Let's start at the very end of 2023 first. In Nakhon Thai, where we had arrived after our long and tiring ride, we didn't do much anymore. We had a simple dinner and added some more calories after a visit to the 7-Eleven (these are about everywhere in Thailand). We rested well and went to sleep early. Our little resort, which I wrote about in the previous post, was fine except: the bed was really bad. You could feel the mattress springs poking through everywhere, pretty unpleasant. So it was a so so night.
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| The Nakhon Thai resort in the morning |
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| Beautiful riding on comfortable rural roads |
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| Mountain backdrops always add to the beauty of the scenery |
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| A well deserved cappuccino! |
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| The last 10km on the way to the park |
We had never heard about Chat Trakan National Park before, but found out about it when we studied Google Maps to explore where to go the next day. It would be a shorter day of riding, but there seemed to be not much choice of accommodation a bit further up the road. Besides, the national park looked really nice, and we could then get a tent again for the night. New Year in a tent, the perfect way to dive into the new year for us!!! So that's what we did. First, it was a 36km smooth ride to Chat Trakan town, where we had a good coffee and enjoyed a nice late morning break. From there it was an easy 10km ride to the park, in fact on a really enjoyable little road with great views. Just before the park we had a good lunch in the middle of the (dry) rice paddies, then arrived at the park headquarters. What a friendly, beautiful, peaceful place! There were maybe 10-15 other campers, well spread over the extensive camping grounds. The very helpful and well organized staff brought the mattresses, sleeping bags and pillows to an already setup tent. And so it happened, another night camping in a national park, and the ideal way to transition into the new year! This national park is known for its waterfall, which has 7 levels, and you can walk up the mountain to the different levels. We didn't really feel like hiking - there has been more than enough activity these past couple of days - yet still went up to the 4th level of the waterfall. The rest of the trails we left for "another time".
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| The first level |
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| View from the hike |
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| The second level of the waterfall; interestingly, the water doesn't go anywhere from here - or so it seems. It goes through a hole underwater however - which makes this a very dangerous place for swimming. |
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| The picturesque fourth level |
There was a small eatery at the park, or rather a foodstall, which would close around 5pm. So we ordered our food at 5pm, and did takeaway to our tent. We thoroughly enjoyed our simple meal at our tent - delicious som tam, yam woonsen, freshly steamed black sticky rice and fried rice, ensuring we had enough food. Wow, really happy, it doesn't get any better than that for us for a new year's eve (we really dislike all the fuzz about it). There is no alcohol allowed at the Thai national parks, so it means that those who want to party, won't come to the park. It also means, that the people who stayed there, all enjoyed a quiet and peaceful night, by 10pm it was quiet and most people had gone to sleep. We had a long night (very hard night though, because the mattresses they provide are really very hard, but well, happy we even had the option!), then a slow morning to really enjoy the park as long as possible. It also meant, a relatively late departure (9am that is...) into the already warming day.
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| Our 5 star accommodation |
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| View from our "room" |
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| Our gastronomic new year's eve dinner |
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| Leaving the park in the morning, just marvellous |
Our planning for this first day of 2024 was to ride around 70km, then evaluate whether to find a place for the night or continue to Uttaradit where we wanted to take a rest day. The ride was still quite hilly with a few short but steep climbs, and after 54km we finally found a place for lunch - we were starving! I guess that is the calory lack from the previous days kicking in - according to the statistics, I spent more than 5500cal on the long ride 2 days before. At lunch we decided to keep going to Uttaradit, just taking it easily. We found some very nice roads, almost flat, with beautiful scenery and as good as no traffic, so it was very comfortable and smooth riding. It was hot though, and we got really thirsty, and stopped for a very welcome cold and juicy refreshment. We arrived in Uttaradit around 5.30pm, after 102km of cycling, a bit late and a bit tired, but all good! It meant, after arrival, there was not much left of the day. We enjoyed a good shower to get rid of all that sticky sweat and dust, then went for dinner. We had found a restaurant serving western food with excellent reviews - and it was truly excellent for a change. So nice: the one day you have simple takeaway food, the next day you dine in a nice "fancy" western restaurant! Great it's all possible, happy we enjoy it all equally! After dinner we still treated ourselves to a yummy ice cream, then it was highest time to unwind - and sleep in a soft bed!
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| This is the kind of cycling we love |
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| And this |
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| And this |
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| And this. Despite the little roadside fire; you can notice that burning season is starting, we see more and more little fires left and right. It's notorious here; soon, the air will be hazy, polluted by all the fires in the region. It's a cross boundary problem, but it definitely happens from within Thailand too! |
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| We really really needed this drink stop. Great cold fresh orange juice and red lime soda! |
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| The last stretch, direction Uttaradit |
Today is a rest day in Uttaradit, it had been quite a while since we had a good rest day - the last real rest day was in Nong Khai. It was also time for some laundry, after 3 weeks. And last but not least, we took our extended time for some really good coffee (of course!) - some of the best we've had so far in fact. The massage for this afternoon has been booked already too. Uttaradit is actually quite OK as a town, nothing special but nice enough for a day. The next couple of days, until the end of our trip in fact, we will have some more towns on our way that sound attractive. Tomorrow Phrae, maybe a side trip to Nan from there, then Phayao and Chiang Rai. We'll probably spend some time in each of these, so the next days (and weeks?) will maybe be less riding and more stops. We'll see! Things often turn out different from what we expect!
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| The perfect illustration of a rest day |
