as the National Park near Kanchanaburi where we went in 2017) after 87 nice kms. It was Christmas Eve, and while you find lots of Christmas decoration, not much other celebration to be had (well, we're not big Christmas celebration people anyway)… With an insatiable hunger!
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| From this beautiful, nice gravel road without traffic... |
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| to reality, with traffic |
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| Steep climb up the mountain, more than 100m vertical climb! |
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| With a fantastic reward at the top |
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| Including this Buddha statue |
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| And another one in a little cave |
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| At the wat at the foot of the hill |
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| Back on the road towards Ban Erawan, with more mountains at the horizon |
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| Village view; the yellow and blue football in the back is a water tower, we saw many like those |
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| Yaaay it's Christmas Eve! |
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| A creative display |
From Ban Erawan, we decided to keep going via several national parks. Phu Kradueng first, then Phu Pha Man and finally (or maybe there will be more), Nam Nao. This western region of Isaan is really dotted with national parks, some of them very well known and very much worth visiting. So, the next park on our journey: Phu Kradueng. We left Ban Erawan with some extremely nice rural roads, but also now it was unavoidable to come to a major road again. And this one had roadworks, major roadworks, for miles and miles. It's probably the most shitty part of cycling we have done so far on this trip - but well, that's also part of it! Once we turned off that road and into the smaller one towards Phu Kradueng, it was very enjoyable again, and we continued another little while until we arrived at our destination - Anand Guesthouse, just outside the national park entrance. A simple yet very nice and friendly guesthouse, where we spent a great afternoon sitting in the garden, reading, eating fruit. That evening I had a little stomach upset, but nothing too bad at all.
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| A beautiful morning, beautiful start of the ride |
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| Through sugarcane fields |
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| Including a - you guessed it - coffee stop! |
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| Along the road, many stalls selling tamarind, some other fruits like these dragon fruit, and a lot of avocados. We bought one of these, and it was delicious! |
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| Roadworks, for dozens of kms. Here the shoulder is still OK to ride on, sometimes it was much less - not really the best time to take photos. |
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| Another view. The drop is up to a meter high, so you really want to stay concentrated... |
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| View from the guesthouse towards Phu Kradueng, which we will climb the next day |
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| A beautiful garden for some relax time! |
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| A strawberry farm, one of those things Loei province is famous for! It's also one of the few places in Thailand where they grow grapes and produce wine, by the way. |
The climb on the Phu Kradueng mountain is a famous one in Thailand, for many Thai it is one of those things you have to do at least once in your life. I did it once when we lived here, but don't remember much of it... So, time to do it again! We left at 8.30am, had a good workout with a climb of 1000m elevation in 5km time. It's a steep and long climb, yet once you're on top Phu Kradueng is a big plateau where you can casually hike. We walked towards the park headquarters, enjoyed some great time there with coffee and lunch. The weather up on the plateau, around 1300m high, is just marvellous: deep blue sky, sunny, and perfect temperature thanks to the altitude. We enjoyed another good long walk on the plateau, walking along the ridge with an impressive view of the valley 1000m lower. By 4pm we were back down, after a great 21km hike with more than 1000m elevation. What a wonderful day out on the mountain!
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| Porters are carrying luggage up (and down) the mountain, and food and drinks provisions |
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| On the plateau at the park headquarters |
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| Camping is very popular in Thailand, these tents can be rented from the national parks |
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| View in the park |
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| Happy hikers |
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| Down the valley, slightly hazy, nevertheless impressive view |
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| Small restaurants everywhere, you won't be starving at Phu Kradueng |
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| Enjoying the view |
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| Pitcher plants! |
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| And we also met this little fellow on the trail |
From the one national park to the other: Phu Kradueng to Phu Pha Man. We didn't know the latter at all - and found out it has been established in 2000, so after we left Thailand. I'm sure we would have come here several times otherwise! What a fantastic scenery! Rough karst mountains, as they come, with caves, forests, and lined with beautiful fields. As for cycling, this was also a fantastic day, even back on the 201 it was nice riding - no more roadworks, a lot of greenery, beautiful mountain backdrops and even an enjoyable climb! We rode 30km to the Phu Pha Man headquarters, where we would possibly stay for the night (you can rent a tent at the national parks in Thailand, with all the necessary equipment), spent some good quality time there, had a lunch and an unexpected super nice coffee, and then decided to continue a little more. By bicycle we were able to take a little shortcut on gravel roads, which was a triple bonus: it was shorter, amazing for cycling AND extremely beautiful. Our itinerary was constantly inside the national park or otherwise, hugging the boundary, which means the scenery was just to die for! What a fantastic day again on the bicycles! To top it off, we found ourselves a nice small resort, between the rice paddies, with a view on a beautiful mountain where - so we're told - millions of bats will fly out of a cave at sunset. Truly, this kind of days are the reason why tour cycling is the most unbeatable way to travel!
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| Wow, impressive karst mountains appearing! |
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| A beautiful, green road |
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| It only became better and better |
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| At Phu Pha Man park headquarters, where we spent an hour or two just enjoying the place, so wonderful |
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| Small rural roads, which they had confirmed at the park headquarters to be fine for cycling |
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| Some of the most beautiful and rewarding cycling we have done so far on this trip |
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| Home for the night |
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| With this view on one side |
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| And this view on the other side. Not bad, not bad at all!!! |
And we're not done yet with these national parks, more to come (well, Thailand is full of them, 156 in total - excluding forest parks, non-hunting grounds, and wildlife sanctuaries because then it's more than 300! 31% of its territory!). Stay tuned!
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| One more view, to end this post with! |
https://www.strava.com/activities/10428189361
https://www.strava.com/activities/10432889320
https://www.strava.com/activities/10443134907
