Feb 2-7 - ISAN 2024km ride in Thailand

Thailand ISAN 2020

The following bounces around, incorporating some Thailand impressions that I'd written about earlier, not very well organized.  Oh well.

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This was a different kind of ride. I really wasn't sure what to expect. Early on, I thought about planning ahead, booking spots to sleep, but I really didn't know how many kms I'd cover in a day. I had also been assured that I'd be able to find hotels and, I knew as a backup, that the ride provided sleep stops; advertised as “mats”. I'm not keen on mats but really didn't get organized enough to do more prep. The trouble with booking motels is that I might be hard pressed to get to these spots before any registration desk closed. Bottom line … I was winging it. As it turned out, there were two hotels as part of the ride, one of which I used.

Traveling to Pak Chong from Bangkok on Jan 31, I arrived in good time, checked into my hotel and found something to eat. Pak Chong wasn't very exciting looking, a fairly busy town with lots of traffic, street food, stores etc. I wandered, picked up some beer and snacks, killed time. My hotel was right across the street from the start/finish location; very convenient. I'd worried about registration desk access out of normal hours but there was always someone on duty. I ended up leaving my luggage in a storage room at the hotel during the ride.

The ride check-in and bike check were on Feb 1 with a briefing in Thai and English at 5pm. They were running a little late for the 8am start of check-in but by 9am I had my brevet card, six large drawstring cloth drop bags and other ride issued paraphernalia.

Due to the length of the ride, the minimum speed was 10kph. That provided 202 hours to finish or 5pm on day 9, with a 7am start on day 1. Some riders had signed up for the 168 hour time limit but there didn't seem to be much point in that as the start time was similar and you were only opting to ride faster; same support, same drop bags etc. Note that even though we had 8+ days to finish the ride, there were only 6 drop bags. The first drop bag was around km 350, likely more than I'd want to ride that first day, or any day, if possible. I planned to carry a change of kit with me and swap dirty for clean whenever I got to a drop bag location.

I hung around on Feb 1, sorted my drop bags, organized what I was going to carry with me, mostly the usual even with heavy jacket (mistake), leg warmers (more mistake), non cycling shorts and t-shirt etc. I really didn't know what to expect and I get very cold if it rains. It was the dry season; we never saw a drop of rain. The temperature never got below 60F/15C. One of the items issued with a 500 Baht (think $15) deposit was a small domino-sized cellular device that was hooked into a tracking system. I didn't realize until later that the ride organizer actually had these manufactured to spec. They needed charging about every two days. There were never any gaps in cell service, unlike the US or Canada.

Total registered rider count was a little less than 200. After the ride, I heard that the DNF rate was about 10%. The bulk of us headed out at 7am that first day and I was mostly in the company of other riders, on and off, spread out. The road surfaces were generally very good, easy rolling, although both days 1 & 2 featured some sections that were paved with a large stone, very bumpy and hard on the hands. I finished up on day 7, 4:50 pm, for a time of 153:50, I believe. I really didn't realize until I finished that there were only a handful of riders ahead of me; perhaps I was number 18 to finish.

It's a flatish ride with lots of services. 7-11's are every 20-30 kms and in between, a lot of street food, small shops with drink coolers, never a lack of sustenance. It was hot, hitting mid 90's each day. I only had one day with a lot of night riding. The profile makes it look like all the climbing was on my day 6 but it's actually more distributed as there are a lot of rolling sections. The longer climbs on that one day dominate the profile.

My plan was to stop early each day, early enough for some dinner. By 8pm or so on day 1, I had 300km under my belt and was coming into a town and saw a motel. There were two ways to find motels – Google Maps and watching for signs with “24” in them. The 24 meant registration desk times although “desk” is a bit of an exaggeration. A couple of times that consisted of someone sitting out front; a couple of times an actual office. Once the place looked closed but a knock on a sliding glass door had the entire family out and getting me squared away. Two nights out of 6 was a bit of a scrabble for food, but I always had beer :). Two nights had restaurants close by. One night the “clerk” bundled me into his jeep and we went into town to pick something up. One night I used the supplied accommodation and accompanying restaurant.

My night stops were long, 7-9 hours. The one night that I used the ride supplied motel, it was wonderful rooms on the Mekong, a floating motel – complete with life preservers. That day I stopped a little after 4pm and left at 1am, unable to sleep anymore. I had wanted to go further but had been told that there was nothing in the way of motels another 50km or so further down the road. That turned out to be false, but oh well. It worked out.

Other than that one shorter day and the last day, I rode about 300km per day. 8:30 was the latest that I stopped and then generally rode out around 4am. That was perfect because I had several hours of cooler riding before the heat of the day. The 1pm-4pm period incorporated many, many liquid refreshment stops. 7-11's were frequent and they had ice. It started cooling down after 4pm but I'd been fairly fried during the afternoon so the early stops were welcome. 6:30-7:30pm stop was typical. That was early enough to get cleaned up and walk to a restaurant for two nights. I pushed a little further on day 6, stopping at 8:30, leaving 245km for the last day, perfect for finishing in daylight.

I met Wit, the Prez of Audax Thailand early on Day 1 and we chatted for a bit. I think that it was late Day 3 that we rode together again for a bit. Sandy and I had dinner with him after the ride, back in Bangkok, for a delightful evening on the riverfront.

The route followed the Mekong for half the ride, counter clockwise with a slight headwind from the northeast. The balance of the ride had a slight tailwind, on average, not so much as we worked our way back east to Pak Chong. Once along the Mekong, we had Cambodia to the east; further in the ride it was Laos across the Mekong.

Day 6, with the more significant climbing, featured two longish, significant grade climbs. The first was in the cool before noon; no problem. The second was in the heat of the afternoon and I fried. My heart rate soared in the heat and the climbing and with a little bit of a tailwind. Pouring water on my head made no difference. There was no evaporation effect. I walked a bit on and off but even at that, I was catching up with riders. A couple of riders that had been with Wit on Day 3 were in my vicinity for a few days, sometimes riding together, sometimes stopping together. I thought that they were a couple … but they are brother and sister. Her English is very good and I asked lots of questions.

I seemed to gradually advance in the spread out peloton, probably due to my steady approach and short stops. Stop, water on head, cool down with ice water, eat a california roll, sausage or some such thing from 7-11 (or perhaps a couple of ice cream bars from a cooler at other grocery stores), ramen noodles a few times for the salt content (which took longer), back on the bike and keep plodding. I was seldom riding faster than 25kph but remember that 10kph minimum – my time in the bank kept accumulating even though I had long night stops.

I checked in with Sandy occasionally, texting and talking to her. She was in Chiang Mai for her hiking and elephant sanctuary visit. She kept telling me that I was way ahead of most riders but I didn't really believe it. Surely something was wrong with the tracking. I wasn't riding fast. I was often with the same riders on the road but I guess that I gradually worked my way forward.

Part of the ride organization was getting drivers to help the foreign riders get to/from the ride start/finish. A cyclist driver picked me up in Bangkok on the 31^st and he had two riders from India already in the car. We were basically paying these fellows something short of cab fare, a good deal for them and us. On Day 6, I texted my driver to let him know that I'd be finishing on Day 7. He said that he was going to be finishing on Day 8 and would be in touch with the organizer to find another driver for me. I said that wasn't necessary, my plan was to relax the day afterwards and I'd ride with him back to Bangkok on Feb 10. In actual fact, he finished around 3am on Feb 10, picked me up a few hours later along with a Japanese rider and took us both to Bangkok. That worked out very well. 

Overall ride organization was excellent.  I'd wondered about six drop bags but with the riders so spread out, it was the only way.  Volunteers were at many Controls, very helpful.

Impressions of Thailand in general and along the ride

Bangkok is very clean; however, out in the countryside, not so much.  Outside of BKK, there was a lot of trash along the roadway, mostly plastic trash that is.  Plastic everywhere.  I've never seen so much single use plastic.  The Thai people are fastidious, everything is in plastic. The street food - soup in plastic bags; served in plastic; sauce in plastic.  The street food is absolutely clean; no Montezuma's revenge here (or would that be Siam revenge ?).  It's cooked in front of you, everything very clean, bagged in plastic, everything washed.  Water is drinkable but everywhere there are 5 gallon (or liter equivalent) bottles of water.  Ice is safe too.  The service economy is huge.  I don't think that anyone eats at home.  Street food is everywhere, sidewalks are crowded with vendors - sausages, squid, veggies, fruit, noodles, rice, all clean, all safe to eat even for westerners, wok sauteed right in front of you.  It's all incredibly inexpensive.  The food is generally spicy … great for me !

The people are friendly, the traffic is polite - walk out and they'll stop.  In all the time in Thailand, I never heard a horn blow.  It's such a contrast with North America.  In Japan they bow, all very formal.  In Thailand they join their hands in a prayer form and bow, greet you, wish you well.  In and out of the hotel in Bangkok a hundred times at least, I never had to open a door.  They rush to help you, greet you at the on ramp from the street, at the hotel door, at the front desk, call an elevator for you ...

For the most part, no one speaks any English, but somehow we got around.  Restaurants often have picture menus in Bangkok.  Outside of BKK, not so much, but you could see the food in front of you.  Point, waive hands, people help as best that they can.  Money is fairly easy to manage, all in local currency.  Mental math is 30 Baht per USD.   Actual rate is closer to 31.  Prices are unbelievable.  Hotel rooms on the ride, minimum $10, maximum $15.  Ice cream bar, 30 cents.  Two ice cream bars, water or other drink, $1.20. Bangkok is more expensive of course, running us about $140 per night including a huge buffet breakfast and short order cook for omelets etc.  Tips are NOT expected, but I often left 10%.  We had lunch on the last day and I left a tip - the waitress caught up to us on the escalator to give us change ... no, I said, for you !

But it's hot; hard to get used to the heat.  On the ride, I poured a lot of water on my head.  Every 7-11 had ice, 8 Baht for a large kind-of big-gulp container.  Think 25 Cents, to put it in perspective.  During the ride, during the day, I ate at 7-11 a lot, California rolls with salmon, sometimes Ramen soup, sausage etc.  Ice cream bars, Popsicles, water, cold drinks.  Fanta Orange, chocolate milk, a couple of Coke/Pepsi along the way; there was never a problem.

Temple type architecture is everywhere - temples, shrines, public and private.  On the ride, monks were everywhere, early morning accepting donations of food, walking the streets, accepting veneration (perhaps not the correct word) from the people. 

Thailand is a delightful place to visit and a great place to ride.