Riding to the unknown

From Dansai we wanted to ride somewhere that put us within a reasonable day of riding from the town of Phitsanlok. Sounds easy, but we weren't at all sure what kind of accomodation there would be along the road, which as always left me a little apprehensive about the ride.

The day started early, and so did the hills. We climbed for the first hour or so out of Dansai and descended down a comprable down hill, followed by kilometers of rolling hills. Rolling hills may not actually be the best description of the terrain, they were actually short, steep ascents, followed by short, steep descents. A few kilometers into the ride you don't really mind them that much, but when you're struggling up one of the steep hills at 10am on spent legs, they're much less pleasant.

About 45k out of Dansai we stopped in the town of Nahkon Thai for a little breakfast recharge. Unfortunately for us the first place we stopped wasn't serving food and came with an elderly drunk lady who followed us to the next restaurant. Despite the fact that we don't speak Thai, she was pretty intent on asking us questions we didn't understand, and was unperturbed by the frequent shrugs of bewilderment I gave in response to her many queries.

We sat down for a breakfast of fried rice with chicken, but she remained unfazed and continued firing away at us in Thai. At this point the ladies in the shop tried to pull her away, but she was pretty obstinate and was unwilling to vacate our table. It wasn't until one of the waitresses hopped on her moped and brought back what I can only guess was a relative, that she finally left. Even then it wasn't without a fight. A woman, maybe her daughter, literally pulled the old lady out of her seat and onto the floor, despite her protests, and dragged her by the arm out of the shop and down the street. The ladies at the restaurant were visibly relieved to finally have her out, and appeared to be pretty embarassed by the whole affair. Our breakfast was delicious though, even with the in-meal entertainment.

Nakhon Thai to our final destination for the day was a bit of a slog, we only had 29k, but every meter of it hurt. Of course the road tormented us with a few extended hills in the last 5k to the junction where we planned on staying. Unfortunately when we arrived at the highway junction we found that there weren't actually any places to stay. This left us with a decision: continue riding and hope to find something down the road, or hop a bus the remaining distance to Phitsanlok. Some of the vendors at the highway junction spoke enough english to let us know that there were a few resorts down the road on the way to Phitsanlok. Than the question became whether we wanted to risk having to stay at a place that could be well out of our price range. The last roadside resort we checked the prices at was close to $60 a night, a little higher than our preferred $10 accomodations.

Our main obstacle with the bus was our overwhelming stench and the fact that we would be marinating in it on a public bus for a few hours. Thai people pride themselves on cleanliness, so two foreigners drenched in sweat, in an enclosed environment may not have gone over all that well. With that in mind, we pounded a couple of cold drink and decided to head down the road, and hope for reasonable priced accomodation.

Thankfully from the highway junction the road was flat and well shaded, a huge relief for my tired legs. About 7k from the junction we passed signs for Poi Waterfall and sleeping bungalows. Since we weren't sure what else was going to come along, we took a shot, turned off the highway and hoped for the best.

Once again our inability to communicate in Thai proved troublesome. Trying to use the language guide in the Lonely Planet has proved useless. I absolutely butcher the phonetic spellings they provide, rendering them into incomprehensible babble. I get lots of blank stares when I try to speak in Thai.

There was a girl at the desk who spoke a little english, she understood that we were trying to find a place to sleep. With that out of the way she took us out to one of the bungalows. We were definitely impressed. The bungalow rested on a hillside overlooking the river, shaded by a thick canopy of trees, with a large shared wooden balcony and benches. Basically an ideal place to kill the rest of the afternnon...and it had AC. It was great until she told us the price, at $40 it was well out of our price range. That was when the liguistic adventure began. Over the next ten minutes or so we tried everything we could to try and communicate that we would love to stay, but wanted to know if there were any cheaper rooms. This was greeted by looks of complete bewilderment, by the multiple people they brought out to try and communicate with us. Finally we were saved by a miracle pocket sized translater...a calculator. Turns out the room was only $14 dollars a night, more expensive than what we usually paid, but given the circumstances well worth it. After solving that minor problem we were left to unpack, shower, and enjoy the beaufiful surroundings.

A few hours of snacking and napping later the prospect of the waterfall pulled us out of our mid-afternoon lethargy and led us outside once more. Poi waterfall is a 20-25ft ledge of sandstone with brown sediment rich water plunging over its edge. The falls were a popular spot with locals swimming in the cool water and picnicing on the shaded banks of the river. Lying in submersed in the cool flowing waters felt great in the midst of the afternoon heat.