2014 - Greg's Cycle Tour Thailand and Laos: Day 11: Sat 01 Nov

Day 5: Khon Kaen to Udon Thani (85km) Breakfast at the hotel. Today, we cycle on the most beautiful part of rural Thailand from one villages to another and we stop to take photos quite often. Afternoon, we cycle through many nice scenery starting with rice fields, endless sugar palm farm and casava. Then we reach to the villages and out to the farms and fields again as the scenery keep changing. There are a bit of down hills and up hills but not much climb just about 150m to 300m high. Dinner and overnight in Khon Kaen. (B,L,D)

Cycle Tour day 5, 87.5km average 23.5km/h

A little disorganised in the food dept this very flash hotel as nothing was happening when we arrived for brekky at the designated time of 6am. Finally got some cereal, (cornflakes or choc cornflakes) toast, eggs & bacon to order and yoghurt. Just need fuel I guess.

Bused from the motel due to the busy roads and was soon in the back-blocks which is always the most interesting. The rice paddies gave way to cassava, dairy cattle, rubber, sugar cane, fish farms and tropical fruit in a great Thai rural setting.

A couple of nice hills today, both short but steep. The first one overlooked a massive hydro dam and the other one had a Giant Buddha on top. Why do they always put interesting stuff on top of mountains? The last little monster was pushing 15-17 percent and only five of us made it up without stopping. After a wander around the half-finished surrounds we had the greatest 65km/h+- downhill run.

Half way down the road had deteriorated and you had to hang on for grim death. All survived ok and then we had another 11km before getting on the bus to our motel, the last one in Thailand.

Our hotel this night, Napalai, looked like the scene of a Thai Bus convention, with dozens of coaches crammed into the carpark. The lobby was also very busy, however in no time at all we had our bags and the room key. The daily ritual of washing the riding kit was first priority as usual. Catching up with Skype calls and the blog was next. It is so easy to keep in touch these hi-tech days.

Dinner was in-house, fantastic, Thai, hot and filled the spot nicely. The deck setting overlooking a pool/fountain was very relaxing. Some Thai Navy guy was getting married and having the reception in the motel so there were plenty of flash white uniforms around to warm the hearts of our ex-Navy riders.